Bill Heine

{{Short description|American-born British radio broadcaster and writer (1945–2019)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}

File:The Headington Shark - geograph.org.uk - 1220282.jpg in Headington, Oxford, England]]

William Randolph Heine (9 January 1945 – 2 April 2019) was an American-born British radio broadcaster and writer based in Oxford, England.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8136000/8136632.stm | title=Presenter Profile: Bill Heine | date=6 July 2009 | publisher=BBC News | accessdate=26 November 2012 | archive-date=26 May 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526212030/http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8136000/8136632.stm | url-status=live }}

Heine started working for BBC Radio Oxford in 1983, and was considered by many to be very opinionated and perhaps somewhat controversial in the field of radio presenting. He was not afraid to speak his mind and allowed his listeners to do the same during his former afternoon phone-in show. Heine's last regular broadcast was on 24 April 2016.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qdhy6|title=Bill Heine|publisher=BBC Radio Oxford|date=24 April 2016|accessdate=1 July 2016|archive-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003074602/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qdhy6|url-status=live}}

Born in Batavia, Illinois, Heine lived in Oxford since studying for a postgraduate degree at Balliol College in the late 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, he ran both the Penultimate Picture Palace cinema in East Oxford and the Moulin Rouge Cinema (which he later renamed Not The Moulin Rouge) in Headington.{{cite web | url=http://www.headington.org.uk/history/misc/cinema.htm | work=Headington history: Miscellaneous | title=Cinema, New High Street | accessdate=26 November 2012 | archive-date=28 January 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128043256/http://www.headington.org.uk/history/misc/cinema.htm | url-status=live }} Bill and his friend, the sculptor John Buckley, designed a giant pair of hands to adorn the former, and a giant pair of legs for the latter.

Together Heine and Buckley, again, in 1986 came up with the {{convert|25|ft|m|adj=on}} fibreglass sculpture of a shark that appears to be crashing through the roof of the house he lived within, in the Headington area of Oxford, creating a somewhat controversial local landmark.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/09/comment.comment|title=In praise of... the Headington shark|date=9 August 2007|website=The Guardian|access-date=3 April 2019|archive-date=19 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219062407/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/09/comment.comment|url-status=live}}

Heine's book about his radio career, Heinstein of the Airwaves, was published by Chris Andrews Publications on 31 October 2008, and his book about his infamous sculpture, The Hunting of the Shark, was published by Oxfordfolio on 9 August 2011.{{cite book | last=Heine | first=Bill | year=2011 | url=http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk/The-Hunting-of-The-Shark | title=The Hunting of the Shark | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxfordfolio | isbn=978-0-9567405-2-6 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208162108/http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk/The-Hunting-of-The-Shark | archivedate=8 December 2015 }}

In November 2017, Heine revealed that he had been diagnosed with terminal acute myeloid leukaemia.{{Cite news|url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15649376.bill-heine-doctors-have-given-me-18-months-to-live-and-ive-already-had-three-of-them/|title=Bill Heine: 'Doctors have given me 18 months to live - and I've already had three of them'|first=Tim|last=Hughes|newspaper=Oxford Mail|date=9 November 2017|access-date=21 December 2021|archive-date=3 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403162327/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15649376.bill-heine-doctors-have-given-me-18-months-to-live-and-ive-already-had-three-of-them/|url-status=live}} He died at home on 2 April 2019.{{Cite news |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17546729.oxfords-bill-heine-has-died/ |title=Oxford's Bill Heine has died |newspaper=Oxford Mail |date=3 April 2019 |access-date=21 December 2021 |archive-date=5 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405173619/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17546729.oxfords-bill-heine-has-died/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Bill Heine obituary|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/bill-heine-obituary-06fbbkj7v|work=The Times|date=12 April 2019|access-date=23 May 2024}}