The County Press

The station will hold an open house to commemorate the event from 1 to 7 p.m. Dec.

4 and 1 to 5 p.m. Dec.

5 and 6. Tours of the station and of the museum in its basement will be given during the open house. The station's past equipment, including the original transmitter created from scratch by Pastor Frank Hemingway of Lapeer Methodist Protestant Church, can be seen in the museum.

Also in celebration, a concert will be held at 6 p.m. today (Sunday) at Calvary Bible Church featuring the Gospelmen Quartet and a message from former station manager, Rev.

Arnold Bracy. The station began at Lapeer Methodist Protestant Church, which later became Liberty Street Gospel Church, and is now Calvary Bible Church. The mission of the radio ministry is to keep a strong Evangelical presence on the air, supplying programming for Christians while using broadcasts to win over the lost.

"Although the station does entertain, the focus is not to entertain but to inform," said current station manager Bob Baldwin of Port Huron. According to Greg Bullen of Lapeer, current announcer and technician at WMPC, the main change at the station over the years has been technology. In 1926 most of the programming was done live; now it is pre-recorded and beamed from around the country.

"All of our music is digital," said Bullen. "They (the programs) come to us through satellite downloads. "Christian music was basically an organ and a piano and that kind of thing," added Bullen.

"Those things have changed; the message has stayed the same." The station has moved "primarily from local programming to national ministries," said Baldwin. The station spends about half its time in music and the other half in inspirational programs.

Calvary Bible Church services, local high school sports, news, and obituaries are also regularly broadcast on the station. Contemporary Christian, Southern Gospel, and hymns are played as well. "We wouldn't play what you call Christian top 40," Bullen said.

That form of music id not exist in 1926, when Hemingway developed the idea to create the station. In the early days, a technician would be sent to each home to program the radio and allow it to receive WMPC. According Baldwin, "The station got started in 1926 .

.. when Pastor Hemingway listened to a friend's little crystal radio set" and saw the potential for a new ministry.

Jennie Mae Johnson, Hemingway's niece, has literally been there from the start. "I was there in the womb when the station started," said Johnson, 79. Her father, Hollis Hayes Sr.

, was Hemingway's brother-in-law and also chief engineer of the radio station for more than 40 years. Johnson herself spent much time at the station, broadcasting for the first time at age 3. Summers as a technician and mending tapes were followed by playing the piano for a youth group broadcast and later hosting her own show, "Tarry Awhile with Jennie Mae.

" Her last broadcast was in 2003. "That's my lifelong love," Johnson said of radio. WMPC is completely listener-supported, and receives its income from an annual "share-a-thon" each spring when listeners can promise a donation for the coming year and dedicate a block of airtime to a loved one or the Lord.

"We never send out a bill to anybody," Baldwin said. "On Thursday night there was not a week when people didn't pray that the station would stay on the air until Jesus came," Johnson said, "I do believe it will be on the air until the Lord comes." Johnson remembers that when the station was new, members of Lapeer Methodist Protestant Church were allowed to observe the radio equipment housed in the church's dome.

One female member outwardly considered radio "the devil's work," but after a while observing the station and its impact on the community, changed her mind. "She changed her tune and became a very staunch supporter of the station," recalled Johnson. Johnson said "Uncle Frank," as she knew Hemingway, wore out the knees of his pants, not the seat like most other pastors.

Vigilance in prayer had worn his clothing thin, she explained. "In the middle of the night he'd fallen asleep on his knees" many times, Johnson remembers her aunt telling. Hemingway always prayed for money to keep his station going, never asking anyone to contribute.

"The stories go on and on; it really is a marvelous story," said Johnson. WMPC is located at 1800 North Lapeer Road. The station can be reached at (810) 664-6211, and can be heard at 1230 AM.