NAB. The dawn of the broadcast came at 6 p.m. on November 2, 1920, when Pittsburgh's AM radio station KDKA subscribed to the airwaves to announce the results of a presidential election. Months later, a food specialist named Henry Gates came to Pittsburgh on business and brought his son Parker, a radio enthusiast who began building glass radios at age 11, for the trip.
Considering the young Parker's talent for engineering, the trip would not have been complete without a visit to KDKA Studios. The experience left an impression on father and son, planting the seeds of a family business of radio equipment that they would launch from their home in Quincy, Illinois, in 1922.
The Gates family had no way of knowing that Gates Radio Company would reach its centennial. However, the vision of Parker Gates, who was then 14, with the support of Henry and his mother Cora B. Gates, lives on today, as the company now known as GatesAir celebrates its centennial in the business.
GatesAir will formally recognize the historic milestone at the 2022 NAB Show (April 24-27) with a series of raffles and prizes, including crystal radio equipment in recognition of Parker's early innovations, planned at the company's booth (W7426) at the Las Vegas Center Convention, where GatesAir will also demonstrate its latest innovations for over-the-air broadcasters.
GatesAir's impressive longevity largely points to its dedication to over-the-air broadcasting. Following the sale of its first AM radio transmitter in 1936 (to WJMS in Ironwood, Michigan), broadcasting gradually became the company's central focus over the following decades. GatesAir, then part of Harris Corporation, would add TV transmitters to its product line in 1972. The company expanded its wireless content delivery brand with the acquisition of Intraplex in 1999, then a specialist in legacy STL systems and today a leader in audio over IP networks.
These three businesses serving over-the-air broadcasters (radio broadcast, TV streaming and Intraplex networks) remain GatesAir's exclusive focus today, with new products and features in each business planned for the NAB Show 2022. That includes Maxiva IMTX-70 Intra-Mast, a modular multi-tenant transmitter solution that can house up to eight low-power TV transmitters in a compact chassis; and Intraplex Ascent, a cloud transport solution that can move streaming and media content to scale. First presented for radio stations, GatesAir will reveal the benefits of Ascent for moving large volumes of ATSC 3.0 TV content at this year's NAB show.
GatesAir also maintains a strong presence on the global stage, where the company continues to gain developments of national digital radio and television networks, and upgrade FM and AM radio infrastructure around the world. This is one of the reasons why GatesAir enjoys long-standing business relationships with channel partners in the country around the world in the APAC, CALA and EMEA regions.
Radio is, of course, the business in which GatesAir was founded, and its innovation for the medium is unparalleled. Like Harris, the company introduced the broadcasting industry's first solid-state AM transmitter (1973), digital FM exciter (1993), and HD Radio exciter (2003), among other industry firsts. The company continues to support AM and FM broadcasters of all sizes around the world.
GatesAir CEO Bruce D. Swail notes that he is very proud to be associated with a company with such deep customer loyalty, an integral component of any company of remarkable longevity.
"GatesAir's history over 100 years is excellent," said Swail, who was named chief executive of GatesAir in 2017. "The spirit of innovation from the company's beginnings remains here today. We see it alive and well in our manufacturing operation, in the new products we will bring to NAB and in our global team of employees who deliver day in and day out. There's a century of knowledge and experience at GatesAir, and that's an important part of the value proposition for our global customer base. We will continue to bring new technologies to market that solve problems and create new opportunities for broadcasters, and we will provide exceptional customer support along with that innovation for the next 100 years."
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