/ 10.01.2009 12:00AM
Acrodyne's Run Ends
COCKEYSVILLE, MD.: Acrodyne
is no longer making transmitters, according to company founder and chief
executive Nat Ostroff.
“The impact of the ‘perfect storm’ of the economy and the digital-to-analog
switch over really chilled the market for new high power capital equipment,”
Ostroff told TVB. “That, plus the
combination of the internet and the cable industry’s entry into the local ad
market reduced ad revenue for over the air TV. As a result, the credit
worthiness of many broadcasting station operations, and thus loans for new
capital equipment, dried up.
“It seems that the advertising-supported business model is broken and it is not
clear how it gets fixed.”
Ostroff said Ai, which he founded in 1968, has shut down its manufacturing
facility near Philadelphia, and that he and the firm were “working very
diligently to find an organization that will take up the service and support of
the installed base using the inventory which is now being offered for sale. I
believe that we will have continuity of that service and support for spares
into the future.”
In the meantime, he said customers could still call the Ai service number for
support and spares. TVNewCheck, which
first reported the news, said around 250 to 300 Ai transmitters remained active
in the market.
Shares of the company were trading Over the Counter today at 2 cents.
Ostroff said he found the situation “sad, but not surprising.”
“New technologies always push out traditional ones when the new technologies
upset the status quo,” he said. “It is the way of progress.”
- Deborah D. McAdams