A lot of King Kong jokes.

• Author: Derk, James
• Position: Replacement of Empire State Building's radio tower

Indiana firm replacing Empire State Building's radio tower.

When the antenna on the Empire State Building started to wear out, a small Warrick County company was hired to put up a new one.

This one will go on the spire, up top. That's the part that King Kong held onto while he swatted at those pesky planes.

"We do hear a lot of King Kong jokes," concedes Robert W. Rose, vice president of engineering for Electronics Research Inc. of Newburgh and coordinator of the Empire State project.

The small company operates in a honeycomb of offices and buildings in historic Newburgh on the Ohio River and keeps a very low profile outside its industry. ERI is building a warehouse in Chandler to better keep up its operations all over the globe, building and installing incredibly complicated antennas and towers.

How did the Newburgh company get hired for this job, anyway? "We're the oldest antenna manufacturer in the United States," Rose says. "We're best suited for the job." Founded in the 1940s primarily for the war effort, the company produced equipment to jam enemy radar.

Peacetime brought fewer government contracts and a decline in work. It looked like the end of the company until the Federal Communications Commission opened the FM band for commercial radio, and ERI began building antennas.

Today the 65 ERI employees make both towers and antennas and the company holds a patent on the high-power antenna, the...