By Karen Andrew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Charles William "Bill" Robbins died July 31 in Riverside, Calif. He was 87. The longtime Cincinnatian had been in California since last year, when he fell ill while visiting one of his sons.

Mr. Robbins' 40-year career in radio news broadcasting stretched from his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., to years of writing news reports, broadcasting and managing staff at WLW-AM in Cincinnati.

In between, he worked at WKRC-AM, WCKY-AM and WSAI-AM, and he participated in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's advance party to take over Japan's radio and newspaper operations at the end of World War II.

One of Mr. Robbins' hobbies was researching guns and ammunition.

He invented an adapter so that inexpensive .22-caliber ammunition could be used on the Thompson machine gun, which normally shot expensive .45 rounds. That allowed military and police personnel to practice regularly with the Tommy guns, where previously they could only watch instructors fire off a few rounds.

Mr. Robbins was born in Fort Wayne and got into radio while still in high school there. He worked at two stations in Fort Wayne for a year after graduating from high school in 1933.

He joined WLW radio in Cincinnati in 1936 and immediately earned the nickname, "The Boy Announcer." He then moved to WKRC to work with Ruth Lyons, and later to WCKY.

He married June Ammon of Mason in 1942.

In 1943, Mr. Robbins entered the Army as a firearms expert in the Philippines. He also covered the arrival of the Japanese peace envoy and the return of Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright to the Philippines.

Later, he was stationed in Japan. At the end of the war, he supervised programs by Japanese-speaking members of his Army unit who broadcast such programs as "Farm Facts," "Man on the Street" and "Labor News" over the Broadcast Corporation of Japan.

Back in the states, Mr. Robbins worked from 1946-48 for the Mutual Network in Washington, D.C. It was during a 1948 vacation to Cincinnati that Jimmy Leonard convinced him to join WSAI radio. And so he returned to daily broadcast of local, national and international news.

"He gathered and wrote his own copy and loved every minute of his work," said his son J. Patrick Robbins of West Chester. "He was well-respected by his co-workers and other members of the media."

In the early 1960s, Mr. Robbins became WLW's news editor, but still did morning newscasts. He was featured on the Open House program done by Fred and Joan Bernard.

After his 1976 retirement, Mr. Robbins did not quit writing. He took off for an extended tour of Russia, where he conducted interviews and phoned reports back to Cincinnati for WLW.

In addition to his son J. Patrick, survivors include his wife, June; another son, George W. of Riverside, Calif; a daughter, Ann Miller of Salem, Va.; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services have been held. Burial was in Riverside.

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E-mail kandrews@enquirer.com