[2] Hammond, an enthusiast of radio who worked at CBS as a programming director, set out his company to act as a consulting business for broadcast entities but quickly leaned into the computer industry.

While later iterations of the Chieftain won praise for technical merit, the refusal to invest in a centralized source of software turned off some customers.

Following the company's poor performance in the mid-1980s, Hammond relegated Smoke Signal Broadcasting to the status of a support line for existing customers before disestablishing it in 1991.

He formed another corporation in 1987, this time in the real estate industry, but this proved short-lived after the housing market collapsed in Ventura County.

Ric Hammond, graduate of the Thacher School and UC Santa Barbara,[3] founded Smoke Signal Broadcasting in 1976.

[6] During Smoke Signal's founding years, he simultaneously worked as programming director at CBS Radio's KNX-FM station in Los Angeles.

[4][10] Released in late 1976, according to Byte magazine, the M-16-A was the first expansion board manufactured independent of Southwest Technical Products for the SWTPC 6800.

[4][12] The BFD-68 also proved popular among users of the SWTPC 6800 and inspired Smoke Signal to release their own microcomputer based on the Motorola 6800 microprocessor in 1978,[13][14] after having moved to Westlake Village, California.

[5] Called the Chieftain, this computer came equipped with a nine-slot motherboard with SS-50 compatibility,[5] 32 KB of RAM—expandable up to 60 KB—two serial ports,[15] either two 5.25-inch or two 8-inch floppy drives,[16] and an 80-by-25 character display.

[15] The Chieftain's case bore a faux-leather finish, according to technologist Bill von Hagen, in keeping with Smoke Signal's Native American corporate identity.

[19] At the start of the next decade, Smoke Signal directed their focus away from the scientific engineering market to manufacturing systems for businesses.

Purchasers could choose either an updated version of OS-68 for the Motorola 6809—its name now shortened to Smoke Signal DOS—or Microware's multi-tasking, multi-user, "Unix-comparable" operating system, OS-9.

[25][24] While computer reviewers praised the speediness of the Chieftain, criticism was leveled at Smoke Signal's reliance on third-party dealers to provide the software to the purchasers.

[13][26] Smoke Signal had by 1983 established an international presence, with dealers and equipment fabricators presiding in Australia, Asia, Europe, and South Africa, as well as the United States.

[28] While Smoke Signal's choice of OS-9 forced them to claim having only a "Unix-comparable" operating system at hand,[23] the company introduced their first microcomputer allowed to be marketed as Unix-compatible in 1984.

[29] Although the SS-50 bus design had fallen out of popularity by the time the company released their previous Chieftain,[26] Smoke Signal remained loyal to their roots with regard to the VAR/68.

[35] Hammond used these headquarters to incorporate Amerasian Development, his break into the real estate business, relegating Smoke Signal to the status of a support line for their existing customers.