CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF ALAMON

The History of Alamon – A Comprehensive Timeline

Alamon Co-Founder Frank Gebhardt and Alamon Board Member Matt Gebhardt.

We’re indebted to Alamon Board Member Matt Gebhardt, who went above and beyond the call of duty when we asked him to help us reconstruct a timeline of Alamon’s history. Although Frank and Peg Gebhardt founded the company in 1975, there are some key historical events that predated the formal launch of Alamon Telco, Inc. Matt has outlined everything for you here, including significant events that happened locally, around the nation and around the world.

1989 - Last Step-By-Step Electromechanical Central Office GTD-5 Conversion

October 14, 1949

Around the World:

11 Top U.S. Communists Convicted
Stalin Lauds New East German State

Locally:

Community building efforts behind the Sunrift Hall (this building will eventually become the first home of Alamon Telco, Inc.)

From the Hungry Horse News: DEER PARK—Sunrift had a community booth at the fair this year. The ladies club decided to have a booth this year to show off the work of the community as well as try and add a few more dollars toward the chimney fund for the hall. Everyone is very well pleased. It is hoped that when the bazaar material is all sold, around $200 can be turned in to the building fund. Last month the Handy Helpers club turned in $40 to the chimney fund, which was appreciated. If more organizations would sponsor something to benefit the fund, perhaps in the near future one would see a chimney and a heating system in the hall. Remember this is a community hall, and every member, should be proud of it.

1949 - Performance at Sunrift Hall (the building that will eventually be the first home of Alamon Telco, Inc.)

Clark Harlan is congratulated by Henry Eickenberry after winning the amateur hour at the Sunrift Community Hall near Columbia Falls. Harlan received $3 for his efforts.

March 27, 1964

Aftermath of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Seward, Alaska.

Good Friday Earthquake – Seward, Alaska:

Alaska plays an important role in the story of Alamon. Company co-founder Frank Gebhardt was working for the Municipal Utilities Co. of Fairbanks when the 9.2 magnitude “Good Friday” earthquake occurred at 8:45PM. This was the second largest earthquake on record. A tsunami tidal wave tore up the electric and phone systems of the coastal town of Seward, some 500 miles from Fairbanks.

Tsunamis reached California, Oregon, Washington, and swells were seen in Hawaii and Japan. Midway between Fairbanks and Seward, the control tower at Anchorage International airport collapsed.

Frank and a friend were asked to assist the City of Seward with restoring its telephone switching and cabling systems. They spent weekends on the job, flying back and forth, forth and back in a light plane between Fairbanks to Seward every Friday and Sunday night. In the process, they got their first taste of contracting.

June 4, 1973

Around the Nation:

Watergate Hearings Go On Despite Plea
Dollar Hits New Low. Gold Jumps to $120.75 an Ounce
Tourists Are Told “No Gas Shortage”, Oilmen Say “Shortage is Already With Us”

Locally:

Real Estate Prices in Kalispell, Montana:
- Three bedroom home $13,500. 816 6th Ave WN.
- 3 bedrooms plus 1 in full daylight basement. Large living room with fireplace. Near city beach; double corner lot; great view. $25,000.
- Woodland Avenue. Beautiful brick 5 bedroom, 2 full baths, 2 fireplaces, large rec room in full basement, with double garage attached to a large home on a 100’ x 160’ lot. Immediate possession. $49,500.
Snowline Communications, Inc. is started as a partnership to provide telecommunication contracting (mostly installation and upgrade) services to telcos in the Northwest and Alaska.

In 1974 “Snowline” (taking the form of “Snowline Tree Co.”) is mentioned twenty-four times in local print. “Snowline Communications” was mentioned slightly fewer times (exactly zero). It quickly went out of business. Why are we mentioning Snowline Communications here? Because it was Frank and Peg’s first attempt at starting a contracting company before Alamon.

