For years West Coast Willys published a quarterly newsletter called the Dispatcher. Recently the organization turned over publishing responsibility to Norris-Banonis, the same organization that publishes those great Holy Toledo Calendars. They have upgraded the Newsletter into a Magazine, complete with high quality photos, accurate technical articles, and well-researched history.
There first issue was published in March of this year. I got a chance to read through it and I was really impressed. There simply isn’t another vintage jeep magazine out there that rivals what Norris-Banonis have created. The articles I read were interesting and informative. For example, not too many people know that automatic transmissions were tested in M-38s, let alone know the details about those transmissions.
To learn more or to subscribe, go here: http://norris-banonis.com/dispatcher.html.
I’m in on THIS!! Thanks Dave for featuring Dispatcher today. And talk about service, I emailed Bill asking for my subscription to start with March issue, the reply was almost immediate: “To make things easier for us to keep track of, a year’s subscription will include all issues of that calendar year. So I will get a copy of the March issue off to you in the next day or two. The June issue should be coming out in the next couple weeks. “
I agree Dave. Impressive first issue and I am looking forward to seeing the next one.
Thanks for featuring this Dave! And thanks Glennstin, that was going to be my next question.
Looks like Fred Coldwells CJ-2 made the cover. Super restoration of an preproduction model of the later CJ-2A jeep. Too bad Willys deleted the WWII front grill model on the CJ-2a Jeep.
HI all,
Thanks for all the kind words, we really appreciate it.
We want to make this into the Jeep magazine we’ve always wanted, but could never find. We are going to include some military information, civilian, highlight people that worked for Willys/Jeep/AMC as well as technical information including keeping it original, or modifications. We basically want to cover the beginning of the Overland era (our first issue has a picture of all the employees in front of the Overland factory in 1907) up to the end of the AMC era. We are going to try and cover as many Jeep/Willys shows as we can too.
We really want to try and feature the obscure vehicles that you don’t see in the typical Jeep book i.e. Bob’s M38 automatic transmission story and Fred Coldwell’s preproduction CJ2 article.
We are also looking for reader submitted material. The letter from the editor of the first issue contains more detail on guidelines and reimbursement rates.
Finally, a thank you to Dave for posting his article about The Dispatcher. The response has been incredible!
Bill
Yup, I got an early copy and read it cover to cover. Great articles, great photos. Should be a hit. I got the two or three year subscription, don’t even remember now!