William Brown McClelland

William (Bill) McClelland passed on Sunday Apr. 21, 2019 with family at his side. While dealing with cancer in his last years he continued his passion of technology and music until the end. Bill was a gifted and inventive audio-video engineer who worked at several radio and television stations in Ohio and Florida. His time in radio included periods as an on-air personality “Wild Bill” and “Billy Mac”. He met and worked with many of the musicians and performers from the 50s and 60s. Bill acquired his FCC First Class Broadcasting license and became a Studio and Transmitter Engineer. One of his proudest achievements was building a brand-new TV transmitter and putting it on the air for the new Orlando TV-35, 1st sign-on Mar. 31, 1974. Later the station was shut down with legal issues for a few years. After the legal issues were done, Bill returned to put TV-35 back on the air again. He did so faster than expected using parts remaining on site in what RCA (manufacture of the transmitter parts) said was impossible to do. He had the station back on the air from his in-depth knowledge. Bill was a music person. In the early days of Radio, a DJ announced the Title, Artist and position the song was on the Billboard charts (official rating system). DJ’s would have to lookup and remember this content. Bill had the ability to commit this to memory and recall it even years later. Many people have commented about how he could hear 1 or 2 notes of a song and tell you all about it. Throughout his life, Bill provided music and lighting for events in Florida and Ohio. He was known as the Man with the Big Speakers. He always worked to have the best for his events. Bill chose to stay on the cutting edge of technology. From Radio to TV. From Mono, Stereo, Quad, to Digital Surround. From record, tape, CD, to WAV. He was an electrician, Radio-TV Engineer, Audio-Video-Lighting Tech, photographer and videographer. Bill saved radio shows, TV productions and much more from his life to reflect on from time to time. The radio shows he had converted to CD. While playing them to him on his last days, one song came up a few times. From 1962, peaked Jan 26 1963, position #6, ‘My Dad’, now here is a Man.

William Brown McClelland

November 30, 1942 - April 21, 2019