What is this gentlemen doing?
Clue: He's somewhere downtown in some building doing something, at some time of the day. ;D
Another clue: In one picture he's using a D-104 microphone made in Youngstown.
Oh come on folks, surely there is someone out there who knows, an in point of fact I know for an absolute certainty that one of our members knows the answer and can even provide us with the man's name, and much more.
Well, I'm thinking he is a radio newscaster. But who I haven't a clue.
In a very very very very strict sense you are right, but he didn't work for a commercial station such as WKBN or WFMJ which were the two stations in Youngstown when these pictures were taken.
Where is Greg when you need him ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
The answer is it is the Youngstown Fire Department Dispatcher in the1940's.
I wouldn't have gotten it from the first photo but that Gamewell panel behind the guy in the second photo, I wouldn't miss! That monstrosity in the back part of the second photo was the Gamewell console for all of the alarm boxes in the city. It was located in City Hall. I have no idea if any of it still remains there. Several fire museums have awesome preserved Gamewell console, Tampa is the one that comes to my mind.
Any chance of getting larger copies of those photos or is that the best that you have access to?
Oh yeah, the gentleman in the photo may be Charles Clapp, he was the department electrician during that time (at least the late 1940's).
Greg you will find larger photos in the Youngstown Fire Department album at my Webshots site link below.
http://community.webshots.com/user/ladynews500?vhost=community