Fifty years ago, Winegard Co. not only helped most Americans tune in to watch the Apollo 11 mission to the moon from the living room, the company also notably contributed to the capsule that landed on the moon. Today, Winegard celebrates this monumental achievement and is proud to be a part of NASA’s commemoration of the first American lunar landing.
“John invented the multichannel TV antenna in his garage in Burlington, Iowa, because he wanted to watch programming being rebroadcast in Chicago,” said Grant Whipple, president and COO of Winegard.” By 1953 he started his company and this small invention led to other radio and TV devices and systems. Soon NASA was contacting Winegard about designing equipment for this mission.”
Before Winegard’s invented an antenna that could tune into multiple channels, Yagi TV antenna owners could only watch one channel. Now 66 years later, Winegard has 90 U.S. patents and designed more than 1,000 TV, satellite and wireless antennas. The company has grown from designing high-powered television antennas to engineering high-performance wireless and satellite broadband antennas for internet and IoT applications.
“So many people are surprised Winegard is in Iowa and that so many of our products are designed and manufactured in the USA,” said Whipple. “Even our customer support center is located in Burlington. Our Midwest roots are something we are very proud of.”
