Jesse Rosenquist (26 August 1899 in Martin, Tennessee,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

– June 1966 in Los Angeles, California,

) was one of the world's first police radio

dispatcher A dispatcher is a communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. A number of organizations, including police and fire departments, emergency medical s ...

s. A

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

with the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

, he achieved unexpected fame due to the early police radio frequencies being tuned in on home radios, which were hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Furthermore, procedures at the time included an announcement of the dispatcher's name at the end of each broadcast. His offhanded "ROSE-n-quist!" told listeners who he was. When the

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

Network started their '' Calling All Cars'' series (heard in the western United States from 1933 to 1939), Jesse Rosenquist was the voice that producers sought, to add authenticity to their programs.Know Old Time Radio: Jesse Rosenquist (1899–1966)
/ref> The only surviving audio examples of his dispatching style are the recordings of those shows, but generations of radio, movie and television "dispatchers" were trying to copy Rosenquist's voice and pronunciation. Due to his having become a household name in the 1930s and 1940s—before LAPD radio moved to newer equipment and frequencies—a public safety bulletin in the 1940s or 1950s was often referred to as a Rosenquist.

References

External links

*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0742670/ 1899 births 1966 deaths Dispatchers Los Angeles Police Department officers {{US-radio-bio-stub