Lightning 100 general manager indicted, arrested on sex charges

Monday, September 24, 2012 at 6:14am
092412 Fred Buc mug.jpg
Fred Buc


Updated 5:50 p.m.

The general manager of popular independent radio station WRLT-Lightning 100 was arrested over the weekend after a grand jury indicted him on two felony sex charges.

Fred Buc, a longtime radio executive and host in Nashville, was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and a count of displaying sex acts to a minor older than 13. Buc, 55, was arrested on Saturday night, according to jail records, but posted $100,000 bond and was released around 11:30 p.m.

According to the indictment, Buc allegedly displayed sexually explicit material to an undercover officer posing as a minor in September 2011. A second count alleges Buc possessed material that included a minor engaged in sexual activity.

A Metro Nashville Police Department statement on Monday afternoon said Buc is accused of exposing himself over the Internet to someone he believed to be a 16-year-old girl but was actually a law enforcement detective in Virginia.

During the course of the investigation, police allegedly obtained warrants and discovered images of child pornography on computers used by Buc.

When contacted by The City Paper on Monday afternoon, Tuned In Broadcasting president Lester Turner said Buc’s employment status with the company had not changed. Tuned In Broadcasting operates WRLT.

Buc is a 35-year radio industry veteran, having spent more than 30 of those years in Nashville. He also hosts a Saturday morning show on Lightning 100 called “Retro Lightning.”

A court date for Buc has not been set, according to Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk records.


15 Comments on this post:

By: govskeptic on 9/24/12 at 7:33

You gotta love the way night commissioners exact their punishment early with
monster bonds many defendants. other than government employees, have to
pay to be released. 30 years in Nashville still makes him "an outsider" and
extreme flight risk.

By: hattrick3 on 9/24/12 at 8:05

And these are the ones the cops know about. There is no telling what else this sick pervert has done or was planning to do.

@govskeptinc - Of course he's a flight risk. His entire world is and should be collapsing in front of him. He'll be a registered sex offender and he should loose his job at Lighting 100. Just because you've been somewhere for 30 years doesnt mean you cant leave. What else do he have to stay for, his family?

By: commonsense1 on 9/24/12 at 12:34

innocent until proven guilty!

By: HamBoneHamBone on 9/24/12 at 4:30

Hattrick3, you are crazy.

"And these are the ones the cops know about." So are you hinting that you know something they don't know? If not, then shut that pie hole. Thankfully, in this country you can ONLY be arrested for the ones the cops know about and not the ones they don't know about. If that is too obtuse for you, then slow it down and think about it.

Second, this sounds like entrapment, plain and simple. We've enough crime in this city without the po-po having to go around trying to INVENT crimes that may not have happened otherwise.

Last, his entire world should be collapsing in front of him? Really? Because he was only accused of a crime and not convicted?

Something is clearly wrong with you.

By: asif on 9/24/12 at 9:29

this mountain has been made out of a molehill. @hattrick3 - sure hope you're dead wrong. keep the faith fred...the truth will out!

By: global_citizen on 9/25/12 at 7:47

hattrick, you might be more comfortable living in a Middle East dictatorship. In America we have things like due process and concepts of innocent until proven guilty.

Frankly, I'm suspicious of people who seem eager to destroy someone when something like this comes out. I suspect they have their own skeletons in the closet.

I would be disappointed with Tuned In Broadcasting if they immediately fired him before all the facts were assessed. Even if he's guilty, I'm not sure how it affects his job performance. Even someone who's convicted of a crime needs to earn a living and shouldn't automatically be deprived of their employment.

If everyone who had porn (even underage porn) on their computers lost their job, the unemployment rate would probably be four times higher than it is now. That doesn't mean it's permissible, only that it's reality.

By: hattrick3 on 9/25/12 at 7:48

Yall can defend your boy all you want but this burnt out disk jockey is accused of showing his junk to a minor. Maybe some of you guys are fine with that but I'm not. If he is found guilty, then lightning 100 has no choice but to fire him. How could they have the face of their station be a convitced sexual criminal who goes after little, underage girls.

By: hattrick3 on 9/25/12 at 7:52

global_citizen - Wow, you must run in some pretty sick circles if you are defending the posseion of underage porn.

By: jwk6179 on 9/25/12 at 8:13


He hasn't been at Lightning 100 for 30 years because Lightning 100 hasn't been on the air for 30 years, only about 22 years. But he has been on other radio stations in Nashville before he went to Lightning 100.

By: Jughead on 9/25/12 at 2:23

You folks are sick if you think kiddie porn is acceptable. But, America is devolving into a sick cesspool of liberal depravity.

By: Jughead on 9/25/12 at 2:25

Well--Tuned In Broadcasting should at least suspend him. Anything less is embracing child porn.

By: rogerthat on 9/25/12 at 4:04

HamboneHambone I believe in innocent until proven guilty, but if Fred believed the person to be a minor then he wasn't entrapped. It was his choice to expose to a minor. This was an indictment so the police had to gather evidence in order to make an arrest. It apparently took a year to build this to be worthy of an indictment.

Govskeptic I missed the part about him being an extreme flight risk. If anyone believed him to be a flight risk then there would be no bail and he'd be enjoying the Metro criminal holding facilities at this time. $100k doesn't seem extreme for the alleged act and the alleged material in his possesion.

What I find curious is that child porn was found on computers "used" by Fred. Does that mean work and home computers? If they were found on computers he used at the radio station then I imagine they have a stipulation of employment that frowns on this type of use. If that's the case then suspension would not be overreacting.

By: fedorkosicko on 9/26/12 at 12:06

There were attempts made to also report activity of Lightning 100s New Program Director, Dave Rossi. he is just as bad if not worse. It seems that Buc defended him as well as ownership. has to be a Tunedin thing. We can now submit to you and whoever will listen to claims about that guy. You shoud see the texts and videos and messages from this guy. Not sure if any of the females are minors but we do have the names and mobile numbers of most!! Sickos do tend to flock together. Wonder what else they're hiding. More to Follow!

By: quest77 on 9/27/12 at 8:09

What is it with Nashville radio hosts and child porn? Remember Chris Ruleman of the Fish? At least this time it wasn't a Christian radio station!

By: Left-of-Local on 10/1/12 at 1:58

Am I the only person who sees, in a city and nation DOMINATED by gruesome corporate media, the sick, sick, sick possibility that this is a setup?

Considering we DO have the legislature that let the recording industry shove it's mitts up their asses and puppet them through the password-sharing law, we already know there is no end to the quest for greed these monsters will pursue.

Just worth a thought. Sometimes the headlines are not so cut and dry as they seem.