00:07 - Jim Faircloth, executive

00:09 - director of a group called Cable TV Pioneers.

00:13 - Jim, would you tell us about your organization?

00:16 - Well, the cable TV pioneers were founded at the Miami Beach

00:21 - and CTA convention in 1966.

00:26 - It was attended by a number of broadcasters,

00:30 - but a lot of the early cable pioneers as well.

00:34 - And many of those people

00:36 - became our founders and built they had built the industry.

00:39 - We started with

00:42 - about 20 members.

00:43 - And today we're very close to 70

00:47 - active living members today.

00:50 - Jim, in the early days of cable, what kind of person

00:53 - was attracted to the uncharted territory of cable TV?

00:58 - Well,

00:59 - there are several of our

01:00 - earliest pioneers who claimed to be the very first

01:03 - to have built the cable system.

01:04 - And there are three

01:06 - very distinct first and differen

01:11 - But, of

01:12 - course, when the when the television industry

01:15 - really, really began in the late forties,

01:19 - a lot of cities, even the larger places,

01:22 - didn't have access to television signals.

01:25 - Sometimes one, sometimes not such good reception.

01:29 - And so some of the earlier entrepreneurs,

01:33 - there were a couple of television shop owners.

01:35 - There was a hotel owner in Oregon

01:38 - who first learned about television

01:40 - and on a visit to New York, brought a TV set back with him,

01:44 - which obviously did not work in Astoria, Oregon.

01:47 - So he put an antenna on the top of this hotel

01:50 - and suddenly his apartment was so full of people, he had to

01:54 - put a connection in the lobby.

01:55 - So that began the Astoria Cable Experience

02:00 - Cause the roots in Pennsylvania

02:03 - are deep with John Ralston, Jim Reynolds,

02:08 - Jim Geraghty and many others from

02:11 - from Pennsylvania from the early, early days.

02:13 - Jim, let's talk about John Ralston for a moment.

02:16 - He was in Mahanoy City in the 1940s

02:19 - trying to sell appliances, right?

02:21 - That's correct. Yeah. Yeah.

02:23 - And he had he brought a television

02:27 - line, a twin lead, the old twin LED

02:31 - TV antenna wire down from a higher elevation

02:34 - to his shop, connected up to televisions in the window.

02:39 - And people would pass by and look in the window

02:42 - and see this picture and say, well, I need one of those.

02:45 - And so that prompted a number of sales at his TV shop.

02:49 - And one thing led to another.

02:51 - And soon he was building out into the community and

02:55 - one of our very first cable systems was born.

02:58 - This was spring of 1948, April, I believe, of 48.

03:03 - Well, Jim, help us appreciate the early success of cable

03:07 - and what kind of what level of excitement

03:09 - this brought to the public and just

03:11 - how did they respond to this?

03:13 - It's hard to imagine so much excitement

03:15 - in the early days of TV trying to try to bring it to us.

03:19 - Well, when you didn't have television

03:21 - and obviously you wanted to wanted it, whether it was one

03:24 - channel or three or five,

03:27 - there was no way to get it but a rooftop antenna.

03:30 - And in some places that didn't work so well, if at all.

03:34 - In my last hometown or the last place I worked in

03:38 - radio before my first cable job, we had one one station

03:43 - and it was a very poor NBC affiliate.

03:45 - The signal was decent,

03:47 - but there were a lot of

03:48 - great programs that we knew about on ABC and CBS

03:52 - and when the cable system came to town, built

03:55 - the system between 68 and 69, there was a tremendous amount

03:59 - of excitement.

04:00 - So there you have 20 years after the birth of cable

04:03 - when a town of decent size was first getting their first cable.

04:08 - Look at cable television.

04:10 - And in those early days we had the truck chasers.

04:12 - You put your logo on the truck parked down the street and the

04:15 - sales would just come to you.

04:20 - Cable didn't come to the larger cities until much later.

04:23 - Late seventies, early eighties,

04:25 - when the larger markets began to be

04:29 - franchised, partly because

04:32 - of the difficulty of construction,

04:34 - but mostly because the signals were available.

04:36 - If you were in the heart of New York or Los Angeles,

04:39 - you could pick up the local signals with

04:43 - with a rooftop or even a set top antenna.

04:47 - And you'd be you'd be in good shape

04:49 - if you're 50, 60 or 80 miles or further out,

04:52 - then, you know, not so much.

