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Kenneth Davey Fry
Born: September 28, 1902, Schenectady, NY
Died: July 9, 1971, Waynesville, NC, age 68,---d. emphysema
United Press sports writer;
Indianapolis, IN, 7-year old, (April 16, 1910 census)
Lyons, IL, 17-year old, (January 6, 1920 census)(listed Kenneth Frye)
Chicago, IL, newspaper, sports editor, (April 3, 1930 census)
Alma College (Alma, MI), 1920 - 1923, English
University of Chicago, 1925, (Philosophy major)
Chicago Evening Post, July, 1923, cub reporter, sports editor, 1928-32.
Father: Florien, born Indiana, 1880?; Mother: Thomasina, born England; 1882?; Wife: Margaret B., born Ohio, 1903; Daughter: Nancy K., born Illinois, born 1928;
Biography from Current Biography (1947)
During World War II the United States Government first became active in transmitting short-wave foreign language broadcasts to other nations although other Governments years before had taken advantage of the far-reaching scope of radio for propaganda and educational purposes. By 1947, however, the Voice of America was on a full twenty-four-hour-day, seven-day-week schedule; in that year the first American broadcasts to Russia were instituted. Kenneth D. Fry, director of the State Department's International Broadcasting Division joined the OWI shortly after that war agency initiated the first Government-transmitted international radio programs. He had previously organized and built up the news and special event activities of the Chicago office of a major radio network. In 1948 he will return to commercial broadcasting, having in December 1947 announced his resignation from IBD.
Kenneth Davey Fry, of English and Pennsylvania Dutch descent, was born to Florien and Thomizine (Davey) Fry on September 28, 1902, in Schenectady, New York. He was not reared in the city of his birth, however: his father, an insurance underwriter, moved with his family to the Midwest and later to the South. Young Kenneth attended grade school in Indianapolis (Indiana) and in Sanford and Jacksonville (Florida). By the time he had entered high school, the Frys were living in Chicago; he attended the Hyde Park High School in that city and Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois (a Chicago suburb). In secondary school, from which he was graduated in 1920, he already showed the interest in sports and writing (he played tennis and football and edited the yearbook) that was to guide the choice of his first job. For three years (1920-23) he specialized in English at Alma College in Alma, Michigan; there he also edited the college annual. Two years afterward, in 1925 he became a philosophy major at the University of Chicago. Meanwhile, in July 1923 Fry had been hired as cub reporter for the Chicago Evening Post. His duties included coverage of sports events and the writing of a daily column; occasionally, too, he wrote editorials and covered general news. In 1928 Fry was promoted to the sports editorship of the Post, which discontinued publication in 1932.
For a brief period (November 1932 to July 1933) Fry was sports editor of the central division of the United Press Association. He then joined the public relations department of the central division of the National Broadcasting Company as news editor. Under Fry's direction, news coverage was disassociated from the press relations section and established as an independent division; in 1936 Fry became director of news and special events in the Chicago office of NBC. When Fry joined the network, the news staff had consisted of one writer; when he left in 1943 the department had grown to twelve. In addition to supervising the broadcasting of news and commentary, Fry planned, wrote, and produced all central division special events programs. These included on-the-spot coverage of headline events, sports, and political conventions, and the broadcasting of speeches and election returns; special programs such as the Army Hour also came under Fry's direction. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fry planned and had in operation the NBC coverage of the Pacific area.
