R.I.P Steve Fredericks

[Kevin Vahey]

Steve was asked by CBS to transfer to WCAU from WEEI as 1210 just failed
badly with going all news as KYW was unbeatable and they were going to go
alk again. He said that decesion was made by William Paley alone. However
by 1990 Paley was near death and no longer involved in day to day
operations and then came the sudden end on August 15th when at 2 in the
afternoon it started simulcasting WOGL-FM .

The WCAU staffers all thought CBS must have been ready to sell the station
and fired everybody to clean house for the new owners but that never
happened. CBS would not even allow Frank Rizzo to have a final show. A very
sad ending to 68 years of service.










On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 4:07 AM, Karen McTrotsky
<karenmctrotsky@gmail.com>wrote:

> The notion that RKO wanted Fredericks in '81 is fascinating. The original
> RKO lineup included dreary lifestyle/shrink talk in midday but lifestyle
> talk in midday at the time was considered cutting edge in those days.  I
> would conjecture they could have used him instead of the Tony Pepper-Janet
> Jeghelian chat program (Steve and Janet would have lasted until the first
> stop set), or was the choice before  Mainella for the 6-8 sports show.
>
>
> On 27 April 2012 18:16, Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Steve was back at WMEX in October of 1975 as one of his former producers
>> flew down from Ottawa for Game 7 and Steve was doing afternoon talk. WMEX
>> had just gotten the radio contract from the Red Sox starting with the
>> post-season that year which to this day is one of the head scratchers in
>> Boston radio history.
>>
>> Dick Richmond figured correctly that the Red Sox would drive up the
>> selling price and enter Joe Scallon and friends.
>>
>> Steve told me that he had mixed feelings about going back to Philly but a
>> WCAU exec told him CBS planned to sell WEEI if another 50,000 watt property
>> opened up which indeed happened a few years later in Dallas.
>>
>> He told me WRKO made him an offer to do talk in 1981 but he was happy in
>> Philly. WEEI also made him an offer when they went all sports which he
>> almost took as he was doing part time at WFAN after WCAU ceased to exist in
>> 1990 with no warning.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:14 AM, Karen McTrotsky <
>> karenmctrotsky@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Sorry to be so late to respond, but thank you, Kevin, for reminding me
>>> that
>>> Fredericks went back to WEEI when they started Sports Final. I do
>>> remember
>>> Fredericks being at WMEX/WITS in the 77-78 time period, simultaneous with
>>> Ordway, and the flip to WITS came in April or May of 78, so if he was
>>> back
>>> in Philly by 1978 I surmise it was a brief tenure, but then they were
>>> both
>>> CBS O & Os. But you know better than I.
>>>
>>> I thought Fredricks did AM drive or middays at WMEX/WITS for a spell
>>> ("Welcome to our house"), either right before or right  after the
>>> brilliant
>>> Joe Scallon move to install Bob Hudson in the morning. The Emperor, by
>>> the
>>> way, is said to have insisted that the station hire Jim "Red" Hannon,
>>> track
>>> announcer at Suffolk Downs, to do morning drive sports so he'd have the
>>> inside line on the day's races at the East Boston Oval.
>>>
>>> Sports Final, a sort of SportsCenter before cable networks, was
>>> Andelman's
>>> idea.  He was a big fan of the Win Elliot Sports Central USA and Sports
>>> World Roundup shows on the CBS net and openly talked about creating such
>>> a
>>> nightly show on WEEI during Sports Huddle broadcasts.  He thought it
>>> would
>>> be great for gamblers. I think Ted Sarandis was a host for a while.
>>>
>>> Still hoping someone has a tape of the former Steven Oxman doing the
>>> Havlicek Stole the Ball game from the Sixers perspective over One-to-One
>>> Radio in Philadelphia, WCAU, Radio 121.
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com>
>>> To: Karen McTrotsky <karenmctrotsky@gmail.com>
>>> Cc: boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org
>>> Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:27:06 -0400
>>> Subject: Re: R.I.P Steve Fredericks
>>> Steve left WMEX/WITS and went back to WEEI when they started 'Sports
>>> Final'
>>> at 10 PM but he was back in Philly for good by 1978.
>>> He was replaced at WITS by Glenn Ordway.
>>>
>>> He did Harvard football in 1975 on WMEX.
>>>
>>
>>
>