Radio World July 16, 2008
By Randy J. Stine
JACKSON, Miss. By the time Robert L. Adams founded Global Security Systems in 2002, he already had a rich background in FM-data transmission systems.
Adams, president and chief executive officer of Global Security Systems, began work in 1985 with the technology called numeric MBS protocol, the predecessor of the Radio Broadcast Data System. He eventually lobbied the FCC to have RBDS approved and accepted as a standard in the United States for transmission of text and data along with an analog FM broadcast signal.
The National Radio Systems Committee approved RBDS on the 57 kHz subcarrier in 1993. By that time Adams had a decade of experience in the FM data business.
Adams is referred to as a “serial entrepreneur,” according to his bio released by Global Security Systems. His background includes work in the oil and gas industries. In 1980, he established a long-haul trucking company and by 1986 had 1,100 owner operators working for his company.
It wasn’t until Adams installed an FM paging and data system for his trucking company that he realized the growth potential of the wireless industry.
“After I installed an FM paging and data system from New Orleans to Houston and saw how well the system worked, I took the system overseas, where telephone lines were hard to come by,” Adams said.
Adams eventually moved his wireless data and paging business into 22 countries, but sold the business in 1997 sensing the cell phone boom, he said.
Adams focused next on developing Alert FM, a personal alert and messaging system that utilizes the RBDS subcarrier and can be received via special Alert FM receivers and other devices equipped with a standard FM chip.
Adams has big plans for his Alert FM system. Eventually, the company’s technology could be incorporated into smoke detectors, microwave ovens, refrigerators and other common home appliances, according to GSS.
GSS sells another product line, called My Simbook, a mobile social network that enables broadcasters to interact with listeners by synchronizing their radio broadcasts and advertisement with mobile devices utilizing RBDS.
GSS is headquartered in Jackson, Miss., and has offices in Florida, Louisiana, the District of Columbia and Sweden.