Brett Moss is gear & technology editor.
It’s now known as ProAudio.com, but for anyone in the radio/TV broadcast business over the age of 35 or thereabouts, it will always be Crouse-Kimzey.
What started in the early 1970s in Fort Worth, Texas, as a radio engineering firm — centered around John R. “Buddy” Crouse and focusing on FCC requirements and station building — morphed into a broadcast equipment dealer.
A licensed engineer, Crouse had worked for a central Texas radio station group owned by Wendell Mayes. Crouse’s partner was his nephew, a former station owner and equipment salesman, John Paul Kimzey. Kimzey traced his broadcast roots through his father Truett’s radio/TV store and radio engineering work with the Texas State Network and other radio and TV station dabblings. Joining the company as a salesman in 1976 was Mark Bradford, son of KSST Chief Engineer Bill Bradford.
Crouse passed away in 1996. Kimzey today is president/CEO, Mark Bradford is VP/GM.
Forty years since its founding, a ruby anniversary. Over four decades Crouse-Kimzey moved from being a regional dealer to having a national presence and selling almost everything a station or radio group would need to replace or start from scratch. It has since expanded into the educational, church, retail facility and installation markets and added lighting and video equipment. It eventually began an Internet sales presence and secured and moved to the ProAudio.com name.
In announcing its anniversary, the company also reminded us that the Kimzey family’s collection of vintage broadcast photographs can be found at its website.
