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Inovonics founder has been pushing for "better radio since 1972"
NEWSMAKER
For the past 45 years, the equipment design philosophy of Inovonics has been "Simplicity in design, consistent with performance objectives."
It's a suitable mantra for a broadcast manufacturer whose corporate personality reflects that of its founder: quiet, dignified and widely respected. It's a policy that has produced a lifetime of close personal relationships for Jim Wood with employees, fellow designers and manufacturers, radio engineers and station owners.
Wood, a recent recipient of NewBay's Industry Innovator Award, spoke with RW about his earliest interests in electronics, his career and some milestones in the history of his company.
VIDAR AND GRT
Wood, 76, recalls that his interest in electronics began when he was about five years old.
"My dad had been a ham radio operator in the 1920s. He had a box with old equipment that I used to play with. That's what fostered the initial interest. When I was around 10, I started building crystal sets, and got interested in pirate broadcasting and sound recording."
He initially hadn't considered electronics as a career, earning an undergraduate degree in theater arts with a minor in industrial arts from San Jose State University
"I was informed by a professor in the Theater Arts Department that my portrayal of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' was the most 'unique' one he'd ever seen in his life," he recalls. "I took this as a hint that a career on the stage, movies or TV was probably not in the cards, so I followed my lifelong hobby-related interest in radio and electronics."
His education in the business really began after graduation in 1964, when he went to work as a test technician for Vidar Corp. in Mountain View, Calif. It made instrumentation equipment, temperature gauges, strain gauges and similar equipment.
"The circuitry was analog, but they were beginning to transition to digital. The company was staffed by a lot of Stanford graduates. From them I learned how to make transistors do interesting things."
After Vidar, Wood was a production engineering tech for General Recorded Tape, which in addition to producing tape product for about 30 record labels developed high-speed duplicators for 8-track tape and cassettes. Following...