Being on the radio was something Orangeburg radio personality Russ T. Fender dreamed about as a boy growing up.

The power of the medium and radio personalities such as Paul Harvey and Casey Kasem were “bigger than life” for the 12-year-old kid.

“As a kid with my first AM radio and the air buds in my ear, you could hear broadcasts all over the world,” Fender said. “I said, ‘That is what I want to do.’”

When his voice changed after the onset of puberty, it was settled.

“I had no other choice,” he said, laughing.

So at age 23, Fender, whose off-air name is Russ Wood, approached WIGL 102.9 FM management in January 1988 with a warning: “You can’t run your business without me.”

And, after 17 South Carolina Broadcasters Association awards for radio production and on-air performance operations and serving as manager for three broadcast companies in Orangeburg -- Keymarket, Boswell Broadcasting and Miller Communications -- the rest is history.

Now, after 20 years, the 43-year-old Fender is closing this chapter on his radio career and starting another by getting married to the “love of my life,” Stacey, June 21 in a private ceremony in a log chapel in the mountains of Tennessee.

Fender’s last day was June 19 but he will officially retire from broadcasting June 27.

He has served as host of the Morning Show on Star 105.1 FM and the Afternoon Drive shows in the Orangeburg area on Bad Dog 95.7 and the Sumter/Florence areas on Bad Dog 94.7.

Fender says he, his wife, daughter Abigale Grace and stepson Brett will stay in Orangeburg. He plans to pursue other opportunities, though he declined to provide details. As he embarks on starting a family, he says in some ways he is also leaving a family.

“Every morning as I sat in my studio, I envisioned myself at the breakfast table, or in the car with the kids on the way to school ... sharing moments from a distance, providing, hopefully, a smile on a hard day,” he said. “My biggest goal was to be that release valve for the listener, saying the things at times that they’d like to say, looking at the world from a different point of view. Being there like a friend, a family member.”

“I will most miss those moments,” Fender said. “But I am not walking away from my hometown. This is my home, and I love it.”

In some ways, like his maturation into the radio business, Fender says over the past 20 years he has seen Orangeburg “come of age.”

“From a town that at times seemed to be its own worst enemy to a showplace and a wonderful place to raise a family, I have had the joy of having a bird’s-eye view of the change,” Fender said. “We’ve come a long way from the booming textile area and the resulting loss of the industry to now, as our development commission would say, a Global Logistics Triangle.”

And, then there are the memories -- lots of them.

“Every day has provided me with another memory, some wonderful, some not so,” Fender said.

There was Hurricane Hugo.

“From staying on the air from 5 a.m. until my voice gave out at 10 p.m.,” he recalled. “Then in the aftermath having an engineer get us on the air with a car battery to broadcast the needs of our listeners and other survivors of the storm.”

There were charity events.

“Slipping into a pair of lady’s clogs to “walk a mile in her shoes” in a show of support and solidarity for women who have been victims of domestic violence,” Fender said.

And, then there were the Santa times at the Department of Public Utilities’ Centennial Park.

“A young girl who had survived cancer and was just regrowing her hair handed me her wish list -- a list I discovered was all for her family and friends and asked nothing for herself,” he said.

Another wish from a mother with child tearfully requested, “I want my baby to be healthy.”

“On that night, the dad came out in me, and I sat with that child, comforting her for a moment with tears clouding my eyes, reminding her that she was important and that mattered,” Fender recalled. “I carry that memory in my heart.”

During his 20 years, Fender has been a winner on radio and in the community.

He was also a presence in the community, participating in the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, People’s Assault on Drugs Committee and the Orangeburg Part-Time Players, to name a few.

Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Wendell Davis said both personally and professionally, Fender will be missed.

“He has meant a tremendous amount to our department,” Davis said. “He is in a true sense of the word a radio personality. He is a fixture of the community.”

Davis said Fender was instrumental in helping to inform the public about the integration of the public safety department and fire service in 1993.

“There were a number of challenges to that; there was some misinformation about the actual function of public safety,” Davis said, explaining that working with Fender and then Boswell Communications helped to dispel these misunderstandings. “He was a tremendous asset of getting that information out on a consistent basis.”

Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce President David Coleman described Fender as a “lot of fun” and a “bright, clever guy” who has done a number of chamber promotional events and live remotes.

“I can remember one live remote Russ T. was lying on the grass relaxing during the Rose Festival under a tree,” Coleman said. “He said, ‘There comes the president of the chamber,’ and I was going to give him some grief before I realized he was on the air. He has become a fixture here. He knows what he is doing.”

Fender’s departure mark the second significant loss of a radio personality by Miller Communications within the past year and a half.

African-American disc jockey Robert S. “Bob” Frazier, also known as Bob Steele to his radio listeners, died in January 2007.

Frazier, who was the host of the “Slow Jamz Show” on WQKI-FM, OLD SKOOL 102.9 Urban oldies, was a 35-year radio veteran.

n T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories at www.TheTandD.com

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