In February 1943 Fry became head field representative of the Alaska outpost of the overseas division of the OWI. A few months before, this war information body had taken over the short-wave broadcasting previously carried on by two major networks and other private units. Part of OWI's activities included "live" broadcasting; another aspect was the supplying of recorded programs to outposts, of which Fry's Alaska station was one. Because they could be sent out on medium-wave transmitters and because a great deal of atmospheric interference was eliminated, these transcriptions reached a larger audience than the short-wave programs. The outposts also broadcast recorded shows prepared for the armed forces stationed in their areas. In June 1943 Fry closed the Alaska outpost and returned to the United States as assistant director of Pacific operations, with an office in San Francisco. Under the supervision of Fry and his superior, programs were beamed to the Far East, Australia, and Honolulu. Nine hundred employees, at the peak of operations, worked for the California office, preparing or actually sending programs, twenty-four hours daily, over ten short-wave transmitters and relays in Honolulu and Manila. With three major objectives (psychological warfare, the supplying of important information to Allies and the armed forces in the Pacific, and the reassurance to people on Japanese-occupied islands that they had not been forgotten), programs were broadcast in English, French, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Annamese, Korean, and Malay.
At the end of the war, the Department of State decided to continue the broadcasting activities of both OWI and the Office of Inter-American Affairs, which had been transmitting programs to Latin America. Fry supervised the merger of the work of the San Francisco offices of both groups and was appointed chief of the western office of the State Department's Interim International Information Service. Early in 1946 the radio activities of the two offices were permanently assigned to the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs as the International Broadcasting Division; at that time, Fry, still in San Francisco, was named associate chief and was given charge of all broadcasting to the Far East and of English language broadcasts to Latin America. Six months later, after supervising the liquidation of the California office and the centralization of all work in New York, Fry became chief of the International Broadcasting Division of the State Department.
The title of these foreign language broadcasts, Voice of America, had been established in OWI days. During the war, the programs had been prepared in forty languages; in peacetime the number of languages dropped to twenty-four (until the beginning of 1947 when a twenty-fifth was added). According to the Christian Science Monitor, about 17 per cent of the programs transmitted by Fry's department are news broadcasts, about 34 per cent are commentaries or background information on current events, and about 49 per cent are feature broadcasts. The latter may be speeches, interviews, "quiz" programs, on-the-spot broadcasts of news events, round-table discussions, the dramatization of events in American history, the lives of famous Americans, discussion of American books or plays, lectures on homemaking or child care, or programs answering listeners' questions about the United States. About half of these are actually produced by Fry's staff; the rest are prepared under contract with domestic radio companies or networks. Often, in addition to receiving the programs on short-wave bands, foreign listeners may hear the Voice of America over the facilities of their local stations, which retransmit IBD's programs. In response to a request for audience reaction, Fry by early 1947 had received over fifty thousand letters.
The activities of Fry's division had received little publicity until February 17, 1947, when the first American broadcast was sent to Russia. Much note was made of the insistence that the Voice of America was not planned for propaganda purposes but merely to familiarize the rest of the world with American customs, history, and opinion. The Russian audience was told, "The purpose of our broadcasts is to give listeners in the U.S.S.R. a picture of life in America, to explain our various problems, and to point out how we are trying to solve these problems." The format of the program, which is on a daily schedule, includes late news, music, information about the Government and the history of the United States, and scientific lectures. The Russian language broadcasts raised the monthly total of program hours to sixteen hundred.
Later in 1947, a controversy arose in Congress concerning IBD's operation: the House, because the State Department had not been legislatively authorized to carry on its short wave broadcasts, refused funds for the Voice of America in passing an appropriation bill. The Senate, however, restored the necessary money and, to insure House approval, added an amendment to the general bill authorizing the continuation of IBD. Fry himself, on December 26, announced his resignation effective January 16, 1948. The reasons, he said, were the difficulty of planning the "Voice of America" programs with the constant threat of their elimination by Congress, and the fact that his salary was "frozen." Fry planned to return to commercial broadcasting.
Fry has retained his membership in the San Francisco Press Club, although his IBD duties are centered in Washington, where he lives with his wife, the former Margaret Freshley, to whom he was married on September 19, 1925, and their two daughters, Nancy and Susan. Fry's hair is now gray; he has blue eyes and is five feet seven and a half inches in height and 140 pounds in weight. The official, who claims no political affiliation, attends the Congregational Church.
He died of emphysema in Waynesville, NC on July 9, 1971.
