Beier Radio, LLC as we know it today was originally named, Frank L Beier Radio in January 1945. Frank L Beier had been a radio/telegraph operator in the Merchant Marine working for RCA before and during WWII.
In those days, the radios and telegraph equipment was leased to the shipping companies by RCA (in the USA) or Marconi (in Europe), and the radio operator was rented also.
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, RCA transferred him off the ships and onto shore in Pascagoula, MS to head up the installation of equipment on the new Liberty and Victory Class freighters being built at Ingalls Shipyard. He stayed in that position until RCA asked him to move to New England and head up their installations at a new submarine yard. He declined the offer, moved back to New Orleans and became the first RCA marine electronics dealer in the world.
When the war ended, demand for many new electronic products such as, direction finders, depth sounders, ship-to-shore radios and radars began to emerge. Frank L Beier Radio was the first independent dealer in the USA to sell, install and service these products.
Frank L. Beier, circa 1938
