Dayton company expands efforts
P&R Communications launches its own tower company, G3 Towers.
A Dayton company in its third generation of family-based ownership is continuing to expand.
P&R Communications designs communication systems for public entities and businesses, a big part of which is two-way radio and communication systems for police, fire and public safety in the area, as well the private sector, including manufacturing facilities and hospitals.
“Think of Kettering Main,” said co-owner Katie Ward. “That hospital is huge. Public safety, they’ve got to come in, they’ve got to be able to talk in the basement and in every corner. We make it so they can do that and we also do that for cellphones because sometimes when you get in those giant buildings, your cellphone doesn’t have coverage. We put in systems that make it so that you do.”
The company, which has 14 towers, recently launched its own tower company, G3 Towers, which stands for Generation Three, Ward said.
“The reason we did that is ... we own so many towers, so these guys will be able to take care of maintaining what we have, because there’s a lot that goes into that,” she said. “It’s also to take advantage of all these 5G deployments that are taking place. They need people to climb the towers and put that stuff up and that’s what our guys are out doing right now every week.”
The company is hiring tower workers and tower hands at www. pandrcommunications.com/about/ careers.
Founded in 1961 by Paul Reeves and Robert Pahren, the company got its start as two-way radio service shop P&R Communications Service Inc. at what was a Sunoco gas station on the corner of East First Street and Meigs Street in Dayton, a spot that remains the primary location of the business.
Bythemid-1970sPahrendeparted P&R and by 1990 Paul and Joan Reeves sold the company to sons Steve Reeves and David Reeves. Under their leadership, P&R continued to grow and evolve. Steve retired in 2016 and his children, Katie Ward and Daniel Reeves,
who started working for the company in 2002 and 2007, respectively, joined their uncle as owners of P&R Communications.
“When we first started, were only servicing and maintaining two-way radios, we weren’t yet selling,” said Ward, Reeves’ granddaughter. “So it’s changed a lot in the fact that we sell not only individual units, like a portable or mobile radio, but we build, engineer and sell the systems.
P&R Communications’ recipe for success includes “always looking forward and always looking at the trends,” Ward said. The company has diversified its portfolio of resources and capabilities beyond two-way radios alone with the fundamental belief that theirs is not a contract, but a calling.
“We’re not a transactional company by any means,” Ward said. “We’re a relationship company and we value the relationships that we have with people, with our customers. For us, it’s about creating the system that they need and then being there to maintain it, being there when something goes wrong. It’s not (about) pushing something they don’t need or don’t want.”
P&R’s willingness to expand its own horizons has allowed to grow from its two founders to a team of more than 50 people across three locations — Dayton, Sidney and Toledo, she said.
Reaching the 60th anniversary is very challenging and very rewarding, Ward said, but also “humbling” and hasn’t come without its own set of setbacks, obstacles, tough times and tears.
“To see it do what it’s done ... the first thing I feel is pride, because we didn’t do it alone,” she said. “We did it with people who have been here for a lot of years and it makes me extremely proud to think of all that they’ve been able to accomplish by buying into what we do. It’s not just a job for a lot of them.”