Good neighbour.

Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer was born in new York City October 15, 1915. Known to the world later on his his life as Fred Friendly, he was a radio and TV pioneer. He started in radio in the early 30's in Providence, Rhode Island. This was when he became Mr. Friendly by the way.

He became quite an experienced radio producer by the Second World War and teamed up with another groundbreaking radio journalist, Edward R. Murrow, after the war to produce a series called I Can Hear it Now for Columbia Records. What was especially exciting for listeners is that they used as much genuine recordings as possible in the project. Actual battlefield sounds and commentary, as well as news broadcasts put the listener at the very centre of the action.
Friendly was fascinated by a new technology, magnetic recording tape, and went to great lengths to try and get original recordings. When none existed he made them up. What he really did was recreate them as accurately as possible. Not like nowadays. He did not, however, alert the listener as to what was fake and what was real.He was good at it, and many recordings still stump archivists.He did his homework though, reportedly asking heads of state for do-overs of speeches.

Already working for CBS and Columbia Records his first big splash came with NBC's "The Quick and the Dead", about the development of the atomic bomb. Gotta love that title. They had some snot back then too.

Back at CBS they noticed what he was doing and recruited him full time, and that's when he hooked up with Murrow to produce a radio show based on the Columbia Hear it Now records in 1950. In 1951 they took it to television and aptly named the show "See it Now" hosted by Murrow.

The show was mostly live and never shied away from tough news, taking on Joe McCarthy's commie hunting on prime time TV for example.

Always a pioneer, Friendly was at the birth of public access television and the burgeoning cable TV industry in the 60's. No MST 3000 without this guy.