November 21, 1974

1973 - Frank and Peg Gebhardt purchase the Sunrift Hall

In 1974, Frank and Peg Gebhardt purchase the Sunrift Hall from Gary and Sharon Eckleberry. Gerald Eckleberry had been awarded the property in a blind auction in 1967 for $555.50. His handwritten bid for the property is pictured above.

Nationally:

“Suit Hits Telephone Monopoly.” The Justice Department went to court to strip the Bell System of its 60-year-old grip on the nation’s telephone industry in a move to spur competition and drive phone rates down. The lawsuit against the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. signaled the beginning of a years-long government battle to carve up the world’s largest privately owned corporation into competing enterprises.
- The breakup of the Bell System and the rumored coming of new age digital switching spells the beginning of the end of the electro-mechanical switching age. This process will eventually spur massive churn within the telecommunications industry. Ultimately divestiture of AT&T will result in the creation of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs).
Locally:
- 23 year-old Mark W. is charged with speeding and fined $5.
- Fresh Cracked Crab Dinner, Elks 725, Sat. Nov.23 at 7 PM. (Bring your own pliers or nut crackers). Dancing will follow with Wildroot Trio. $5 per Person.
- Frank & Peg Gebhardt purchase the Sunrift Hall (soon to be the first headquarters of Alamon Telco, Inc.) from Gary and Sharon Eckleberry.
The building formerly known as Sunrift Hall will be used to house personnel, testing equipment, components inventory, and the rehab equipment necessary for the reconditioning of aged electro-mechanical Step x Step switching equipment from telcos all over the US and Canada.

Frank had performed some of the original installations of this equipment (in the 1950s and ‘60s) that Alamon ended up servicing anew. Because Canada was some years ahead of the United States in its telephone “latest technology” implementations, Frank seized on the idea of purchasing “step” switches that were no longer needed in Canada. Alamon refurbished them, and then sold them to grateful customers in the United States – often only to then refurbish the newly displaced US equipment. The telcos knew the refurbished gear bought them the time necessary for arrival of new digital equipment.

May 2, 1975

Locally:

Alamon Telco, Inc. is incorporated in the State of Montana. Since its inception 50 years ago, Alamon has scaled to perform services both nationally and internationally.

Alamon Telco, Inc. begins operations May 2, 1975

Alamon Telco, Inc. became an official enterprise May 2, 1975.

Peg and Frank Gebhardt stand in front of the first home of Alamon Telco, Inc. (the former Sunrift Hall)

Alamon Founders Peg and Frank Gebhardt stand in front of the building they purchased when they started Alamon Telco, Inc. in 1975.

September 22, 1975 – January 11, 1976

1975 - Workers strike against Northwestern Telephone Systems

Locally:

A strike of 140 Northwestern Telephone Systems workers occurs. Many of Alamon’s first employees come from NTS during this time including Don Dennison and Dan Bazzanella who would become early employees and instructors of Alamon’s Training Center.

April, 1979

Locally:

Alamon Training Center opens as one of only three privately owned telephone training centers in the United States (the other two are in Washington and North Carolina). In addition to training personnel for Alamon Telco’s own work force, ATC trains laborers for telcos including Mountain Bell, General Telephone Co., and Alaska Municipal Utilities Co.

October, 1979 – December, 1980

Around the Nation:

Mortgage money has virtually dried up in nearly half the states and where it is available, the cost is between 13-14%. Inflation is running at an annual rate of nearly 10%. Consumer prices have increased at a 14.2% annual rate during the first nine months of 1979. Citibank and Chase Manhattan raise prime lending rates to a record 15.25% and 15.5%, respectively. This is bad news for workers who will lose jobs and businesses that will go broke because of unnecessarily high interest rates. FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) records the prime lending rate at 21.5% (its peak) on Dec 19th, 1980.
During this time the “deadly double play” of inflation and interest rate increases is felt both nationally and internationally.

