[1] He attended Roosevelt High School in Albany Park, Chicago,[2] then obtained his bachelor's degree from the Arizona State University in 1951.

[5] In 1974, Heftel hired consultant John Rook, who secured the services of Jackson, Mississippi programmer Bill Tanner, who crafted a Top 40 format described by Tanner as being "predictable unpredictability" that propelled the station to the top of the south Florida ratings, where it stayed for several years.

As broadcast revenues are tied to audience interest (ratings) and to advertising cycles, it can be a great business or a poor one.

The last Heftel Broadcasting accumulation of stations consisted of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Miami.

While in office, Heftel was part of the U.S. fact-finding mission to the Philippines, largely responsible for the forced ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

[citation needed] Heftel resigned on July 19, 1986, to run for governor, but lost the Democratic primary to John Waihee.

[6] In 1998, he briefly returned to the political realm, authoring a book, End Legalized Bribery, in which he attempted to prove that the current state of campaign finance corrupts politicians, prevents qualified individuals from running for office, and costs citizens billions of dollars in pork barrel spending and corporate welfare.

The book also contained arguments in favor of a national Clean Elections law and mandatory free commercial airtime for political candidates.