Early
in his career Fred Heckman worked at radio stations in Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and the District of Columbia, before coming to WIBC, Indianapolis, in 1957. He served as the station’s news director for 32 years, before leaving in 1993 in a dispute with station management. Heckman was known for his strict journalism standards. His daily “My Town Indy” radio essays, which ran for thirty years, were among the station’s most enduring favorites. His voice was one of the best known in Indiana radio news.
In 1977 Heckman teamed with FBI agents & other law enforcement to negotiate the safe release of a hostage from entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis who had been holding his mortgage broker for 63 hours at gun point.
Heckman died in Indianapolis in 2001.