Uncork the champagne and break out the commemorative gold pocket watches, Fools. It's the end of an era at Motley Fool Hidden Gems recommendation Radyne (NASDAQ:RADN). On Monday, the little satellite communications company announced that the man who led it out of bankruptcy some 11 years ago has passed the CEO's baton to new hire Myron Wagner.

Soon-to-be-ex-CEO (effective tomorrow) Bob Fitting had a long history in this business, beginning his career 44 years ago at the fabled Bell Labs (now under Lucent's (NYSE:LU) control, and soon to pass to Alcatel (NYSE:ALA)) before moving on to work for first Motorola (NYSE:MOT), then Fairchild Data. His last stop before rescuing Radyne was at a start-up that he, er, started up: EF Data.

Fitting's replacement shares his Motorola creds; Wagner also worked at the giant telecom equipment maker until two years ago. As vice president and general manager of Motorola's Instant Communications Strategic Business Unit, Wagner is the man you can thank (or blame) for launching the vaunted Motorola "Push to Talk" feature that so caught the fancy of SprintNextel (NYSE:S) subscribers. In between leaving Motorola and accepting a CEO-grooming position as COO of Radyne back in January 2006, Wagner did a stint at General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) as vice president and director of engineering for the Space and National Systems Division.

All in all, the market seems to agree with the change of execs. As major indexes just barely broke even yesterday, Radyne's stock rose nearly 5%. For the record, I agree with Wall Street's verdict on this one. Although Fitting's shoes will be a big pair to fill, Wagner's credentials look good, and fit well within Radyne's business. Another factor to consider is that Radyne has moved decisively to quell succession concerns over Fitting's advancing age (at 71, he's no longer the proverbial spring chicken). With Wagner ringing in at just age 50, it will hopefully be a long time before anyone has to worry again about when Radyne's CEO will retire. Meanwhile, Fitting remains on the board to watch over the shoulder of his whippersnapper successor.

Sounds like the best of all possible worlds to me.

What kind of company is Wagner taking over? One with rapidly rising revenues and just as rapidly eroding margins. Read all about it in:

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Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. The Fool's disclosure policy will never step down.