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            Federal, state and county representatives, as well as NWR 'customers' (including the USCG Auxiliary, US Power Squadron, and ARES/RACES/SKYWARN) gathered in the Board of County Commissioners meeting room on December 11, 1998, to officially dedicate WWG-92, Florida's newest NOAA Weather Radio station.  Those in attendance were welcomed by Emergency Management Director Ken Pineau and heard a brief history of NWR in Florida presented by Warning Coordinator Meteorologist James Lushine of the Miami NWS office.

            A video presentation, created by Collier County's Emergency Management and Public Information Departments, was shown, highlighting the need for NWR, and the installation of Collier County's transmitter the week before Thanksgiving.  Following the video, the project partners made their comments: BCC Chair Barbara Berry and Vice Chair John Norris, Miami NWS Meteorologist in Charge Russel 'Rusty' Pfost, and John Fleming of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.  They were then joined by the owner of WAVV Radio Norman Alpert, who has donated the tower space for the antenna used by the station, for the official 'button pushing.'

            After a brief technical delay, a test transmission of the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) function set off weather radio receivers around the room, and the full time weather information and warning service went into full operation.  The station will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week providing the latest weather to all of Collier County and the surrounding coastal waters.

           Until the installation of WWG-92, NWR service was only available in Collier County through the transmitter located in Ft. Myers which was programmed by the NWS office in Ruskin, Florida, near Tampa Bay.  The program ended with Ira Brenner, the Meteorologist in Charge of the NWS office in Ruskin ceremonially handing off NWR responsibility to the Miami office.  Miami MIC 'Rusty' Pfost accepted that responsibility, and pledged that Miami will do everything in it's power to continue the service that has been provided by Ruskin through the new transmitter.

            Initial testing shows that WWG-92 is providing a strong signal throughout the county, from the Naples-Marco Island area, through Immokalee to the northeast and Everglades City to the southeast.

            The dedication ceremony was recorded for later broadcast over Collier County's Government Access Television, cable channel 54.  The NWR video presentation will be used in pubic emergency preparedness programs by the Emergency Management Department.
 

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jim Lushine reviews the history of NOAA Weather Radio in Florida	EM Coordinator Gary Arnold talks about the NWR project
Miami NWS Meteorologist in Charge 'Rusty' Pfost symbolically accepts NWR responsibility for Collier County from  Ruskin MIC Ira Brenner (right)	The NOAA Weather Radio console in Miami, the point of origin for the Collier County transmitter