Al Julius
At home, after work, I was changing clothes to go to the garage when the phone rang. (It was long before cellphones, so I had to reach and pick up the receiver.)
“Is this Roy?” asked a recognizable voice.
“It is,” I answered, trying to figure out why the voice sounded so familiar.
“Hi, this is Al Julius,” came the reply. “I got your letter and just wanted to thank you for the kind words. You sound like a real crusader.”
I was a fan of Al’s and tried to catch his fiery editorials on KDKA as often as I could. Even though his liberal views many times conflicted with those of his employer, he was a fearless supporter of labor and the American worker.
His TV spot often dealt with social projects like the food bank and other worthwhile charities.
What is today the very successful KDKA Turkey Fund was started by Al, and was originally called Julius Turkey Fund until he left KDKA.
Al was touched by a female fan who sent him $10 to give to a needy family for Thanksgiving food. The fund Al created to raise money was intended to be a one-time effort; but incredibly, the initial effort raised $90,000.
Such success caused the drive to become a yearly campaign. With corporate help, the fund has raised more than $19 million to help alleviate hunger in the Pittsburgh area.
Born in New York and educated at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) in Pittsburgh, Al gained experience at several radio and TV stations before settling in at KDKA.
His commentaries were sometimes as hard hitting as a good left hook, and others as gentle as a spring rain. I loved his passionate support of labor, workplace safety and earning living wages.
I was so impressed with one of his hard hitting editorials I wrote a letter to him expressing my admiration of his courage.
He said he laughed when he read the word “courage.”
“I’m sitting here in the studio of a multi-million-dollar broadcasting company, supporting
unions,” he said. “You could call it courage under fire.”
But that was Al. He told me his father had been a cab driver in New York City and that he was harassed and beaten for his union views.
Friends of Al’s at the station have said of him, “You might love Al or hate him, but you had to respect his tenacity and dedication. He was totally honest in his views and his commentary was from the heart.”
A former colleague, Ray Tannehill, said of Al, “He had that gruff exterior on the air, but he was a sweetheart.”
Al Julius absolutely loved Pittsburgh, its steel tough attitude, and the potpourri of ethnicity. He never tried to raise his presentations above his working class background.
In January 1991, in a cost cutting measure, Al and 13 others were laid off. Despite his huge popularity and an offer to accept a smaller salary, the company did not agree with Al’s philosophy.
Al passed away in June 2001 of lung cancer, but his wildly successful legacy of feeding the poor through the KDKA Turkey Fund lives on.
Note: Quotes from Julius’ colleagues were taken from “Broadcast Pioneers, Al Julius” website.
Roy Hess Sr. is a retired teacher and businessman from Dawson.