Something you 'got to have' for your car or truck

Take a stockbroker, add two engineers and an airline pilot and what do you have? The News on 6's Rick Wells says they form a company that makes and markets the coolest new "got to have" accessory

Wednesday, October 8th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Take a stockbroker, add two engineers and an airline pilot and what do you have? The News on 6's Rick Wells says they form a company that makes and markets the coolest new "got to have" accessory for motor vehicles.

Shannon Hankins with SignwaveZ: "Just about anything you want to say without having to say it you can print it on this badge." It's a programmable message badge, he has one on his shirt, and I dare you to ignore it. It'll keep running like that for up to 30 hours.

The badges were the beginning about 18 months ago. SignwaveZ, that's the company, now manufactures and ships thousands of them every month. That project has morphed into a programmable license plate holder message board for motorcycles and for cars and trucks. It can store four messages of up to 118 characters each. Imagine the possibilities for people with something to say, salesmen or politicians. â€œAbout once a week we've found someone who has found a new application for it."

So you're thinking a message board on your license plate holder must be illegal? Nope. According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, as long as the license plate light is operating and the license plate is readable, a message board, a neon light, whatever is OK, in OK."

If you don't want it on your car, they make a modular unit you can mount just about anywhere. "We've seen people put 'em in the entry way to their office, we've seen people put it on their door." SignwaveZ is completely a local company with offices in Broken Arrow. The four owners, the stockbroker, the two engineers and the airline pilot all maintain their regular jobs and give this time when they have it. So this is becoming a very successful second job, why didn't I think of that?

Imagine your favorite Boomer Sooner or Hook 'em Horns message flashing all the way to Dallas and back this weekend. Something that cool doesn't come cheap; everything you need is about $210.