The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

(left to right) Steve Fredericks and member Don Henderson
WCAU Radio
Philadelphia
circa 1984

"Live from the palatial, but not overly ostentatious studios of WCAU Radio," that's how Steve Fredericks opened his sports program on the 50,000 watt station of WCAU (not WPHT).

Not bad for a kid who went to West Philly High and graduated in 1957. Then he joined the United States Air Force. It was there that they sent him to Asia where he became an announcer on Armed Forces Radio. Afterwards, he went to Temple University where he worked with member Merrill Reese on WRTI Radio.

After he was graduated, he went to work for WCAU Radio broadcasting basketball games, both Sixers and Big Five games. He later went to stations in Boston and New York before returning to Philadelphia in 1978.

He was a West Philadelphian whose real name was Stephen Frederick Oxman and for 44 years, he was a sports talk host, play-by-play announcers and more. People remember him from both his WCAU days and his time on WIP Radio.

He passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2012 just a few weeks before his 73th birthday. When he retired, he moved to Boynton Beach, in Florida (in the south part of the state on the Atlantic Ocean side.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com