When the airport started controlling about 33 aircraft gates in 1977 we worked in the 20th Street Ramp Office on top of and near the west end of old Concourse E. One agent would work as the gate controller and during peak periods another agent would operate the Flight Information Display System (FIDS) which was absolutely primitive compared to today's systems.

Our system was manufactured by American Sign & Indicator in Spokane, Washington and they were known for their fancy animated scoreboards in sports stadiums and two other US airports bought their FIDS. The "computer" in the photo only controlled the flight information for the E-Satellite terminal and we would post departure information at each gate and the main departure signs in the middle of the satellite terminal. We could also create and save graphics to display on the large departure signs when they were not filled with departing flight information. We also used a simple text closed circuit TV system (off the image to the left) to display all flight information for our gates. At the time the flight information was for internal use only and was sent to other Aviation Department offices, the Information Counter, and to various federal agencies in the terminal (Customs, Immigrations, USDA, etc.).