Communications company keeps pace with technology
| Thursday, May 19 2011 10:38 AM
Last Updated Thursday, May 19 2011 10:39 AM
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Technology has changed considerably since Tom Poor opened his business, Communication Enterprises in May 1951. Tom's son, Paul, sits in front of a laptop used in the business now while older equipment is displayed to show the contrast.
Communication Enterprises has been in business since Tom Poor opened the business in May 1951. Tom's son, Paul, left, runs the business on Q Street in Bakersfield that provides wireless communication to businesses and police and fire agencies.
A young boy's passion for crystal radio sets planted the seed for a Bakersfield communications company that is celebrating its 60th year in business.
Company officials are marking their anniversary Thursday with a barbecue for customers to express gratitude for the support that has allowed Communication Enterprises Inc. to grow over six decades.
"As long as you move with the times, you will be OK," said office manager Becky Poor, the wife of company president Paul G. Poor, during a recent interview.
The "times" over the past 60 years have seen the "newest and best" communications technologies quickly and repeatedly replaced by even "newer and better" technologies. Remember pagers and mobile operators? They were bumped off the "must have" list by cellphones.
But while it now seems almost everyone today has a cellphone, the mobile radio -- the bread-and-butter of CEI's business -- remains a "must have" for many companies and government agencies.
However, even the mobile radio has evolved. And with frequency changes soon to be imposed by the Federal Communications Commission and advances in digital technology, companies such as CEI must continue evolving to meet tomorrow's needs.
Communications Enterprises Inc. was founded in 1951 by Poor's father, Thomas Poor, whose early interest in radio communications led to his World War II service aboard the USS Mt. Olympus, an amphibious force flagship equipped with extensive communications systems. The ship was in Tokyo Bay at the signing of the Japanese surrender.
After the war and his return to his hometown of Bakersfield, Thomas Poor went to work for Pacific Telephone Co. and was assigned to the company's early efforts to establish a mobile telephone system. Sensing the opportunities for entrepreneurs, Poor soon struck out on his own, founding Bakersfield Electronics with his wife, Alberta. The company was renamed Communications Enterprises Inc. in 1975.
When inducted in 1990 as a fellow in the Radio Club of America for his long service to the radio communications industry, Poor told Californian columnist Joe D. Stevenson that he faced considerable competition to make a success of his company. But he persevered, targeting as clients farmers, oil producers, and transportation and construction companies.
Although most company managers and some employees today carry cellphones, these devices have not eliminated the need for mobile radios that can be carried or mounted in vehicles, said son Paul Poor, who became CEI's general manager in 1990 and owner in 1998.
A cellphone conversation is generally between the caller and the receiver, he explained. However, a mobile radio gives a company "a lot of ears" in the field, with communications monitored over a frequency. A mobile radio system is also more reliable in an emergency, such as an earthquake or other natural disaster, which often interrupts cellphone service, he said.
According to Paul Poor, continued improvement of mobile radio systems has allowed CEI to retain customers and attract new ones. As an example, he noted that a local utility company that transitioned in the 1990s to reliance on cellphones to communicate with its field staff is now equipping its vehicles with mobile radios.
Thomas Poor is a pioneer in the local and national communications industry. He began his firm servicing Motorola equipment. Soon recognizing the need to add equipment sales, he affiliated with LINK radio, the company that equipped the Chicago Police Department with its first radio system in the 1940s.
After LINK's acquisition by RCA, Poor sold RCA equipment until 1958, when CEI began a 45-year relationship with General Electric Co. With GE, the company sold and leased large and small communication systems in Kern County and along the West Coast. The reach of its systems was expanded by the construction of towers and repeater stations on mountaintops and passes, and in strategic valley and urban locations.
CEI's business today includes the sale of Motorola and Kenwood equipment, and installation and servicing of communication systems, as well as the construction and leasing of communication towers.
The company's advanced wireless systems link monitoring devices at oil wells to computers in company offices miles away. They also link farming operations to sophisticated computerized drip irrigation monitors in orchards.
"In today's world, water is almost as valuable as oil," Paul Poor quipped, noting that farmers must account for every drip in an irrigation system.
Challenges looming ahead include the expected 2013 FCC frequency changes that may require customers to reprogram or replace older equipment.
And while analog technology is not scheduled to be phased out, it is being pushed from the market by more versatile digital equipment.
Paul Poor stressed the need for CEI to keep abreast of communication industry changes. He credited his now retired father for continuing to inspire CEI.
"Dad always said, 'Don't sell something out the front door that you aren't willing to service when it comes through the back door.'"
