When Bruce Sullivan is not teeing up music acts for the Wisconsin State Fair, he spends a lot of his time over the radio waves for B93.3, a Menomonee Falls-based radio station that prides itself on playing “Milwaukee’s best music.”
As a weekend radio personality, Sullivan, also entertainment and special events director at State Fair, lives out a passion he developed as a kid with a radio, cassette tape recorder and microphone in hand.
“I loved music as a kid and loved listening to the radio,” said Sullivan, who grew up in Milwaukee. “I would sit by the radio with my cassette tape recorder on pause with the microphone right up to the little transistor speaker and wait for my favorite song so that I could record it.”
Sullivan first got behind the microphone himself in high school, where he read his school’s announcements over the intercom system, and then in college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was on the air as a WUWM personality. His career steps in the radio business led him to Wisconsin stations in Watertown and Milwaukee.
In 2004, Sullivan joined his current radio group, owned by former Green Bay Packer Willie Davis, starting with 93.3 WJZI and now at B93.3FM WLDB. Today, his live segments focus on music, station promotions and local events.
Barring a few short breaks from the studio, Sullivan has worked in radio for the past 35 years in both full-time and part-time roles. He does not imagine leaving the air anytime soon.
“I have been doing it so long that it is now just part of my lifestyle,” Sullivan said. “It is in my blood. I have always been a big believer in doing things that you love.”
