Reporter Bill Keene Undergoes Triple Bypass

Bill Keene, who has been delivering weather reports on Los Angeles television and radio for 34 years and traffic reports since 1976, underwent triple bypass heart surgery Wednesday.

Ed Pyle, a reporter at radio station KNX, where Keene has worked since 1976, said the primary physician reported that the operation at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank “went well.” A hospital spokeswoman said the surgery began about 1 p.m. and ended shortly after 4.

Keene, who studied meteorology at the American Institute of Aerological Research, became the weatherman for both KNX and television station KNXT (now KCBS) in 1957. He was the weatherman for KNXT when the station’s “Big News” pioneered the first hourlong television news format in Los Angeles in 1963 and remained a regular until 1975. He he moved to KNX in 1976.