I.D. Byars, known as radio legend, dies at 84
|
“He was always community-minded,” said former McMinnville Mayor and longtime Byars friend Dr. Norman Rone. “He was a good friend and he was instrumental in establishing radio stations here and elsewhere.”
Byars, a retired broadcast engineer with WDCN, Channel 8 television, was a life-long radio and communications enthusiast and was a founding force behind several prominent radio stations like WSMT in Sparta, and locally with WBMC, WMMT (now WAKI), and public radio WCPI.
At the time of his passing, his latest endeavor was a simulcast of gospel preaching and music, on both radio and the Internet.
“They said it couldn’t be done, but he did it anyway,” said daughter Gloria Grissom.
The station, WSOJ 102.5, located on Main Street in McMinnville, simultaneously beams its programming on FM radio and around the globe on the Internet.
According to his daughter, Carolyn Bickford, her father was a self-made man, learning his craft both during his service with the CCC and in the Navy during World War II, where he was a radioman aboard aircraft.
“He learned real quick he didn’t want to swab the decks,” Bickford said. “Radio was something he helped teach himself and something he enjoyed.”
He was also widely known as a Ham operator, talking on the airwaves since the 1950s. His call-letters were W4KKO.
Byars, a devoutly religious man who was a member of Smyrna Church of Christ, was also a published author, penning two books “Where In the Bible Will I Find” volumes one and two. He also pinned a column in the Southern Standard by the same name and another column called “Know Your Bible, You Will Be Judged By It.”
A lesser-known part of his accomplishments included his widespread installation of bells and chimes in various music towers around the country.
“He was a talented and gifted man,” Rone said. “He even helped me, when I was about 12, put my own radio station up for a summer. He was a giving person.”