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Issue link: http://airportbusiness.epubxp.com/i/643578
SPECIAL FEATURE 12 airportbusiness February/March 2016 By Ronnie L. Garrett Then and Now Airport Business celebrates its 30-year anniversary with a look back at a column published when the magazine, then called FBO, first launched The FBO community embraced the publi- cation from the start. And while over the years, we've changed the name to Airport Business, redesigned the magazine, adjusted the size and added departments, the aviation community still looks to the publication for timely cover- age of airports and FBOs and the issues that concern them. Thirty years later, our mission remains the same: To examine how airports and FBOs are doing what they do, what's work- ing and what's not, and what needs to happen for these aviation sectors to remain suc- cessful and profitable. As Airport Business starts its anniversary year, we decided it might be approrpiate to republish the Publisher's Column describing the goals of FBO at its launch. As you read the words of then-publish- er Mike Murrell you'll discover the mission of yesteryear rings true today. FBO magazine got an inauspicious start on a cocktail napkin and its ideas and goals have stood the test of time. Research told us then that this was the right publication, at the right time, focused on the right audience. And, that's statment still stands true to this day 30 years later. The question is not when, but where By Mike Murrell, Publisher, FBO How long have we been waiting for the turn- around in general aviation? Four years? Five? Longer? It's been "just around the corner" for a long time. And it remains so. It is as elusive as a substantive agreement with the Soviets to cap the arms race. While we've been waiting, a lot of business- es have fallen by the wayside. Some by choice, I n November/December 1986, the first issue of FBO magazine arrived on the desks of FBO leaders across the nation. Prominently featured on the cover was Howard Gregory of Des Moines Flying Service. Gregory passed away in 2012 at the age of 94, but the magazine that once featured him on its cover lives on.