(Celina, OH) In the aftermath of the Memorial Day tornados the skyline of Celina was changed, and many local businesses suffered the loss of two-way radio service. The path of the tornado directly crossed the communications tower owned by R.G. Sound & Communications. The 500-foot tower which stood behind Chief Supermarket in the old city trash dump, was originally erected in 1973 to bring in television service for Celina residents. Ralph Godwin purchased the tower in the early 1980s and converted it to offer wide-area two-way radio coverage for businesses, farmers, and emergency use.
Today, RG Communications services the tower and radio equipment for R.G. Sound. “All of us are really excited to see the tower completed and get the radio equipment back on the air,” said Aaron Godwin president of RG Communications and Ralph’s grandson. “I remember going to the ‘shack’ to work on radio equipment with Ralph when I was a kid.” The Memorial Day tornado removed the top 200-feet of the tower. The remaining 300-feet then had to be dropped because climbers were unable to safely climb the structure to assess damages. The tower destruction affected a wide range of people from farmers to truckers in Mercer, Auglaize, Darke, Van Wert, Jay and other counties. Godwin continued, “Customers from the federal government to senior citizen transports have been affected by this and the outage has been difficult for everyone”. Upgrades were made to RG radio systems in Bryant Indiana and Lima Ohio to help cover the customers, these upgrades will work together with the new Celina tower to further increase customer coverage and capacity.
The two-way radio systems serviced by RG Comm have been put back on the air December 23rd, 210 days since the tornados. Entities that lease space on the tower will be back on the air over the next few weeks. Godwin says a few customers have chosen not to return to the tower with their own radio system and on their LTR and DMR scriber systems. “We are looking at this as an opportunity to service new customers and add new technology to expand wireless service to the community”.
Updates and photographs of the tower erection process as well as the destruction of the old tower will be available via the RG Communications Facebook page.
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