Episodes

  • Light Hearted ep 334 – Marty O’Gara and John Ollila, Fairport Harbor, OH

    Light Hearted ep 334 – Marty O’Gara and John Ollila, Fairport Harbor, OH
    Jan 11 2026
    Fairport Harbor Light Station, photo by. Jeremy D'Entremont. Fairport Harbor, on the south side of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Grand River, is considered part of the Cleveland, Ohio, metropolitan area. The first lighthouse in the harbor was a 56-foot brick tower built in 1825. The lighthouse that stands today is a 60-foot stone tower that began service in 1871. After a new lighthouse was built on a breakwater in the harbor in 1925, the government planned to destroy the old lighthouse. A number of organizations in the area objected, and the lighthouse was spared. In 1945, the Fairport Harbor Historical Society established a marine museum inside the old keeper’s house. Museum highlights include a Fresnel lens and the infamous "ghost cat" story. Marty O’Gara and John Ollila by the third-order Fresnel lens from Fairport Harbor Lighthouse, now on display in the museum in the keeper's house. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. Our guests today are Marty O’Gara and John Ollila. John is the historian for the lighthouse and a trustee of the Fairport Harbor Historical Society. Marty is the president of the Fairport Harbor Historical Society.
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Light Hearted Lite 36 – Bob Mannino, Nantucket Lightship LV-112

    Light Hearted Lite 36 – Bob Mannino, Nantucket Lightship LV-112
    Jan 4 2026
    Nantucket Lightship LV-112. By Arnold Reinhold, Creative Commons license. Today we look back at an interview that was first heard in October 2020. Our guest is Bob Mannino, founder and president of the United States Lightship Museum. The USLM is the steward of the Nantucket Lightship LV-112, the largest lightship ever built in the United States. Bob Mannino The Nantucket South Shoals were a great hazard to shipping, and a lightship was first stationed at the Shoals in 1854. The last vessel to serve there was the LV-112, built in 1936. Its position was 50 miles southeast of Nantucket Island and 100 miles from the U.S. mainland. The LV-112 was decommissioned in 1975 and today it serves as a floating museum in East Boston, Massachusetts. Bob Mannino has been involved for many years in historic preservation and related educational programs, maritime and non-maritime.
    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
  • Light Hearted ep 333 – Valeria Araúz Molina, Île Vierge, France

    Light Hearted ep 333 – Valeria Araúz Molina, Île Vierge, France
    Dec 28 2025
    The 1846 and 1902 lighthouses on Ile Vierge. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. Ile Vierge is a 15-acre island off the northwest coast of Brittany in northwest France. The first lighthouse on the island was a 108-foot-tall square tower that began service in 1845. It was considered too short, and a new tower was built between 1896 and 1902. The new lighthouse tower is built of granite blocks and stands 271 feet tall, with nearly 400 steps inside. It’s considered the tallest traditional-style lighthouse in the world. Valeria Araúz Molina The island and the 1902 lighthouse are open to the public on special tour days in the summer. A local company takes visitors out by boat and landing is only possible at high tide. Overnight accommodations are available in the old keepers’ quarters in the base of the 1845 lighthouse. Our guest, Valeria Araúz Molina, is the Ile Vierge project manager. She has guided tours in French, English, and Spanish. The stairs inside Ile Vierge Lighthouse. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont.
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • Light Hearted Lite #35: Lighthouse preservationist Mike Vogel

    Light Hearted Lite #35: Lighthouse preservationist Mike Vogel
    Dec 21 2025
    In this episode we revisit a conversation from June 2022 with Mike Vogel, who at that time was the president of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Mike Vogel retired as editorial page editor of The Buffalo News in 2011, after a 43-year journalism career. He was the organizer and founding president of the Buffalo Lighthouse Association, which carried out the restoration of Buffalo, New York’s historic 1833 lighthouse. He has served as president of the organization for well over two decades. Buffalo Main Lighthouse, New York. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Mike has also played an important role in the national lighthouse preservation movement. As First Vice President and then president of the American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee, Mike was instrumental in helping the government develop guidelines for the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Mike is also the author or co-author of five books , including "Harboring History: The Heritage Behind Buffalo’s 200-Year-Old Overnight Success."
    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • Light Hearted ep. 332 – Sketch artist Jim Lammers

