100 Year-Old Dispatcher Recalls the Past

Nothing is the same after 100 years, and former Birmingham (Ala.) police dispatcher Claude Gray says that applies to comm centers, too. He joined the police department in 1933, and returned to the comm center Wednesday to celebrate his recent birthday and the department’s first radio broadcast to police officers. On June 10, 1933 Gray turned on the transmitter for the first time, and then broadcast the time and the callsign WPFM. There were 10 patrol cars and one motorcycle equipped with radios at the time. “What we have today was built on the shoulders of people like Mr. Gray,” said police Capt. William Brewer, who oversees the department’s Support Systems Bureau. By the way, the first official broadcast was a stolen vehicle alert to all units, followed by a message for the patrol sergeant to meet the captain at the city garage. Read more here, and see a 1930 photo of Mr. Gray here,. See a photo of Mr. Gray after the break.

In this 1930-era photo, Birmingham (Ala.) police dispatcher Claude M. Gray operates the radio equipment.