Loyd C. Sigmon (May 6, 1909 – June 2, 2004) was born in Stigler, Oklahoma to a cattle- ranching family. He soon became interested in radio, earning his amateur ("ham") radio license at age 14. His broadcasting career began in 1932 at the

Boston Short Wave and Television Laboratories Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most po ...

. In 1941 he was hired as an engineer for

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's flagship radio station, KMPC, in Los Angeles, California. That job was interrupted by World War II; he served in the United States Army Signal Corps on General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff. Sigmon resumed his job in Los Angeles after the war, rising to the position of Executive Vice President with

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

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, which owned eight radio and two television stations on the west coast, including KMPC. In 1955, Sigmon invented a specialized radio and tape recorder that the Los Angeles Police Department used to alert radio stations throughout the city to traffic conditions and emergencies. The messages were referred to as "Sigmon traffic alerts," a phrase quickly shortened to " Sig Alert." The system, now employed throughout California, has been copied in numerous other areas. For this, Bill Keene called him the "father of L.A. traffic reporting". Loyd Sigmon received recognition and honors from local and state government agencies, the

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, and broadcasting and radio organizations. In 1998, when the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the California Highway Patrol opened their Freeway Traffic Center in Los Angeles, Sigmon attended as their special Guest of Honor. He was quoted in the '' Los Angeles Times'' as saying, "I ran a multimillion-dollar corporation, but it's the Sig Alert that people remember me for." Sigmon kept his amateur radio license, W6LQ, current even after retiring to

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Sigmon died in an assisted living facility in Bartlesville, Oklahoma after suffering from Parkinson's disease. Sigmon and his wife Pat (stage name: Patricia Lee) had a home in

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in the late 1950s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigmon, Loyd C. 1909 births 2004 deaths People from Stigler, Oklahoma Amateur radio people Neurological disease deaths in Oklahoma Deaths from Parkinson's disease