Here’s the story of that ship-to-shore station as described in Our Town – The Story of Lorain (July 1953), which was used in the Lorain Public Schools to educate the students about their city.
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| William C. Atwater (Courtesy BGSU) |
"A ship-to-shore set consists of a small radio sending and receiving station with a dial telephone similar to those found in homes. To place a call, the number of the Marine Operator is dialed. When the operator answers, the caller gives her the name of the ship and of the person he wishes to contact. The shore station then completes the call by short-wave radio.
"This system has proven valuable to the companies who own ships and to the personnel on the ships. Sailing orders can be changed, even while the ship is en route, and weather changes can be relayed quickly by the company. A ship captain can report any emergency which may arise on board ship. In cases of illness, a doctor and am ambulance can be sent to meet the ship when it docks.
"Families also have an opportunity to keep in close touch with one another during the sailing season. Shipping company officials feel they would not have been able to meet the heavy shipping demands of the last war without this ship-to-shore service.”
WMI was the ship-to-shore station that was owned and operated by Lorain County Radio Corporation, later known as Lorain Electronics Corp. (LEC).
Read all about WMI in this interesting article from the July 6, 1969 edition of the Journal.
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| Aerial showing the location of the WMI station off Meister Road (circa 1952) |
To read the definitive story of WMI, be sure to visit the links below on the wonderful Inland Marine Radio History Archive website. It’s an utterly fascinating part of Lorain’s maritime heritage.
This link takes you to the “WMI - Lorain, OH” page, which includes several photos of WMI operators, as well as a vintage color photo of the WMI station just off Meister Road, back in the days when there was nothing else there. Today of course it is part of a housing development.
This link takes you to the “LEC & WMI Recollections of Ken Bobel, WA8YJW” page, which includes a very well-written, comprehensive account by Mr. Bobel about the history of the company and WMI station. It includes photos of the original company building, which was located behind the telephone company in Downtown Lorain (not surprisingly, since the phone company was the parent company of LEC). There’s also a photo of LEC’s newer building, which was located on Leavitt Road at W. 23rd Street.
This link takes you to two vintage Journal articles about WMI, one from 1966 and the other from 1969 (the same one I found on microfilm and posted above).
All of these pages on the Inland Marine Radio History Archive website have other links that are fun to explore. Be sure to poke around the website and check them all out.
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| The former Lorain Electronics Corporation building today on the east side of Leavitt Road (across from O’Hara’s Beverage) |
My grandfather worked for them, which in turned led to me carrying on later on up until recently. They operated a dozen sites around the great lakes for ship-to-shore up until the early 90s. These guys invented the technology and manufactured it right in lorain. They also maintained a radio network down the Mississippi. They installed all the communications and radar equipment for lakers as well through the various states.
ReplyDeleteWho’s your grandfather?
DeleteMy grandfather worked for Lorain County Radio Corp. in the 1930s. He helped install and maintain the radio sets on the lake boats.
ReplyDeleteThis is another piece of history of when Lorain was "happening".Sadly all of this is now gone.Now that whole area from 21st St. on to Meister Rd. is run down.The old LEC building at Leavitt and 23rd St.now houses an auto tire repair center.There's always some junk cars out front promoting urban decay.And to think of the stuff that was invented there.
ReplyDeleteMy dad worked for WMI for many years. Richard Rocher. ❤️
ReplyDelete