2008
Oscar W.B. Reed Jr., 91, a radio and broadcast engineer for the consulting engineering company Jansky & Bailey Inc. and then
Atlantic Research Corp., died Dec. 10 from congestive heart failure at Randolph Hills Nursing Home in Wheaton. He was a
Silver Spring resident. Mr. Reed began his career at Jansky & Bailey in 1939 and played a role in the construction, operation and
maintenance of Baltimore and Washington's first FM radio station, W3XO. It was the third FM station in the country.
He also participated in the design of television broadcast facilities, and when the company was purchased by Atlantic Research
in 1959, he became manager of the Broadcast-Television Consulting Department, where he worked on the development of
cable television. He retired in 1984.
Oscar Wellington Blucher Reed Jr. was born in Washington. He graduated from the old Central High School in 1935 and
received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1939 from Catholic University.
He was president of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers from 1967 to 1968. He was also a
member of the American Radio Relay League and the Potomac Rappahannock Valley Weather Net.
His wife of 65 years, Phyllis Cogswell Reed, died in 2005. A daughter, Kathleen Ann Reed, died in 1999.
Survivors include two sons, David J. Reed and Robert W. Reed, both of Silver Spring; three grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
-- Lauren Wiseman