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Fred Walters is a broadcast executive and journalist who was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers [1] and in 2013 received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association. [2]
A native Philadelphian, Walters began his career with The Associated Press there while still an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, after 36 months in the U.S. Navy.
Walters was the editor on duty when Westinghouse's KYW [3] began its all-news format in 1965. He played a major role in establishing KYW Newsradio as a respected and successful news operation. When he led the newsroom, it was the only all-news station that was rated Number One in a major American market. He stressed fairness, accuracy, objective analysis, and live reporting.
Besides The Associated Press, he has worked for the American Broadcasting Company, Metromedia Broadcasting, and Westinghouse Broadcasting. Walters has worked in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, and Los Angeles as both reporter and news executive.
He planned, organized and produced coverage of such special events as elections (local, state and national), 1976 United States Bicentennial celebrations in Philadelphia and Valley Forge, the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (a quadrennial international event of the Roman Catholic Church, held in the United States for the first time in 40 years), inauguration of legalized gambling in Atlantic City in 1978, the 1980 papal visit to New York City, and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Walters also directed local news coverage of several major breaking news stories over the years, including the 1972 Pennsylvania floods, the bombing of the U. S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, Vietnam protest demonstrations, Watergate hearings, the 1969 Moon Landing, auto industry labor negotiations, the explosion of the Shuttle Challenger in 1986, and many natural disasters such as snowstorms, floods, fires, (including California brush fires), and earthquakes.
His columns for the Harrisburg Patriot-News website [4] have been collected into an e-book entitled News Horizons. [5] This is a veteran journalist’s take on the news media, politics, government, and current affairs.
He also wrote a biography of a Revolutionary War hero, John Haslet: A Useful One, [6] an effort prompted largely by a comment of his history professor at Penn, Dr. Thomas Cochran, who said history is best learned through the lives of the people who made it. It’s the story of an Irish immigrant who settled in Delaware, involved himself early on in the Patriot cause, then organized and led one of the outstanding regiments in the Continental Army, the Delaware Continentals. He was killed at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, and the legend is that George Washington wept over his body on the battlefield. For the title, Walters drew from an essay by historian Whitefield Bell [7] that while people like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin "crowd history’s galleries", it was the people who implemented their visions that were "the useful ones."
Walters has won awards from the National Headliner Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists, and directed news staffs in Philadelphia and Detroit that were consistently adjudged the best in their state.
In addition to his journalism credentials, Walters is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists [8] and as president of the Philadelphia chapter chaired the organization’s national convention in 1976. He also was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents' Association, [9] and served one term as its president. He gained formal recognition of broadcasters in the rules of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
The Mike Douglas Show was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland in 1961 before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into national syndication and was moved to Philadelphia in 1965. The program ran until 1981. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting, and for much of its run, originated from studios at two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
KYW is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the United States, originating in Chicago before moving to Philadelphia in 1934. KYW's unusual history includes its call sign of only three letters, beginning with a K, rare for a station in the Eastern United States. It broadcasts an all-news radio format and is branded as "KYW Newsradio". KYW serves as the flagship station of Audacy, Inc. KYW's studios are co-located within Audacy's corporate headquarters in Center City Philadelphia and its transmitter and two-tower directional antenna array are located in Lafayette Hill.
KYW-TV is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG. Both stations share studios on Hamilton Street north of Center City, Philadelphia, while KYW-TV's transmitter is located in the city's Roxborough section.
WCAU is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo outlet WWSI ; it is also sister to regional sports network NBC Sports Philadelphia.
WPVI-TV, branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the market's ABC outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Line Avenue in the Wynnefield Heights section of Philadelphia, and a transmitter in the city's Roxborough neighborhood.
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication.
Lawrence David Mendte is an American news anchor, commentator and radio talk show host. Mendte is currently hosting three TV shows, Jersey Matters, The Delaware Way, and Another Thing with Larry Mendte. Mendte also hosts The Larry Mendte Show on WABC (AM) in New York. Until a few years ago, Mendte wrote and delivered nightly commentaries at WPIX in New York City that were aired at TV stations across the country. He continued writing and delivering the commentaries on "Another Thing with Larry Mendte," which airs in the New York and Philadelphia TV markets. Mendte was the first male host of the American syndicated television show Access Hollywood. From 2003 to mid-2008, he was the lead anchor of the 6pm and 11pm newscasts for KYW-TV, the CBS O&O in Philadelphia. After nearly two decades in last place, Mendte led the station to compete with first place WPVI-TV. KYW lured Mendte away from WCAU-TV, where he had anchored the 4, 6 and 11 pm newscasts and led the station to win news ratings in some time slots for the first time in 30 years.
John Haslet was an American Presbyterian clergyman and soldier from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and an officer of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, serving as the first Colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment. He was killed in action at the Battle of Princeton.
WXTU is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, the station broadcasts a country music format. Its studios and offices are located at 1 Bala Plaza on East City Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, while its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of the city.
WPHI-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., simulcasting an all-news radio format with co-owned KYW 1060 AM. The radio studios are in Audacy's corporate headquarters in Center City, Philadelphia.
WPHT is a commercial radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its transmitter and broadcast tower are in Moorestown, New Jersey. The radio studios are in Audacy's corporate headquarters in Center City Philadelphia.
Susan Barnett is an American television news anchor. She spent five years at KYW-TV as co-anchor of the 5, 6, and 11 P.M. newscasts and is a former beauty queen from Levittown, Pennsylvania who competed at Miss Teen USA 1990 and Miss USA 1996.
Robin Mackintosh is a U.S. journalist, who worked as an Eyewitness News reporter for CBS 3 in Philadelphia from 1970 until his retirement in 2008.
Dick Standish is an American journalist. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Rutgers University–New Brunswick in 1964. He was elected to the senior honor society, Cap and Skull, and served as News Director and Station Manager at WRSU Radio Rutgers.
Rich Gunning is an American voice-over artist, radio commercial producer and former traffic reporter based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Brian McDonough has been described as a Family Physician with a focus on patient education. In addition to providing clinical care he employs audio, video and digital technology to provide helpful information for the general public.
Tony Romeo is an American journalist in Pennsylvania, working for KYW (AM), where he is the Harrisburg bureau chief.
Malcolm P. Poindexter Jr. was an American newspaper, radio and television journalist whose career spanned more than 50 years. Poindexter reported for KYW-TV, based in Philadelphia, from 1967 until his retirement in February 2001. He won three Emmy Awards for his reports during his career. He also wrote for the Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia Bulletin, the London Daily Express, Jet and Ebony magazine, and was an early member of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.
Herbert Spencer Clarke was an American weatherman and television journalist. Clarke spent thirty-nine years, from 1958 to 1997, as a reporter for WCAU-TV in Philadelphia. Under Clarke, WCAU became the first local television station in the Philadelphia media market to use radar in its weather coverage, beginning in 1982.
Gertrude Haynes was an American news reporter. She became the nation's first African American TV weather reporter when she was hired by WXYZ-TV in Detroit in 1963. In 1965, she became the first African American TV news reporter for KYW-TV, in Philadelphia, where she continued until her retirement in 1999. Haynes, who received an Emmy Award as well as two Lifetime Achievement Awards during her 33-year tenure at KYW-TV, was hosting an online show called the "Trudy Haynes Show" at the time of her death.