Regardless...
Fred Williams had great power.
Fred died late last month. For a few years, in the 90's, Fred had a talk show on one of the local radio stations. We met a few times. I liked him. He was charming and entertaining.
Sadly, Fred occasionally misused that great power, and I will bring up one example that illustrates the point.
One day, Fred based his morning show on a horribly written and flawed newspaper story. A local district justice threw out a drunk driving case against a man who happened to work on the dj's political campaign. I was working at another television station at the time, and I was sent in to clean up the mess.
In an on-camera interview, the district justice told me he threw out the case because of an incorrectly drafted affidavit of probable cause and criminal complaint. The justice told the arresting police officer where the problem was, and how to correct it, so it could be refiled. In retrospect, the district justice should have declared a conflict and handed the case off to someone else.
Be that as it may, the newspaper, and in turn Fred, went off half cocked. The newspaper should have been more careful, and Fred should have been more responsible.
Fred Williams was also the voice of the "Arena No" crowd, a misunderstood role. Fred was never against the Wilkes-Barre Township arena. He was simply opposed to using public money to pay for it. Fred's reasoning was that arenas notoriously run in the red, and if it was such a great investment, the private sector should pony up the cash. The arena referendum failed on election day.
You can always tell when Fred was having problems generating phone calls. I have to add that I've been through it. Like many things in broadcasting, doing a radio talk show isn't as easy as it might seem. When the phones were slow, Fred would start bashing teachers and teachers unions. The phones would light up. It was predictable and very sad there were many days the low hanging fruit was so appealing.
Fred was what we in the business call a "flame thrower." More heat than light, and that's okay. In the business, the greatest sin of all is to be dull.
Fred Williams was never dull.
