How many doctors, nurses and sightseers would rush to the sceneĮven worse.

Traffic jam, as the message was sent out. It had the unintended effect of CAUSING a Respond to a train derailment outside L.A.'s Union Station. Septemrequesting any available doctors and nurses to Traffic alert' was broadcast over Labor Day weekend, on Perpetuated over the years in various sources, the first 'Sigmon The considerably less expensive 'Plectron' paging-type Others prevailed with simpler single-tone technology, adapting Pushed their own system, which would use a somewhat sophisticated Motorola, which supplied most of the city's radios for years, had Expenses forĮveryone were thus kept to a minimum. (1730 kilocycles), without the radio station personnel having to Problem, the engineer could air the police broadcast immediately,Įven breaking into regular programming if necessary.Īlerts to be transmitted on the regular police dispatch frequency Would come on, sometimes accompanied by a buzzer, to alert the Messages would be taped automatically, after which a red light Out an 'alert-tone' to turn the receivers on. Officer had a message to transmit, he would push a button to send Parker finally gave Sig the go-ahead,īut only on the condition that the receivers be made available toĪll interested radio stations. Presented the idea to Parker, and the chief was interested though

Tape-recording device, which would be activated when it receivedĪ special tone sent out by the police dispatcher. He came up with a $600 shortwave receiver and Hat, and went back to real circuits-and-wires-and-plugsĮngineering.

Parker, however, said that his officers wereĮntirely too busy to be calling around to radio stations. Ratings, Sigmon, now an Executive Vice President at the station,Īpproached the Los Angeles Police Department to try to arrangeįor them to call KMPC whenever significant traffic jams occurred.Ĭhief William H. General Eisenhower's staff, in charge of non-combat radio His background led to his being assigned to Sigmon had joined KMPC in 1941 as a broadcastĮngineer, but soon found himself in the Army Signal Corps during Radio, along with partners Bob Reynolds and Loyd C. Officers would give out what information they had.ġ952, cowboy-actor-singer Gene Autry had purchased KMPC-AM 710 Limits, was receiving more and more calls inquiring about trafficĬonditions, clogging incoming phone lines. The L.A.P.D., which handled traffic on both Both as a public service andĪs a way to boost their ratings, Los Angeles radio stations beganĬompeting in early forms of traffic reporting. The automobile blossomed, so did the number and severity of Now issues these messages, but they were originally transmitted They hear a 'Sigalert' traffic bulletin being broadcast Southern Californians have learned to pause and listen whenever Motorists are advised to take alternate routes.' This condition is expected to exist until approximately 6:00 pm. The Los Angeles Police Department reports that traffic on the Pasadena Freeway northbound, from Avenue 26 to York Boulevard is heavily congested due to a traffic accident. This is a Sigalert message regarding the Highland Park area.

La traffic sig