Homewood connection to radio history gains national audience

The tragic death of 19-year-old Homewood resident Lester J. Wolf in 1926 became national through an episode of the radio show and podcast “Our American Stories,” hosted by Lee Habeeb.

At the time of his death, Wolf was an employee of radio station WOK, one of the first stations broadcasting from Homewood. Bob Anderson, Wolf’s great-nephew and president of the Homewood Historical Society, said Wolf was extremely passionate about the burgeoning radio industry and its potential.

In addition to being a radio technician, Wolf was also a performer for the Ukulele group Les.

“He was so fascinated by this new broadcast technology, and the electronic part of it, the electrical part of it, that he dropped out of high school to work at this radio station in Homewood,” Anderson said. “He was also a stage performer, he played the ukulele. He was a ham, from what my grandmother told me. She’s the only living relative I’ve ever met who knew him, that was his sister-in-law. She said, ‘Lester was the life of the party.'”

However, this brilliant life came to an end on July 10, 1926. The civilian radio industry was less than 10 years old.

“There weren’t really newsrooms. There weren’t any music programs that involved a disc jockey playing a record. There were music programs that were broadcast live, which was sort of the saving grace for this new industry at that time,” Anderson said. “It was really primitive programming. It was a whole new medium.”

WOK was receiving a live broadcast from the ballroom of the Chicago Beach Hotel, which was a luxury hotel in Kenwood at the time.

“At one point, the people there erupted in such loud applause that it literally knocked the Homewood station off the air, because it blew a fuse,” Anderson said.

Wolf volunteered to go replace the blown fuse. In his haste, he didn’t turn off the transmitter before cutting the fuse.

“It was either right away or pretty much right away,” Anderson said. “This 19-year-old who was trying to go the extra mile to help when things went wrong during a live broadcast became a victim of primitive equipment and his own human error.”

Anderson gave a presentation on Wolf’s history at the Homewood Historical Society in May.

Jon Elfner, a history teacher at Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School and a regular contributor to “Our American Stories,” then heard about this presentation from Anderson and wanted to bring the story to a wider audience.

“I immediately saw the appeal of this, especially for a radio show,” Elfner said. “It was definitely worth it for more than just the local history.”

The consequences of Wolf’s sudden death were considerable for the new industry. He was the first radio operator to die on duty, Anderson said.

“Lester Wolf died in the early days of radio, just as radio was being created. One of the reasons he died was because radio was barely regulated and therefore very dangerous,” Elfner said. “Someone truly dedicated dropped out of high school to become a radio technician because he loved technology so much and dedicated his life to keeping a radio station on the air, which ultimately cost him his life.

“And he’s one of many, many pioneers of radio, but when he died, the radio community nationwide knew about it, because it was a big deal that someone died in the service of radio, and pointed out a lot of the dangers that this new medium posed.”

Anderson said there has been an outpouring of grief and support from the radio community nationwide. A New Yorker named Charles Isaacson contacted WOK to request permission to raise money to support Wolf’s family and fund a monument in his memory. The family refused the money, but supported the idea of ​​a memorial.

“In that original telegram, requesting permission to raise funds, he said we wanted to make a memorial to radio’s first martyr, Lester J. Wolf,” Anderson said. “So that’s where the nickname comes from.”

But in the final twist of the story, no one knows what happened to the money raised, which Anderson said was nearly $10,000. The family never received anything and no memorial was ever built. In 1926, $10,000 would be the equivalent of over $182,000 today.

Wolf is buried in Homewood Memorial Gardens in a family plot.

“On his headstone it says he was killed while on duty at station WOK. The first radio martyr, Lester J. Wolf, lived from 1907 to 1926,” Anderson said.

The Our American Stories episode aired last week on October 23. It is now available to stream online under the title “Radio’s First Martyr: The Lester Wolf Story” on all podcast platforms.

elewis@chicagotribune.com