• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WKBW-Leroy "Uncle Fid" Fiedler

U

UncleFidtrested

Hi There!

I am the granddaughter of Leroy "Uncle Fid" Fiedler. I don't know much about my grandpa, only that he was an engineer at WKBW and the story about him calling for help over the radio, and was wondering if anyone out there knows any stories that may help me piece together a picture of him. Also, any childhood stories about my dad would be a huge bonus!!

Thank you in advance for any help you are able to give!!
 
Never knew "Uncle Fid" because my time as a news guy at KB came later (1977-78), although I got to know his successor Pete Burk, and heard a lot about him. The word I heard about him all had to do with his work at KB, where under a couple different owners (Clinton Churchill and Capital Cities) he found a way to make the station sound really good on a super-tight budget. Heard the word "magician" applied to him in that context.

The proof was that KB always sounded technically good all during its 30 years as a contemporary music station (1958-88), and a lot of that was his work and the work of the team he brought in.
 
I think it was Dan Neaverth who often joked about "Leroy Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra".
 
I actually heard the 1967 incident starring "Uncle Fid" live as it happened, on air. I was chugging to my afternoon after-school part-time job at WLEA (in a 40 hp Opel Kadett) and listening to KB, as I frequently did on my way to my first radio gig. A song was playing, and I suddenly heard the carrier drop. I cranked the radio to confirm that KB was indeed off the air, just when the dead carrier came back on...followed a few seconds later by a 1 kHz tone. The tone intermittently switched on and off for several minutes. I assumed there was some kind of phone line problem (that was an "STL" in 1967 terms) and went in to work. On the way home, I heard KB Total Newsman Joe Downey report on how Chief Engineer Leroy Fiedler had "used the 50,000 watt transmitter of KB Radio to call for help" that afternoon. Back at 1430, apparently the duty engineer tried to raise Fid on the phone out at Big Tree Road and when it went unanswered, assumed an accident had happened and called police and an ambulance (this was pre-911.)

A couple of years later, when I was doing weekends at KB, Jim Adler told me what happened. Apparently Uncle Fid was doing maintenance on the HG-50 while it was on the air and had the doors open with the safety interlocks defeated. He got too close to a 15kv circuit with a moist rag and got nailed sufficiently to temporarily lose the use of his upper body. So somehow he used his knees or elbows or something to turn the HV on and off. I don't know how he managed the tone. In short order, Fid was back at work - a truly lucky guy. Not may human beings survive an argument with a 50kw AM transmitter with high-level modulation.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom