Day or night it's all-talk radio at WCM in Cincinnati


You won't hear Willie Nelson or Barry Manilow or Michael Jackson when you listen to 
WCM in Cincinnati.  You won't hear jazz quartets or classical symphonies.  In fact, 
you won't hear any music at all.

WCM, nevertheless, is a station many Midland employees listen to every day.  It is 
Midland's own radio station - the chief communication link between its offices and 
its boats.

While you won't hear Kenny Rogers or Diana Ross, you will hear Pam Counts, Kathy 
Hedges, Jeanne Schackmann, Diane Kathmann, and Trish Dow: They are all radio 
operators at WCM.  You may also hear Tony Garofalo, WCM's station manager.

You'd hear them, that is, if you owned an all-band receiver, capable of picking up 
WCM's 1,000-watt single sideband signal.  WCM can be heard throughout half the 
U.S., from Pittsburgh to Houston.

On a typical day, you might hear adispatcher say:

"ROGER ROGER. THAT'S MILE 735. ROGER ROGER. CAPTAIN."

The dispatchers use the phrase "Roger Roger" to confirm a message.  They use it a 
lot.  Garofalo estimates a dispatcher might say "Roger Roger" 600 to 700 times a 
day.

They use the phrase hundreds of times because the captains and pilots call in 
hundreds of pieces of information.  The reports are short and to the point: where 
the boat is, what barge it dropped off or picked up, what crew changes were made, 
what the boat's estimated time of arrival or departure is.

"OK, CAPTAIN, WE HAVE YOU AT 301 NORTHBOUND ON THE LOWER."

That is the routine data.  But thereare special messages: emergencies, equipment 
parts requests, phone calls from crew members.

Garofalo says that during the winter, from October to January, the volume of radio 
traffic increases because the company is moving a lot of coal and moving it in bad 
weather - the freezing rivers cause delays.

He notes, too, that crew members make more calls during the holidays.

Although it is two-way radio transmission, Garofalo says that about 85 percent of 
the information is incoming to WCM. The data about Midland traffic is fed by WCM 
personnel into the company's computer where it is ready for immediate use by 
dispatch and maintenance personnel in Cincinnati, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baton Rouge 
and New Orleans.

The dispatchers need the information so they can schedule the boat for future work; 
the maintenance personnel use the information to address specific maintenance 
problems.

"We also take transmissions from boats operated by Dravo Mechling Corporation and 
by Ashland Oil and teletype that information to their offices.  "We are available 
to any company that wants to place a radio/telephone call, provided the boat is 
equipped with single side band," says Garofalo.  (Tarriff rates for such calls are 
on file with the Federal Communication Commission.)

Started in Pittsburgh in 1951 by RCA, WCM was purchased by Midland in 1973.  In 
April of 1983, the station was moved from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati.

Garofalo explains that the move had two advantages:

"First, we can provide much better coverage of the Mississippi River for all 
customers."

"And, second, we can now talk directly to the headquarters people here in 
Cincinnati - particularly the crew and boat dispatchers. If the computer is down, 
for instance, we can deliver hard copies of the traffic reports just by walking 
down the hall.

WCM's controls are located in the Cincinnati office; its transceivers, amplifiers 
and antenna are located at a site 23 miles away.

"We use five different channels for better reception during different periods of 
the day or night," Garofalo says, noting that most sideband stations have more than 
one channel.  "If the reception on one channel is poor, we switch over to another."

"IT'S PRETTY NOISY,CAPTAIN, BUT GO AHEAD ...LET'S GIVE IT A TRY..."

Garofalo notes that there are a lot of things that can influence reception:  the 
ionosphere, weather, echo, distortion, powerlines, locks and bridges.  Occasionally 
a boat will enter a small pocket of space where transmission or reception is lost. 
If there is an emergency in such an instance, the captain or pilot can call a local 
marine operator, but normally it is simply a matter of waiting a while until the 
boat reaches a clear transmitting point.

Wherever the boats are, their crews know that WCM is on the air - 24hours a day, 
365 days a year - listening for their reports.

"AND YOU HAVE A GOOD MORNING, CAPTAIN.  WCM CLEAR TO THE MIDLAND."

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Photo Captions:

(1)  Radio operator Diane Kathman (with headset) types out information she receives 
from a towboat captain

(2)  Tony Garofalo checks out a river location

(3)  At the WCM station, Pam Counts inputs traffic reports into Midland's computer

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This article is from the Winter 1984 issue of "Associate" which was a publication 
of the former Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates.  Photos by Gary Battiston??