Former KXLF General Manager Ron Cass passed away Thursday, Oct. 11.
Cass was born in Harlowton and began his broadcast career as a disc jockey and play-by-play announcer in Hettinger, ND in 1967. In 1973 he moved to Anaconda where he worked as an announcer and account executive at KANA. A year later he moved to KXLF Radio-TV in Butte where he continued in that dual capacity until being named Sales Manager of KXLF-TV in 1979. In 1982 he was named VP / General Manager of KXLF-TV and in 1986 became President and General Manager of KXLF-TV and KBZK-TV, Butte-Bozeman.
Ron served as the host of the Butte 4th of July Parade for 28 years and as host of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon for 20. He served as a member of the CBS Television Affiliates Board, on the Butte-Silver Bow Local Government Study Commission, the Police Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, the Exchange Club and the Literacy Project along with many others.
He is a Past President of the Montana Broadcasters Association. As Senator Conrad Burns read into the Congressional Record, “Butte is a better place because of Ron Cass.”
Additional reporting and photo courtesy of the Greater Montana Foundation
