Edwin Tornberg

TORNBERG--Edwin 82, owner of an East Coast Broadcasting Co., passed away May 23rd at his home in Potomac, MD after a long illness. He was Chairman of New World Radio Group, which owns and operates radio stations including WUST Washington and WNWR Philadelphia. Mr. Tornberg started in business brokerage and consulting in 1954. In 1957, Mr. Tornberg formed Edwin Tornberg and Co., Inc. specializing in brokerage, consulting and appraisal work for the banking, broadcasting and cable TV industries. His firm was based in NYC for 17 years, later moving to Washington. Illustrative clients included Bankers Trust, Bank of New York, Century Communications, Broadband Communications, New York Times Company, Nationwide Communications, Heftel Broadcasting Corp. and Wrather Corp., among others. Mr. Tornberg was in telecommunications since 1960. In addition to the stations he operated at the time of his death, he previously owned radio stations in Virginia, California, Kentucky, Oregon and Indiana and cable TV systems throughout the Western U.S. They were sold to Telecommunications, Inc. (NASD). Mr. Tornberg was regarded as something of a pioneer in the Washington radio-TV market as he went against conventional wisdom in 1992 by founding Washington's first exclusively multicultural broadcast station, WUST. The station broadcasts programs, many locally-originated, in as many as a dozen different languages to serve the needs of the Washington area's diverse population of diplomats, international civil servants and immigrants. After the success of WUST, Mr. Tornberg brought the concept to Philadelphia three years later with the purchase of WNWR, a 50,000 watt outlet which he converted to multilingual broadcasting. Mr. Tornberg recently retired as a director of Citizen's Communications Co., Stamford, CT, a NYSE-listed company. Edwin Joshua Tornberg was born in Plainfield, NJ and grew up in New Jersey and New York. He attended Stevens Institute of Technology and served in the US Army. He was a member of various broadcasting associations. Survivors include his wife Ina, of Potomac and Stuart, FL, son Donald (Sandy), brother Ralph, grandson Jayson, granddaughters, Alyssa and Samantha, stepsons Alan Hahn (Joan), Ronald Smith, Martin Smith (Linda), and Lawrence Smith (Lori), stepdaughter Alexandra Chesterton (David), five step-grandchildren and two step-greatgrandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Chi-Chi, his first wife Shirley from whom he was divorced and their son Gary (Sharyn Tornberg Gold).