Bob Buziak, former president of both RCA Records and Sony’s TriStar Music Group, died on October 19, a rep confirms to Variety. No cause of death was announced; he was 83.
Buziak was best known for reviving RCA’s fortunes in the 1980s with hit albums by Bruce Hornsby, Eurythmics and Love and Rockets, not to mention the blockbuster soundtracks to the “Dirty Dancing” films, which spawned a No. 1 single with Eric Carmen’s “Hungry Eyes” and an Oscar- and Grammy-winner with Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
He left a job at the Ford Motor Company in 1968 to work in the music business, taking on distribution and promotion roles in Detroit and San Francisco before joining Capitol/EMI Records in Los Angeles. He held promotion and A&R roles at that label before joining Arista Records, where he thrived as head of West Coast operations and, later, managing director in the U.K. His performance at that label led directly to his being named president of RCA in 1986.
While there, Buziak’s distribution deals with indie labels like Beggars Banquet (which brought Love and Rockets and others) and Jive helped expand and modernize the label’s roster.
He left the label in 1990 to serve as president of Sony’s TriStar Music Group and later founded Chameleon Entertainment as a joint venture with Time Warner. In 1995, he launched Buziak & Company LLC, which consulted for telecom and cable companies, and played a key role in the sale of Paradigm Music Entertainment to Liberty Media.
He was a board member of inVentures a U.K. investment group and initiated a merger with Redwood Partners a U.S. corporate search firm to create a multi-platform international consulting and venture group.