Frederick B. "Fred" Walters (January 22, 1928 – February 1, 2019) was an American broadcast executive, journalist, author, and professor who helped pioneer the all-news radio format through his work as the first executive editor of KYW in Philadelphia. Known for stressing fairness, accuracy, objective analysis, and live reporting, he established operational standards that would be replicated at all-news stations across the country. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers on November 21, 2014Hall Of Fame of the Broadcast Pioneers, http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/bp9/fredwalters.html, Retrieved 02/20/2015 and in 2013 received the Roy E. Morgan Award for Broadcast Excellence from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association.Roy E. Morgan Award for Broadcast Excellence, http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0113/notes.html, Retrieved: 02/20/2015"Alumni Notes". The Pennsylvania Gazette. January–February 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
Early life and education A native Philadelphian, Walters was born on January 22, 1928."Fred Walters". Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia (YouTube). November 26, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2019. He served in the U.S. Navy for three and a half years in the mid-1940s. (About the Author section) After his military service, he initially enrolled at Purdue University before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1953."Fred Walters". LinkedIn. Retrieved February 4, 2019. During his senior year at Penn, he began working for The Associated Press as a copy boy and won a place on the editorial staff even before his graduation.
Broadcast career Walters began his career with The Associated Press in Philadelphia while still an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. Within a few years, the AP transferred him to its Harrisburg bureau, where he spent six years covering the House of Representatives.
He left the AP in November 1963 to serve as press secretary for Philadelphia industrialist Milton Shapp's campaign for the United States Senate. When Shapp withdrew from the race, Walters took his first broadcasting job as a reporter for WIP-AM in Philadelphia. During his tenure at WIP-AM, he produced a two-week investigative series examining the civil rights movement in Chester, Pennsylvania, which earned him his first broadcasting award—an honorable mention from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1964.Hall Of Fame of the Broadcast Pioneers, http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/bp9/fredwalters.html, Retrieved 02/20/2015
Pioneering all-news radio In July 1965, Walters began what would become a 19-year association with Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. He was the editor on duty when Westinghouse's KYW launched its all-news format on September 21, 1965, becoming the station's first executive editor."KYW Philadelphia's First Executive Editor, Fred Walters, Dies At 91". Inside Radio. February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019."KYW Flashback: From Print To Broadcasting, A News Director Rises". CBS News Philadelphia. February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2019. Newscaster Steve Porter read the first newscast, which had been edited by Walters, opening with "This is KYW News Radio. I'm Steve Porter, your editor Fred Walters."
Walters faced unique challenges in creating the all-news format, later recalling: "Remember, I came out of the print side of the business, and these were unfamiliar tools for me to work with." His successful integration of print journalism principles with broadcast techniques helped establish KYW Newsradio as a respected news operation.
In June 1966, he became chief of the Westinghouse news bureau in Harrisburg, with Jay Strassburg succeeding him as editor at KYW."Personnel Changes at KYW". Broadcasting. June 27, 1966. p. 82. While heading the bureau, which served Westinghouse stations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Walters achieved several milestones for broadcast journalism. In 1968, he successfully lobbied for formal recognition of broadcast journalists in the Pennsylvania General Assembly's media access rules, establishing parity between broadcast and print reporters. That same year, he became the first television journalist to film the Pennsylvania Senate in session.
In 1969, he returned to KYW Newsradio as news director and then executive editor. Under his leadership, KYW became the only all-news station rated Number One in a major American market. In 1978, he was transferred to the company's all-news station WINS in New York City. In 1980, he was appointed National Political Correspondent for Westinghouse Broadcasting.
From September 1980 to 1983, Walters left Westinghouse to become news director of the ABC-owned radio station WXYZ-AM in Detroit."Former WINS Executive Editor Fred Walters has moved to WXYZ/Detroit as News Director". Radio & Records. November 14, 1980. Within a year of his arrival, WXYZ earned the designation "Michigan's Most Honored News Team" based on Associated Press and United Press International state competition awards. The station repeated that honor the following year and also received a national Society of Professional Journalists award for investigative reporting.
