Robert Brandon

A local man who discovered the radio industry on a homemade go-kart at age 14 and never left has died unexpectedly.

Bob Brandon died Dec. 7 at age 74 at his Butler Township home, which he shared with his wife, Charlotte, and beloved golden retriever.

Kathy Brandon Rogerson said her brother was around age 14 when he was invited to come inside and see the WBUT radio station while riding his go-kart in the fields at its McQuistion Road location.

“He was just mesmerized by all the dials and knobs and lights,” Rogerson said.

Soon afterward, the youngster found himself working at the station at night.

While still a student at Butler High School, Brandon worked as an on-air announcer and disc jockey.

After graduation, Rogerson said, her brother earned a degree at Penn Technical Institute in Pittsburgh.

Brandon bought a radio station in Portland, Ind., where he lived and worked for many years with his wife and three daughters.

In 1978, Brandon returned to Butler and bought WBUT, WLER and WISR with several family members.Larry Berg, a prominent local radio personality who also owned the radio stations at one point, recalled the young Brandon happily working the evening shift at WBUT.“He was really gifted,” Berg said. “For someone 18 years old, he had a wonderful voice and was a really compelling on-the-air personality.”Berg recalls working Brandon's evening shift when the latter attended his senior prom at Butler High.“He was very intelligent,” Berg said. “He knew about electronics and how to maintain the equipment and transmitters.”He also remembered Brandon as a young man working on his grandfather's 1930s Ford truck behind the radio station.“He was a tinkerer,” Berg said. “He liked to build things and make things.”

Although Brandon was a well-known radio personality and outgoing while on the air, Berg said that didn't represent his personality.“He was very quiet and introspective,” Berg said.Lee Bortmas, former owner of Bortmas, The Butler Florist, belonged to two Bantam car clubs with Brandon.Bortmas said Brandon restored his parents' Bantam panel truck.“I think they sold milk and eggs from it,” he said.He recalled Brandon's enthusiasm for the Bantam and his support of the effort to showcase Butler as the location of the Bantam Car Company and the firm's invention of the Jeep.“He was a gentleman and he was a friend,” Bortmas said.

Vince Tavalario, owner of Natili's North, worked with Brandon on various charitable boards in Butler and in many efforts to highlight downtown Butler over the years.“He was always very kind to me. He was always concerned about the community,” Tavalario said. “That's the thing that stuck out the most about him.”He lamented that Brandon lost his life at age 74.“God bless him,” Tavalario said. “It's a shame, the poor guy.”Brandon's brother, Ron, recalled Bob's love of the radio industry after the teenage encounter at WBUT.“He got a little taste of it as an evening part timer and it just went on from there,” Ron Brandon said. “He had a goal of one day owning a radio station.”He said his brother definitely had more to do on Earth, but was not granted the time.Rogerson noted that her brother had restored the miniature circus created by the late Jimmy Bashline, and always was interested in helping with any effort in his beloved Butler.“I know right now on their kitchen table, he was working on making the trophies for the Bantam Jeep Festival in June,” she said. “He was a very creative, artistic person.”

Rogerson agreed with Berg regarding her brother's penchant for building things.“He made a hydroplane boat in our basement when he was 18 or 19 years old,” she said. “He went with me and Charlotte to Crooked Creek to put it on the water.”Brandon could also be seen tooling around above Butler on a flying contraption he built using a Volkswagen engine.Rogerson said he would fire up the engine and zoom off the edge of a knoll to take flight.“He flew my husband over our house, so my husband could get an aerial picture,” Rogerson said. “He just had a mind that was way beyond anything the rest of us could comprehend.”She also remembered her big brother building and racing go-karts as a teenager.“If there was a way to figure it out, Bob would figure it out,” Rogerson said.She said her brother will be sorely missed by all who knew him, but especially by his wife, daughters and eight grandchildren.“Life is too short, and I'm sure he had many, many more things he wanted to do,” Rogerson said. “It's tragic, I'm still trying to process it.”