Meadow founder, Joe Zukin, began his association with the billboard industry as a client in the 1960's. Joe was the president of Frontier Village Amusement Park in San Jose, CA. He built billboards to promote Frontier Village and sold the opposite sides of the billboards to advertisers. When Frontier Village closed, Joe's billboard experience inspired him to move into the billboard business.
JR Zukin Corporation started in the outdoor advertising business in Merced, California in 1967. This first billboard company was operated under the name of Cleaveland Outdoor. The business expanded to Fresno and Bakersfield, California, and other smaller markets in the San Joaquin Valley in 1975. The California plant was sold in 1980.
Honald Outdoor was purchased in Oregon in 1981 and was renamed Meadow Outdoor. JR Zukin Corporation also bought other outdoor companies in Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska then later sold them to a partner. The company has expanded by buying and building and trading signs in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and the Bay Area in California. The company now operates over 1200 billboard faces and has grown from two employees to twenty-eight and encompasses over 50 years of experience in the outdoor business.
In 2013, Joe Zukin was inducted into the Outdoor Advertising Association of America's Hall of Fame. He was respected throughout the industry for his commitment to customer service and community involvement. He had a passion for the business and a devotion to his employees. Joe passed away in 2018 and now his sons, Chris and Mike, are the leaders of the family-owned company. They honor Joe daily with company leadership that Joe would approve of. In 2020, the Oregon Business magazine ranked Meadow in the top 25 small businesses to work for in Oregon and in 2021, Meadow was ranked the #1 Best Small Company to work for in Oregon.
