George A. Collias 1927-2017

George Colias, 89, founder and president of Century Broadcasting Corp., died Tuesday, June 13, 2017 in Deerfield. Mr. Collias served as a U.S. Army paratrooper toward the end of World War II and was in active duty in the Army Reserves for twenty eight years. He graduated from Northwestern University and Loyola University School of Law, and had a five-year career as a lawyer at Baker McKenzie. He then launched a broadcasting company, Century Broadcasting. In 1964, Collias and a college buddy bought their first FM radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Over the next 34 years, Century Broadcasting, a Chicago-based company headquartered in the John Hancock building, grew its broadcasting empire playing rock, jazz and easy listening over the air waves in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis, and Tampa. When deregulation loosened ownership of radio broadcasting in the 1990s, Collias sold the company's final hometown station, WPNT-FM, in 1996. Mr. Collias was a leader at the Hellenic Foundation, and an active member of Leadership 100, an endowment fund for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese that supports the ministries of the church. 

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Sara Anderson
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