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Since You Asked: Rogue River area radio firm merely downsizing Nov 20, 2022 12:15 AM A A I drove by Radio Design Group’s large facility on Rogue River Highway the other day and noticed a big ‘For Sale’ sign posted out front. I remember the hubbub when they moved from Grants Pass to Rogue River around 2012. What’s going on? Where are they headed next? — Scott L., Grants Pass The radio communication engineering company, which among other things designs communications equipment for the military, is not going far, Scott. Actually, Radio Design Group Inc. isn’t going anywhere until it sells the property at 8925 Rogue River Highway, according to Nick Kanta, operations and QA manager for RDG. Kanta says the company will stay local after the sale, but he did not say where it will locate. RDG built the 22,000-square-foot complex outside Rogue River a decade ago, but Kanta said now it’s too big for its current needs. “We’re not able to utilize all of the space,” Kanta said. Construction on the complex cost $4.4 million, according to a 2011 Since You Asked story about the construction of Radio Design Group’s facility. At the time, a reader had questions about midday traffic delays on Highway 99. The facility went on to serve as RDG’s headquarters, engineering design office and in-house electronics manufacturing center. Why did RDG pick a spot outside Rogue River for its headquarters? According to earlier news reports that drew from a speech founder and CEO Jim Hendershot made at the groundbreaking in April 2011, it was to take advantage of a five-year property tax exemption because the workplace drew high-paying jobs to the area. The company has been in business since 1992 and, in those three decades, has worked with well-known companies that include Apple and Swatch to help solve radio communications engineering challenges, according to the company’s website . Among other innovations, the company says it had a hand inventing the first prepaid cellular phone and, more recently, has developed communications systems designed to be used in crowded environments such as sold-out arena concerts and major sporting events. Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; or by email to [email protected].