Locally:

The inflation / interest rates scenario is devastating to Alamon and its employees. As capital and contracts dry up, so too does Alamon’s ability to hold staff while its electro-mechanical rehab business dwindles to nothing. In fact, years later literally tons of electro-mechanical warehoused materials will eventually be harvested for the scrap. While it was always understood this line of business would eventually cease, it occurred several years earlier than anticipated. Under these dire circumstances, numerous efforts are launched in the hopes of staying afloat. This is a time of “hang on and hold on.” First, for rates and inflation to return to some degree of normalcy, and second, for the digital central office equipment migrations to begin.
During these times of uncertainty collateral was an absolute necessity. Under the risk and weight of these loans, very real collateral was required before any lender would loan for Alamon’s payroll. A literal “hay field” repeatedly satisfied the bank’s requirements and was used over the course of several years for this purpose. Eventually Frank and Peg were able to keep the “hay field” bargaining chip off the table for good. But Frank often said it will take years for anything to grow on that land. “It’s been turned over so many times it’s just worn out.”

January 21, 1980

Locally:

MonKal is incorporated. This company is established in order to bid jobs that require union representation of the technicians. In the early ‘80s this capability was necessary for opportunities that might otherwise be inaccessible.

Summer, 1982

UCLA campus map, circa 1982-1983.

Locally:

One of the first MonKal opportunities came as UCLA prepared for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At the time, UCLA’s campus had over 100 facilities across 419 acres. The university was charged with hosting all track and field competitions for the games. The entirety of their communications systems, both inside plant and outside plant was to be replaced. This project required the installation of a new central office comprised of a Northern Telecom SL-100 centrex switch (host enterprise PBX). In addition, all key systems, telephone sets, station and back bone cabling in their entirety would be installed and connected.
Other enterprise clients would follow including Kaiser Permanente (Oakland), Safeway HQ (Walnut Creek), and Children’s Hospital (San Francisco) to name a few.
For many years to come Northern Telecom would become Alamon’s major client. Alamon would work in both the regulated (DMS product lines) and non-regulated space (SL-1x products).

August 29, 1983

Locally:

Frank and Peg’s innovative phone sales plan was one small way that contributed to keeping Alamon viable in its early years. At a time when telephones couldn’t be sold in retail stores as they are now, the Gebhardts created an in-store switching system so people could call phone-to-phone within the shop for a “test drive.” They had a corner on the Flathead Valley phone sales market until the FCC changed its policy and phones could be sold anywhere.
All•Tel Business Communications and Alamon Telephone Centers open in continued efforts to diversify products and lines of business. The focus is on the before mentioned telephones, small key systems and larger PBX installs and maintenance.

1983 - All•Tel and Alamon Telephone Center

Dan Bazzanella is pictured here in front of the Alamon van.

The 1980s and 1990s

Locally:

With the AT&T breakup, digital CO migrations finally emerging and interest and inflation coming under control, good years filled with CO installation work followed for Alamon. During this time, the company flourished but relied heavily on one major Canadian manufacturer for the majority of its business: Northern Telecom. Alamon would peak at over 400 employees who worked at many of the independent telcos and Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs).

2000 – 2002

Around the Nation and the World:

Between March 2000 and October 2002, the Nasdaq falls from 5,048 to 1,139, erasing nearly all of its gains during the dot-com bubble. By the time the index bottoms out in October 2002, most publicly traded dot-com companies have failed.
In July of 2000, Alamon’s primary customer, Ottowa-based Northern Telecom (now called Nortel Networks after a 1998 name change), reported $30 billion in annual revenue. Its shares reached a high of C$124.50, giving it a market cap of more than $250 billion.
Following that peak, Nortel struggled for the next nine years. The company failed to meet revenue forecasts, had its accounting practices investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and paid $2.47 billion to settle class-action suits from the accounting scandal. In 2009, Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

Locally:

Heavy reliance on business from failing Nortel causes serious hardship for Alamon, which eventually drops over half its employee head count.
Alamon is forced to pivot and diversify its service offerings. Alternative lines of business are explored, which leads to the addition of a Wireless division, Utility Services division and an Engineering division. Work for T-Mobile, Frontier, Verizon, Ericsson and large utilities like Con-Ed will eventually help cover the loss of business from Nortel.