Born: September 28, 1902, Schenectady, NY
Died: July 9, 1971, Waynesville, NC, age 68,---d. emphysema
United Press sports writer;
Indianapolis, IN, 7-year old, (April 16, 1910 census)
Lyons, IL, 17-year old, (January 6, 1920 census)(listed Kenneth Frye)
Chicago, IL, newspaper, sports editor, (April 3, 1930 census)
Alma College (Alma, MI), 1920 - 1923, English
University of Chicago, 1925, (Philosophy major)
Chicago Evening Post, July, 1923, cub reporter, sports editor, 1928-32.
Father: Florien, born Indiana, 1880?; Mother: Thomasina, born England; 1882?; Wife: Margaret B., born Ohio, 1903; Daughter: Nancy K., born Illinois, born 1928;
Biography from Current Biography (1947)
During World War II the United States Government first became active in transmitting short-wave foreign language broadcasts to other nations although other Governments years before had taken advantage of the far-reaching scope of radio for propaganda and educational purposes. By 1947, however, the Voice of America was on a full twenty-four-hour-day, seven-day-week schedule; in that year the first American broadcasts to Russia were instituted. Kenneth D. Fry, director of the State Department's International Broadcasting Division joined the OWI shortly after that war agency initiated the first Government-transmitted international radio programs. He had previously organized and built up the news and special event activities of the Chicago office of a major radio network. In 1948 he will return to commercial broadcasting, having in December 1947 announced his resignation from IBD.
Kenneth Davey Fry, of English and Pennsylvania Dutch descent, was born to Florien and Thomizine (Davey) Fry on September 28, 1902, in Schenectady, New York. He was not reared in the city of his birth, however: his father, an insurance underwriter, moved with his family to the Midwest and later to the South. Young Kenneth attended grade school in Indianapolis (Indiana) and in Sanford and Jacksonville (Florida). By the time he had entered high school, the Frys were living in Chicago; he attended the Hyde Park High School in that city and Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois (a Chicago suburb). In secondary school, from which he was graduated in 1920, he already showed the interest in sports and writing (he played tennis and football and edited the yearbook) that was to guide the choice of his first job. For three years (1920-23) he specialized in English at Alma College in Alma, Michigan; there he also edited the college annual. Two years afterward, in 1925 he became a philosophy major at the University of Chicago. Meanwhile, in July 1923 Fry had been hired as cub reporter for the Chicago Evening Post. His duties included coverage of sports events and the writing of a daily column; occasionally, too, he wrote editorials and covered general news. In 1928 Fry was promoted to the sports editorship of the Post, which discontinued publication in 1932.
For a brief period (November 1932 to July 1933) Fry was sports editor of the central division of the United Press Association. He then joined the public relations department of the central division of the National Broadcasting Company as news editor. Under Fry's direction, news coverage was disassociated from the press relations section and established as an independent division; in 1936 Fry became director of news and special events in the Chicago office of NBC. When Fry joined the network, the news staff had consisted of one writer; when he left in 1943 the department had grown to twelve. In addition to supervising the broadcasting of news and commentary, Fry planned, wrote, and produced all central division special events programs. These included on-the-spot coverage of headline events, sports, and political conventions, and the broadcasting of speeches and election returns; special programs such as the Army Hour also came under Fry's direction. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fry planned and had in operation the NBC coverage of the Pacific area.