    Light Hearted ep. 332 – Sketch artist Jim Lammers
    Dec 14 2025
    Jim Lammers, who lives in Minnesota, was educated as an architect back when freehand sketching was an integral part of the curriculum. His writing and sketching has been published in a number of professional journals and on websites. His most recent book is "Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: An Architect’s Sketchbook." The illustrations in Jim's book are not precise architectural renderings. The depictions are roughly accurate in their dimensions and details, but they also have a very personal, slightly whimsical quality. The sketches are Jim’s way of interpreting these scenes and communicating the experience to us.
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • Light Hearted Lite #34: Lee Radzak, Split Rock, Minnesota

    Light Hearted Lite #34: Lee Radzak, Split Rock, Minnesota
    Dec 7 2025
    Lee Radzak Split Rock Lighthouse, on a 127-foot-high cliff on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, began service in 1910. The light station is now the centerpiece of 2200-acre Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Lee Radzak became the lighthouse site manager in November 1982. Over the next 36 years, he and his wife Jane raised a son and a daughter, marveled at the lake’s beauty, endured gigantic storms, and answered the questions posed by more than four million visitors. Split Rock Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. After retiring in 2019, Lee began work on a new book — The View from Split Rock: A Lighthouse Keeper’s Life. The book, which was co-written by journalist and author Curt Brown, takes readers into the life of a modern-day lighthouse keeper at Split Rock. This is an edited version of an interview that was first heard in episode 127 in July 2021.
    Show More Show Less
    23 mins
  • Light Hearted ep 331 – Joe Santiana, Ashtabula, OH

    Light Hearted ep 331 – Joe Santiana, Ashtabula, OH
    Nov 30 2025
    Ashtabula, Ohio, is a community of about 18,000 people at the mouth of the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie. In the late 1800s the city was a major port for the shipping of coal and iron ore. The first lighthouse in Ashtabula Harbor was a small wooden tower built in 1836. When the channel into the harbor was widened and a breakwater was constructed in 1905, a new lighthouse was built at the end of the breakwater: the square two-story dwelling with a short tower on its roof that still stands today. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont Joe Santiana The lighthouse was automated in 1973. A house that was built on the mainland in 1871 for the keepers and families is now the Ashtabula Maritime & Surface Transportation Museum, with more than 25,000 historic items on display. Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the Ashtabula Lighthouse Restoration and Preservation Society in 2007. Our guest, Joe Santiana, is the president of the Ashtabula Lighthouse Restoration and Preservation Society.
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Light Hearted Lite #33: Italian historian/author Annamaria Mariotti

    Light Hearted Lite #33: Italian historian/author Annamaria Mariotti
    Nov 23 2025
    Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont with Annamaria Mariotti in 2010 at Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse in Maine This is an edited version of an interview from September 2020. The guest is Annamaria Mariotti, an author and lighthouse historian in Italy. Lilla, as she's known to friends, is the author of many books, articles, and stories related to the sea. Many of her articles have appeared in The Keeper’s Log, Lighthouse Digest, Coast Guard News, the New York Times, and many more. Annamaria Mariotti inside the Lanterna di Genoa Her lighthouse-related books include Tales of lighthouses and other sea stories, The evolution of lighthouses from the origins to the Kingdom of Italy, and The Lighthouses of Tuscany. In 2011 she published The World’s Greatest Lighthouses, which features photographs of the most picturesque lighthouses in the world and text that describes each structure's location, architecture, construction, history, technology, and stories of lighthouse keepers. She’s also written award-winning short stories. In 2006, the General Command of the Harbor Offices, Coast Guard, and the Mediaset Group awarded her the NAVIGARE INFORMATI Award “For her constant commitment to the dissemination of maritime culture in our country.”
    Show More Show Less
    21 mins