Dooley, Eddie, 1905-1982

Edwin B. Dooley (1930-1998), a veteran Cincinnati broadcast engineer, was considered an authority on radio history. He studied electrical engineering, earning a degree in Communications from the University of Cincinnati, and spent the bulk of his active career as an engineer at WLW radio and WLWT television beginning in the 1950s. He joined the Advanced Color Television Design Group at AVCO Manufacturing Corporation, helping convert the WLW television stations to color format, and served as chief engineer at WLWT-TV from 1961 until he retired in 1987. He then did consulting work for Broadcast Investment Analysts. Dooley was a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio and held an FCC Radio Telephone General Class Commercial License. He was also a member of the Engineering Society of Cincinnati and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, as well as a director of the Gray History of Wireless Museum. Mr. Dooley was a frequent speaker on radio history throughout his life, and gave presentations about the history of early radio broadcasting and WLW to the National Radio Club in 1962, and to the Cincinnati Section of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, Inc. in 1995. He helped develop WMKV, the only FM station in the country licensed to a retirement community, and helped compile a massive big band era music library for the station. He was active in the American Theater Organ Society, and based on his own record collection, he created a radio show about theater pipe organ performances, which WMKV continued to air after his death.

As a collector and advocate of broadcast history, Ed Dooley is particularly important to WLW's legacy because the station did not maintain a collection of its own recordings. Dooley saved thousands of airchecks, transcription discs, field recordings and radio equipment throughout his career at WLW, often climbing into the station's dumpster to rescue them.

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