In February 1943 Fry became head field representative of the Alaska outpost of the overseas division of the OWI. A few months before, this war information body had taken over the short-wave broadcasting previously carried on by two major networks and other private units. Part of OWI's activities included "live" broadcasting; another aspect was the supplying of recorded programs to outposts, of which Fry's Alaska station was one. Because they could be sent out on medium-wave transmitters and because a great deal of atmospheric interference was eliminated, these transcriptions reached a larger audience than the short-wave programs. The outposts also broadcast recorded shows prepared for the armed forces stationed in their areas. In June 1943 Fry closed the Alaska outpost and returned to the United States as assistant director of Pacific operations, with an office in San Francisco. Under the supervision of Fry and his superior, programs were beamed to the Far East, Australia, and Honolulu. Nine hundred employees, at the peak of operations, worked for the California office, preparing or actually sending programs, twenty-four hours daily, over ten short-wave transmitters and relays in Honolulu and Manila. With three major objectives (psychological warfare, the supplying of important information to Allies and the armed forces in the Pacific, and the reassurance to people on Japanese-occupied islands that they had not been forgotten), programs were broadcast in English, French, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Annamese, Korean, and Malay.
At the end of the war, the Department of State decided to continue the broadcasting activities of both OWI and the Office of Inter-American Affairs, which had been transmitting programs to Latin America. Fry supervised the merger of the work of the San Francisco offices of both groups and was appointed chief of the western office of the State Department's Interim International Information Service. Early in 1946 the radio activities of the two offices were permanently assigned to the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs as the International Broadcasting Division; at that time, Fry, still in San Francisco, was named associate chief and was given charge of all broadcasting to the Far East and of English language broadcasts to Latin America. Six months later, after supervising the liquidation of the California office and the centralization of all work in New York, Fry became chief of the International Broadcasting Division of the State Department.
The title of these foreign language broadcasts, Voice of America, had been established in OWI days. During the war, the programs had been prepared in forty languages; in peacetime the number of languages dropped to twenty-four (until the beginning of 1947 when a twenty-fifth was added). According to the Christian Science Monitor, about 17 per cent of the programs transmitted by Fry's department are news broadcasts, about 34 per cent are commentaries or background information on current events, and about 49 per cent are feature broadcasts. The latter may be speeches, interviews, "quiz" programs, on-the-spot broadcasts of news events, round-table discussions, the dramatization of events in American history, the lives of famous Americans, discussion of American books or plays, lectures on homemaking or child care, or programs answering listeners' questions about the United States. About half of these are actually produced by Fry's staff; the rest are prepared under contract with domestic radio companies or networks. Often, in addition to receiving the programs on short-wave bands, foreign listeners may hear the Voice of America over the facilities of their local stations, which retransmit IBD's programs. In response to a request for audience reaction, Fry by early 1947 had received over fifty thousand letters.
The activities of Fry's division had received little publicity until February 17, 1947, when the first American broadcast was sent to Russia. Much note was made of the insistence that the Voice of America was not planned for propaganda purposes but merely to familiarize the rest of the world with American customs, history, and opinion. The Russian audience was told, "The purpose of our broadcasts is to give listeners in the U.S.S.R. a picture of life in America, to explain our various problems, and to point out how we are trying to solve these problems." The format of the program, which is on a daily schedule, includes late news, music, information about the Government and the history of the United States, and scientific lectures. The Russian language broadcasts raised the monthly total of program hours to sixteen hundred.
Later in 1947, a controversy arose in Congress concerning IBD's operation: the House, because the State Department had not been legislatively authorized to carry on its short wave broadcasts, refused funds for the Voice of America in passing an appropriation bill. The Senate, however, restored the necessary money and, to insure House approval, added an amendment to the general bill authorizing the continuation of IBD. Fry himself, on December 26, announced his resignation effective January 16, 1948. The reasons, he said, were the difficulty of planning the "Voice of America" programs with the constant threat of their elimination by Congress, and the fact that his salary was "frozen." Fry planned to return to commercial broadcasting.
Fry has retained his membership in the San Francisco Press Club, although his IBD duties are centered in Washington, where he lives with his wife, the former Margaret Freshley, to whom he was married on September 19, 1925, and their two daughters, Nancy and Susan. Fry's hair is now gray; he has blue eyes and is five feet seven and a half inches in height and 140 pounds in weight. The official, who claims no political affiliation, attends the Congregational Church.
He died of emphysema in Waynesville, NC on July 9, 1971.
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