Universal was founded in 1942 by F.R. "Gibby" Gibb W8IJ. Universal Service, as it was then called, was located on North Third Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Universal carried all the major lines of the time including Millen, Drake, Collins, Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, Johnson and National. After Gibby became a silent key, his wife ran the business briefly and sold it to another owner, Thomas Harrington W8OMV in 1977 who moved it to Reynoldsburg (a suburb east of Columbus). Universal has been owned by Barbara & Fred Osterman since 1982.