The Early Days

NOR-COM was first known as Northern Kentucky Communications, and throughout the early 1970's, our office moved from basement to basement.

9 Center Street, Erlanger, Kentucky 41017
138 Coral Drive, Hebron, Kentucky 41048

But, as our family and reputation grew, the basements became more cramped and hard to manuver around. One day, after having to move televisions out of the way to get our of bed, Dan Van Meter decided the day had come: it was time for Nothern Kentucky Communications to branch out and find its own space aside from the basements and homes where it was currently housed.

Ernst Lane, Hebron, Kentucky 41048

A local realtor from Spaulding Realty had an unused storage space at the back of his office available for rent. Dan rented this space to continue working evenings for Northern Kentucky Communications after his day job as a 3M service engineer maintaining 3M Wollensak audio recording & playback tape decks used in courtroom, city council, and police interview rooms.

This office space served Northern Kentucky Communications throughout our early years, as we fostered new and current relationships with numerous businesses: Government Agencies IRS, ATF, US Army Corps of Engineers, and WPAFB. During that time, Northern Kentucky Communications had many successful AV projects at WPAFB for which we were noticed. This blessing lead to our selection for integration of a large conference system in a downtown Los Angles law office that occasionally accommodated President Regan, when in town.

Dan took the flight out to Los Angeles, and after arriving to begin installation he was asked: "Young man, what is the name of your company?" To which, he proudly replied "Northern Kentucky Communications." After this comment, Dan was met with confusion: "We are less than 350 miles from Silicon Valley, and we contracted an electronics firm from Kentucky?" This comment haunted Dan the entire trip as he realized a flaw in the name Northern Kentucky Communications, seeming to limit the company's reach. That would certainly have to change!

Needless to say, Dan's entire return flight was consumed with 100's of name variations attempting not to stray too far from the original name of Northern Kentucky Communications, and yet eliminate the restrictive local identification, which was sure to limit our company's opportunities to work anywhere our skill sets would lead us.

Northern Kentucky Communications quickly became NOR-COM, from any town, USA.