Mort Fega

Mort Fega, radio broadcaster, jazz record producer, journalist and teacher, died Friday, January 21 at Hospice of Palm Beach in Bethesda Memorial Hospital, Boyton Beach, Florida. The cause was complications following surgery according to his family. Mr. Fega was born on July 4th, 1922 in New Rochelle, NY and began his career in broadcasting in his home town at radio station WNRC. His Saturday afternoon jazz program garnered a loyal following. In 1962, he moved to WEVD, the radio voice of The Forward Newspaper, where he broadcast his program of modern jazz and spoken word six evenings a week. At the time radio stations were permitted to broadcast the same program on AM and FM. Consequently, Fega had listeners as far north as Canada and throughout New England. The show was called Jazz Unlimited and was one of the few radio programs that featured modern jazz and spoken word. His programs featured big bands and bebop, comedy and the wordjazz of Lord Buckley and Ken Nordine and vocalists like Blossom Dearie and Joe Williams. He produced and emceed concerts at Newport, Carnegie Hall, Randall's Island and the Apollo Theatre. After leaving WEVD, he continued broadcasting jazz from WBAI, WRFM, and WTFM in New York City and then on KXIV in Phoenix and WWUH in Hartford. He retired to Florida where he had a five hour Saturday evening program at NPR station WXEL and taught a History of Jazz course at Palm Beach Community College. In addition, he wrote a weekly column for the Palm Beach Post. Focus Records was the label Fega founded to record under-recognized talents like guitarist Chuck Wayne and singer/pianist Bob Dorough, and musicians he favored such as Carmen McRae. During World War II, Mr. Fega captained a B-17 Flying Fortress. He and his crew flew 29 missions over Germany and occupied France and were part of the first daylight bombings of Berlin. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. Mort Fega is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Muriel Praete, and four sons, Russell of Alta Dena, CA, Douglas of Carefree, AZ, Kenneth of Sedona, AZ, and Roger of Amherst, MA, and 10 grandchildren.