R.I.P. Charles Blanding (12/11/1947-04/22/2018)

This week, we lost a local radio broadcaster, a founder of the NJ Radio Museum, and a friend of many of us: Charles Blanding died after suffering a medical emergency at the  Radio Technology Museum in Wall Township, New Jersey where he regularly served as a docent.

Charles was the Chief Engineer for News 12 New Jersey from 2007 until his retirement several years ago. Prior to that, he engineered at USA Network and served as Chief Engineer at Lunar video. He also worked in New Jersey radio as an engineer and a disc jockey at WJDM and WPAT in the sixties and seventies. He lived in Cranford, New Jersey, graduated from Cranford High School in 1965 and received an Associates Degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering from RCA Institute New York in 1970.

In his retirement, Charles was an enthusiastic collector and restorer of vintage electronics, specializing in early transistor radios. He made several informative and entertaining technical presentations to the club since becoming a member a few years ago. He also curated a large collection of radio station airchecks dating back to the early 1960s and the dawn of the golden age of FM radio in the New York area.

A memorial service is planned for the end of May.

You can also hear some airchecks from his collection that feature Charles back in his radio DJ days: https://youtu.be/hw58WUMxEDU?t=50s.

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