One of Alamon’s primary customers, Ottowa-based Nortel Networks, reached its peak in July of 2000 with a market cap of $250 billion. A series of mistakes, poor management decisions and legal issues led to its downfall and eventual bankruptcy filing in 2009. Alamon’s reliance on business from Nortel caused hardship and layoffs across the company.

2010

Locally:

Alamon establishes an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. By 2012 both Frank and Peg’s shares in the company have been redeemed and the ESOP is the 100% owner of Alamon and is served by a committee of internal trustees.
Companies with ESOPs and other broad-based employee ownership plans account for well over half of Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”

2012

Locally:

Frank and Peg Gebhardt are interviewed / broadcast on Montana PBS “Backroads of Montana: Singing in the Wires” for antique telephone and CO equipment segment. The Gebhardts story begins at 9:13 in the video.

2014

Locally:

Frank and Peg Gebhardt retire.
Brad Cronk becomes Alamon’s new President.
Scott Lawrence and Terry Mickens both assume Vice President roles. When Terry retires two years later, Scott becomes Alamon’s Chief Operating Officer.

June 8, 2017

Locally:

Alamon loses Mr. Terry Mickens. Terry worked for Alamon from 1990 until his retirement in 2016. He passed away on June 8, 2017 at the age of 61, surrounded by family at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Don Dennison, Frank Gebhardt and Terry Mickens

Dennis Gesker, John Nelson and Terry Mickens

March 15, 2020

Around the World:

Worries about the Chinese Wuhan Flu aka coronavirus outbreak sent the Dow plunging 2,997 points, or 12.9%. The S&P 500 plummeted 12%, its worst day since 1987.
COVID: States begin to implement shutdowns in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The New York City public school system— the largest school system in the U.S., with 1.1 million students— shuts down
The state of Ohio calls for restaurants and bars to close.

Locally:

Concerns will grow within Alamon – and all businesses – as to the impacts this might represent.

September 2, 2020

Locally:

Alamon completes its first acquisition: Telmon, Inc. Telmon is a company that specializes in network infrastructure services “inside the building” and provides these services across the U.S. with dedicated offices in Kansas City, KS and Wausau, WI. We have 29 additional employees as of September 1st as part of the acquisition.
Due to COVID, the original sales price is negotiated to address the uncertain state of the national and international business climates and the negative impacts “work-at-home” is having on Telmon’s business model.
Telmon is eventually rebranded as “Enterprise Technical Services.”

2020 - Alamon acquires Telmon, Inc. and rebrands it as Enterprise Technical Services

September 9, 2020

Around the World:

On September 9, 2020, President Biden announced sweeping new measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, including a mandate for all employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing.
Ultimately the Supreme Court blocks the order. This is a very uncertain time for Alamon. Thankfully past.

2024

Nationally:

“Year over Year” inflation [since 2021] reaches 19.4%.

Locally:

Longer term contracts with Alamon customers are looked at hard to see how – or if – rising costs can somehow be accommodated or shared by our customers. Obviously, a difficult task to enact on “live” agreements that were inked prior to the dramatic cost increases.

May 2, 2025

How Alamon Stacks Up Against History:

In 2020, the average lifespan of a company on Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was just over 21 years, compared with 32 years in 1965. There is a clear long-term trend of declining corporate longevity with regards to companies on the S&P 500 Index, with this expected to fall even further throughout the 2020s. More statistics:
- Twenty percent of new businesses make it one year. Forty-five percent fail in the first 5 years. About 25% of businesses last 15 years. Only 5% survived longer than 30 years.
- Of 77 companies founded in 1975 proper, none provide contracting services.
- Companies founded in or around 1975? Microsoft (1975), Home Depot (1978), Apple (1976), Starbucks (1971). Oakley (1975).
On this day (May 2) in 1975, Alamon started with two employees who owned the company: Frank and Peg Gebhardt.
Now, fifty years later, over 200 employees own Alamon.