Innovator Award Winner

Oct 1, 2002 12:00 PM

The Innovator award was created to honor individuals who have demonstrated exceptional creativity and inventiveness in the radio industry. Radio magazine readers were asked to cast their votes online on the Radio website through an online ballot. Radio magazine announced the winner at the NAB Radio Show in Seattle on Sept. 13.

Bob Orban, standing in front of the Orban Retro Rack, proudly displays his Innovator trophy.

Radio magazine would like to thank everyone who participated in the voting as well as the other nominees, who through their contributions to radio industry are all worthy of receiving the Innovator award.

Graciously accepting

Upon notification that he had received the 2002 Innovator Award, Bob Orban prepared the following remarks.

“I’m pleased to accept this award today, and regret that I had to be back in the office instead of here accepting it here in person. But IBOC waits for no man, and I want to be sure that our IBOC processing is ready for on-air tests scheduled to begin shortly.

“Looking back, it has been an interesting and challenging 27 years since we delivered the first Optimod 8000 in 1975. Orban was still a division of my father’s company back then. But it wasn’t long before my late business partner John Delantoni and I incorporated. That year, Orban had $300,000 per year in sales. Two years later, it was three million per year, thanks to the radio industry’s acceptance of our new systems-oriented way of doing FM processing. I’m grateful to the industry that supported us and helped us grow, and to the people behind the scenes at Orban who played a crucial part in making it happen.

Jay Brentlinger, chairman and CEO of Orban/CRL accepts the Innovator award from Radio magazine editor Chriss Scherer at the NAB Radio Show.

“Since then, our processing technology has completely evolved from analog to DSP. And Orban has changed ownership several times. However, many of our core engineering people have stuck with us through all of the transition and change, and I’d like to think I’m supported by some of the best technical talent in the processing industry. Now, more than ever, processing design is a team effort, and I feel confident in our future engineering because I have an outstanding group of people backing me up.

“So, thank you, Radio magazine, and thank you, all of the Radio magazine readers who voted for me. It’s an honor to accept this award.”