04:55 - So Jim talked more about the importance

04:57 - and the

04:58 - shortcomings of the antenna, whether it be a set top antenna

05:02 - or an antenna

05:03 - mounted on top of the house, because

05:05 - in order to get a good picture, the signal has to follow

05:07 - a certain path, doesn't it?

05:10 - That's correct.

05:11 - And the signals television

05:12 - signals are where FM signals and they're directional.

05:16 - And if you have for example, if you were out in somewhere

05:19 - southern New Jersey and you're looking for New York signals,

05:24 - the towers, the transmitters are in different locations.

05:27 - So you'd need to reorient your antenna

05:30 - for the station you were looking for,

05:33 - which brought

05:33 - about the direction, all of the omnidirectional antennas.

05:37 - In those cases, the set top rabbit ears

05:41 - didn't work as well, but it was.

05:45 - I'm old enough to remember the early fifties

05:48 - when a fuzzy black and white picture was

05:52 - was what you got and what you were happy to have

05:54 - until more and more broadcasts came along.

05:58 - And then cable.

05:59 - Cable delivered initially 16, 12, then 25 and 30 channels.

06:05 - And what we have today

06:07 - is pretty much unlimited, but with a digital technology.

06:11 - And again, Jim, going

06:12 - back to the old days, you did mention the twin lead wire

06:16 - and that that seems

06:17 - like a significant thing because eventually that gave way

06:20 - to what we're all familiar with today.

06:22 - Most of us, I think,

06:23 - which is that round cable referred to as the Kovacs Cable.

06:27 - And what were the advantages presented

06:29 - by going to a Kovacs cable?

06:32 - Well, the coaxial cable had a significantly

06:35 - better bandwidth, just like fiber.

06:39 - Today, fiber optic technology is significantly better

06:42 - than just, you know, a basic coaxial cable.

06:46 - But the coaxial the first coaxial system

06:49 - was credited to a fellow named Jimmy.

06:54 - I forget his last name.

06:55 - Now, you should remember it.

06:57 - Jimmy Davidson in Little Rock, Arkansas, actually

07:01 - outside of Little Rock, a little town called Tuckerman.

07:05 - And that was in late 1948, six or seven months

07:08 - after the Pennsylvania introduction.

07:11 - But it was the first to use coaxial cable.

07:14 - And then soon that became the standard of the industry

07:16 - because it was more reliable, it could go longer distances

07:20 - and carry more signals than the tin lead.

07:23 - Jim, can you talk about Pennsylvanians

07:25 - George Barkow and his daughter, Yolanda?

07:29 - And before you do full disclosure,

07:30 - they founded Pecan, the channel you're appearing on right now.

07:34 - Talk about their contribue tions to the cable industry.

07:38 - Well, they were tremendous.

07:40 - As I mentioned, other Pennsylvania natives,

07:43 - Ralph Roberts, for example, Julian Brodsky,

07:47 - the Comcast early Comcast pioneers,

07:51 - they contributed much in terms of

07:54 - not only offering new services, but in supporting

07:59 - the cause of the cable pioneers or the cable industry,

08:02 - I should say.

08:03 - Before the Federal Communications

08:05 - Commission, a 1972 report in order

08:11 - was a real seminal point in our and our history.

08:14 - I think it'll come as a surprise to some of our viewers

08:17 - that former Governor Milton Sharp

08:19 - himself was a cable pioneer.

08:21 - What was his contribution, Jim?

08:24 - Well, I think someone in his position,

08:27 - for example, had had a lot of influence on

08:31 - some of the early regulations that covered cable.

08:35 - Probably not.

08:36 - Many of your viewers remember driving down the streets

08:40 - of a smaller, mid-size city and seeing a theater

08:44 - with killer pay TV on on the marquee.

08:49 - It was tremendous resistance from the broadcasters

08:52 - and the and the tell and the the movie industry

08:58 - took to

09:00 - baby basically killed cable in the cradle.

09:02 - I mean they were afraid

09:03 - of the giving all the video options and people would stop

09:07 - stop attending movies, stop watching TV channels.

09:12 - There's their station if you had multiple opportunities.

09:15 - So having the governor in the industry

09:18 - was was certainly a tremendous leg up.

09:21 - And we had we had broadcasters as well

09:24 - who got on the cable bandwagon, like people like Bert

09:27 - Harris from Los Angeles, who were very helpful in and

09:32 - representing the cause of the early, early cable operators.

