Del Shields

American radio host, music editor and activist. He worked at WDAS FM, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Executive Vice President of the National Association Of Radio Announcers (USA) in the 60s. Being a jazz authority, he joined the staff of Billboard (5) as jazz editor in 1965. Shields was the first African American to host a network radio program (Night Call). It was broadcast immediately following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and allowed radio listeners from across the country to interact with leaders of the civil rights and protest movements. Born: ca. 1929 in Queens, New York Died: September 20, 2015 in Jamaica, New York