Bob Buziak, Former President of RCA Records and Sony’s Tristar Music Group, Dies at 83 — SkimNews
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- Bob Buziak, former president of RCA Records and Sony's TriStar Music Group, died on October 19 at age 83, with no cause of death announced by his rep.
- Buziak is credited with reviving RCA's fortunes in the 1980s through releases by Bruce Hornsby, Eurythmics, and Love and Rockets, plus the blockbuster 'Dirty Dancing' soundtracks.
- Those 'Dirty Dancing' soundtracks spawned Eric Carmen's No. 1 single 'Hungry Eyes' and Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes' Oscar- and Grammy-winning '(I've Had) The Time of My Life.'
- Buziak left Ford Motor Company in 1968 to enter the music business, rising from promotion roles at Capitol/EMI to head of West Coast operations and later U.K. managing director at Arista Records.
- Named president of RCA Records in 1986, Buziak secured distribution deals with indie labels including Beggars Banquet and Jive that expanded and modernized the label's roster.
- After leaving RCA in 1990 to lead Sony's TriStar Music Group, Buziak founded Chameleon Entertainment with Time Warner, launched Buziak & Company LLC in 1995 consulting for telecom and cable companies, and played a key role in the sale of Paradigm Music Entertainment to Liberty Media.
Why it matters: Buziak's career traces the music industry's pivot point from major-label dominance into a post-1990s consultant-and-investor economy. His brokering of the Paradigm Music Entertainment sale to Liberty Media illustrates how veteran label executives migrated into telecom and venture capital, with RCA's 1986–1990 distribution deals with Beggars Banquet and Jive foreshadowing the indie-major partnerships that would reshape the business after his tenure ended.
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