The Sky's the Limit for Jeff Sudikoff '77

Jeffrey Sudikoff '77 was a major player at this spring's Reaganorbachev ]summit in Moscow... even though he never left Culver City, Calif.

Sudikoffs company, IDB Communications, provided the portable satellite dishes the TV networks needed to transmit their news reports from the USSR. IDB also flew over and set up the satellite technology the White House needed for communications links back to Washington, and for 200 White House press corps phones with instant access back to the States.

Quite a feat when you consider that five years ago the company was operating out of a shoebox in the bedroom of Sudikoffs Santa Monica apartment. But this year IDB projects revenues of $20 million, works daily with the TV networks, and is rated by Business Week as one of the top 100 small companies in America. (IDB, by the way, doesn't stand for anything. "All the other good initials were taken," says Jeff.)

Sudikoff has never traveled the straight and narrow. After leaving Hanover he spent time as a radio reporter in the Middle East and was a tour manager for Fleetwood Mac. "I went all over the world in high style." Then he turned to the satellite business. "I always liked buttons and lights, and things in space are even better." Back when he was a Dartmouth junior, Sudikoff turned heads by creating a New England-wide radio network to carry WDCR's coverage of the '76 New Hampshire primary. Ten years later he put IDB on the map by spending a million dollars he didn't have to set up an unprecedented national network of satellite earth stations for radio spots. ("We thought of it in a Mexican restaurant and after a few margaritas it seemed like a really good idea.") The big gamble paid off handsomely, and today the vast majority of away games in professional sports reach their listeners courtesy of IDB's equipment.

In 1986 Sudikoff took IDB public and turned his attention to TV. Now the company has a fleet of more than 25 portable satellite dishes that travel by road or air at a moment's notice. They have been involved in remote TV broadcasts from Antarctica, Africa, and an aircraft carrier the USS Coral Sea. This summer IDB's trucks beamed video from the political conventions around the world, while other units are involved in the Seoul Olympics.

Sudikoff says he is too busy to be surprised by his success, which he attributes to luck, personality, "and spelling." His personality is aggressive, and so is the company. "The challenge ahead is international," he muses. This summer IDB used its Soviet contacts to strike a deal setting up the first foreign-operated satellite uplink in Moscow. For Jeff Sudikoff and IDB, the sky is literally the limit.