Engineer John Winegard wanted to watch President Harry Truman’s 1949 inaugural speech in Chicago but did not have an antenna to get the signal 250 miles to Burlington, Iowa. He started making homemade TV antennas a year earlier, one of which was used to broadcast the city’s first television show, before founding Winegard Company in 1953.
Winegard build his first radio in seventh grade. Graduating high school the same year Philo Farnsworth pat
ented the first all-electric television, he went to work for manufacturer Collins Radio Company, then a radio repair shop.
With help from business partner John Wells, the two formed Wells Winegard Company in 1950. Three years later, their official primary invention was the first antenna to capture more than one broadcast channel’s signal. Previously, television watchers needed an antenna for each channel they wanted to access. Wells Winegard Company’s multi-channel Yagi directional antenna hit markets as the Clipper in 1953.
Following its success, Winegard bought out Wells, shortened the company name, and started growing a business that would become the first to market antennas nationally. By the 1960s, Winegard’s product line included 156 antenna models.
In 1969, NASA’s mission control center awarded Winegard a recognition of service for his notable contributions to the Apollo 11 mission’s success. Not only did his company help Americans tune into the first moon landing broadcast but provided amplifier systems to the Houston Space Center.
Randy Winegard became the connectivity products and services company’s CEO in 1977 when his father retired. Though he kept focus on grounded antenna technologies, Winegard began expanding into satellite television and real-time broadband markets.
Enter the company’s first satellite receiver in 1983. Two years later, its product sales contributed to half of Winegard’s revenues. In the following decade, their TV reception equipment launched and Winegard focused on expanding into the RV market. The TV, wireless and cellular technologies manufacturer’s first RV product was a six-foot dish.
By 2003, Winegard was offering more than 1,000 products. Today, Winegard also serves consumer, trucking and maritime markets across the country, working on smart hubs that can use cloud services to manage RV, boat and semi-truck devices. After 12 years at Winegard, Grant Whipple became company president in 2016.
