Thomas McClelland was KLZ‘s chief engineer in the 1930s and is remembered as the radio industry’s first casualty of World War II.
Career
McClelland built crystal sets and ran a spark-gap transmitter as a kid, then trained in radio engineering in the Navy. By 1928 he was chief engineer at WDAF in Kansas City. He came to Denver’s KLZ in the 1930s, where he oversaw a studio remodel and a new transmitter installation, kept the station on the air through a hotel fire, and in 1938 sent KLZ’s remote truck to a Colorado forest fire so listeners could hear live reports from the scene.
Pearl Harbor
McClelland joined the Naval Reserve in 1939 and was recalled in September 1941, assigned to the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor. During the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, he was overcome by smoke in the ship’s radio room after getting his enlisted crew out. In 1943 the Navy commissioned the destroyer escort USS McClelland in his honor, the first time a broadcasting professional was honored that way. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2018.
Sources
Stations They Worked At
FROM THE TIMELINE
Career Moments
1938: KLZ sends its remote truck to a Colorado forest fire
1938 — KLZ chief engineer Thomas McClelland sent the station's remote truck to a Colorado forest fire so listeners could hear live reports from the scene.
Former KLZ chief engineer Thomas McClelland killed at Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941 — Thomas McClelland, who had been KLZ's chief engineer, died aboard the USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor after getting his radio-room crew out. He's remembered as the radio industry's first casualty of World War II, and the Navy named a destroyer escort for him in 1943.
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