He returned to Westinghouse in 1983 as executive editor of its all-news station KFWB in Los Angeles, retiring from the company in 1985."Fred Walters". LinkedIn. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
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), the Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, 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.
Philosophy and approach Walters believed strongly in journalism as a public service, a principle he instilled in the journalists he mentored. Coming from print journalism, he emphasized accuracy, fairness, and objective analysis while adapting these principles to the immediacy of broadcast news. He pioneered the use of live reporting as a standard practice in radio news.
Walters drew a sharp distinction between interviewing and reporting. In a 2014 column, he wrote: "Interviewing isn't reporting as I understood and practiced the profession. Interviewing is only a step—a second step, really—towards good reporting. The first step is research to prepare the interviewer's questions. The final step is putting the raw material of the interview into context."Walters, Fred. "What Is A Reporter?" PennLive, May 19, 2014. https://www.pennlive.com/newshorizons/2014/05/what_is_a_reporter.html He expressed concern that modern broadcast journalism had become dominated by "endless interviews but little context" and worried that "the art of reporting these days seems to be a lost skill, especially with the broadcast media."
In his later commentary writing, Walters reflected on the evolution of American society and media. He wrote about witnessing the transformation from a "white-male-dominated society" of his youth to an increasingly diverse America, noting how these changes were reflected in news broadcasts and advertising."Through the years". PennLive. September 28, 2011. He also expressed concern about the role of racism and disrespect in American politics, particularly during the Obama administration."Racism in American Politics". PennLive. March 15, 2015.
Walters valued the "Theater of the Mind" that radio created, recalling family gatherings around the radio listening to programs like The Shadow and The Lone Ranger. He believed imagination was a crucial element that audio entertainment demanded from its audience."Imagination". PennLive. August 7, 2014.
Writing style Walters admired journalism that achieved literary quality within deadline constraints. He particularly praised evocative leads, citing examples such as "They buried a generation here today" from coverage of a 1950 train disaster, and "The uneasy earth shifted under Wilkes-Barre again today" by AP reporter Russ Lindstrom. He noted that "sports writers often are among the best writers in the business" but lamented that obituary writers, despite their potential for compelling storytelling, "generally don't make the anthologies."Walters, Fred. "Obituaries" PennLive, February 26, 2014. https://www.pennlive.com/newshorizons/2014/02/obituaries.html
Post-broadcast career After retiring from Westinghouse in 1985, Walters formed his own consultancy, News Horizons, which operated from both Pennsylvania and North Hollywood, California."News Horizons". Radio and Records Industry Directory. 1988. p. 202. He also became an adjunct professor of journalism at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.
During this period, Walters became a regular commentator on media and politics, writing columns for the Harrisburg Patriot-News website that addressed topics ranging from journalism ethics to social change.News Horizons news commentary blog for Harrisburg's Patriot-News, http://blog.pennlive.com/newshorizons/index.html , Retrieved: 02/20/2015 His commentary addressed diverse topics including the commercialization of American culture, observing that "our years no longer are divided by the seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. Rather, they have become defined by shopping periods and sporting events."Walters, Fred. "Seasons of the Year" PennLive, November 14, 2014. https://www.pennlive.com/newshorizons/2014/11/seasons_of_the_year.html He also wrote about race relations in contemporary America, reflecting on Ferguson and similar incidents as potential "echoes of the past" that revealed "the reality that these feelings of separateness linger in many people."Walters, Fred. "Echoes of the Past" PennLive, January 28, 2015. https://www.pennlive.com/newshorizons/2015/01/echoes_of_the_past.html
Beyond racial issues, Walters examined broader issues of American partisan dysfunction, criticizing Republicans in 2015 for departing from the tradition that "foreign policy differences end at the shores of the United States" when they invited Netanyahu to address Congress and sent a letter to Iranian leaders during nuclear negotiations. He argued such actions "diminished President Obama and thereby the United States in the world's eyes."Walters, Fred. "Partisan Meddling" PennLive, March 11, 2015. https://www.pennlive.com/newshorizons/2015/03/partisan_meddling.html
Professional memberships