Cardiac arrest on campus

Local celebrity and WHAM entertainment critic Bill Klein went into cardiac arrest at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18 just before starting a speaking engagement on campus. He was pronounced dead at 8:43 a.m. at Strong Memorial Hospital. He was 60. Klein was at the Hoyt Auditorium to meet with students from the Rochester Junior Scholar’s Program. Before the meeting began, Klein had a heart attack. “At approximately 8:30 a.m., a call came over the radio for a person who wasn’t breathing, and CPR was in progress,” junior Varun Chowdhry, Public Relations Supervisor for MERT, said.”We were there within five minutes, and the ambulance got there at the same time,” Chowdhry said. “The system worked very well – someone saw a problem and recognized it, everyone did their jobs.”Klein was on Rochester’s radio station WHAM-1180 AM for over 30 years, beginning his broadcast career in 1968.As WHAM’s Entertainment Critic, Klein regularly brought show business news and humor to the WHAM Morning News.Klein was an avid film buff and entertainment critic. He traditionally hosted a popular Oscar’s night party. Klein often served food of the nationalities of movies nominated. For example, when “The Last Emperor” was up for an Oscar, Chinese food was served.The party will go on this year as planned, at the Regal Cinemas in Henrietta, where it was held in 2003. Levesque can be reached at clevesque@campustimes.org.