Broadcast Tools Inc., a manufacturer of specialty and “problem-solving” products for broadcast, will be acquired by Inovonics Broadcast.
Founder and President Donald Winget informed his dealers in a letter on Thursday.
“After nearly 40 years in business, I am finally ready to retire,” he wrote.
BTI is based in Sedro Woolley, Wash. Winget wrote that Inovonics will continue the Broadcast Tools name and product line, moving production to its location in Felton, Calif.
“Ben Barber and his team at Inovonics are fully committed to maintaining the excellence of our products and to nurturing the relationships of trust that have been built with you, our dealers, over these many years.”
BTI products include analog and AES routers, remote controls, satellite channel controllers, analog mixers and DAs, silence monitors and program schedulers.
Winget began in broadcasting as a gofer for the chief engineer of a radio station in Eau Claire, Wis., according to a company history on its website. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war and later started an engineering contracting business, moving it to the Seattle area in the 1970s. Winget and engineer Lee Hurley created Sentry Systems, an early PC-based automation systems.
Winget founded BTI in 1989 while he was chief engineer at KXRX in Seattle. (Read a company history.)
Inovonics was founded by Jim Wood and Mark Drake in 1972 to make drop-in, replacement tape recorder electronics assemblies for reel-to-reel machines. The company’s line today includes processors, monitors, RDS products, streaming gear and other specialty broadcast items.