09:37 - Before we got on the path we're on today,

09:41 - here's another name, Jim Durant's.

09:43 - And again, full disclosure, he's chairman emeritus here at BCN.

09:47 - What's your experience with Jim?

09:49 - Well, mostly

09:53 - getting to know him a little bit.

09:54 - And our cable pioneer banquets,

09:57 - he attended well into his late eighties

10:02 - had an occasion to communicate with Jim

10:05 - just very recently when I realized that

10:08 - he had never applied for emeritus membership,

10:10 - which he's been eligible for for quite some time.

10:14 - And I think the last time I saw him was five

10:17 - or six years ago at a convention in Atlanta,

10:21 - and it was just always great to be around him.

10:25 - Tremendous personality.

10:26 - Loved the pioneers and faithful to the industry.

10:30 - And, you know, I know his some of his early

10:35 - connection to Meadville

10:37 - and and Maple Maple Dale and the Jim Reynolds operations.

10:42 - And the earliest aspect, I think probably 52, 53.

10:48 - So he predated my entry into cable by about 15 years.

10:54 - What can you tell us about John Regas, another Pennsylvania

10:57 - cable pioneer?

10:59 - Well, John founded System,

11:02 - a company called Adelphia in his hometown or at his base

11:07 - at the time of counters for Pennsylvania Place.

11:11 - I visited not too long ago.

11:12 - That actually spent a little time with John a

11:15 - couple of summers ago, before he passed.

11:19 - He was a very interesting guy.

11:22 - I've heard him referred to as a sweet old character.

11:26 - You know, and enjoying breaking bread with him

11:31 - even as recently as three years ago.

11:36 - I've been certainly attest to that.

11:40 - He built quite a company.

11:43 - And you may know the history that the company was was sold.

11:48 - It was built on acquisitions and construction

11:52 - and it was sold and taken over.

11:54 - Some years ago.

11:55 - I don't remember the exact, exact year,

11:59 - but John was absent from us for a while.

12:01 - But it was it was nice to have him back on the scene

12:06 - a few years before before we lost him.

12:09 - Jim, we've talked about a whole bunch of cable pioneers so far.

12:13 - So given those memories

12:14 - and the people you've met over the years and the fact that

12:18 - there was a battle fought by the cable industry back then,

12:22 - who do you consider a real maverick

12:24 - who just went in there

12:26 - with the intention of getting things done

12:27 - and whatever the expense might be,

12:30 - you know, in a way where they just aren't

12:32 - afraid to break things, get things done.

12:34 - Well, there were a number of them

12:36 - you have to mention.

12:37 - Bill Bresnan Well I'm start to say Bill

12:41 - Bill Daniels Bill Bresnan as well.

12:44 - Bob Magnus

12:46 - those Western pioneers that built cable out on the plains.

12:51 - The reason that

12:52 - Denver became the cable capital

12:54 - of the business for quite some time,

12:56 - because so much of the some of those early mavericks,

12:59 - if you will, were made their headquarters in Denver.

13:03 - John Malone, who initially was a Gerald

13:09 - executive selling equipment before Magnus brought him

13:13 - to Denver to head up this little company called TCI.

13:18 - And TCI, as you may know,

13:20 - merged with AT&T some later

13:24 - and was the pieces acquired by Comcast and others.

13:28 - Neither company is still around.

13:30 - Comcast has most of those properties now, but

13:33 - those are the names that come to mind for me.

13:37 - Some of the Western guys

13:39 - in California, Walter Case,

13:42 - Gail, either Gene Jacobi is I spoke

13:47 - with just a couple of days ago out in Sacramento.

13:51 - He was one of the early.

13:52 - He and his father were some of the

13:53 - early San Francisco pioneers.

13:57 - Those those are the people that were

14:00 - that I really revered when I first joined the industry

14:03 - and became acquainted with a lot of them

14:06 - and employed by a couple of them.

14:10 - And so those those are

14:11 - the names that come to mind in I'd mentioned Comcast earlier.

14:14 - You can ever

14:16 - have a have a conversation about this industry

14:19 - not just that Comcast is the largest operator today

14:23 - but what what they did in the early days, beginning

14:27 - in Mississippi, of all places, Meridian, Mississippi,

14:31 - they owned partial systems in Sarasota, Florida,

14:34 - which they later sold and then reacquired

14:39 - after Storer Communications

14:41 - was sold in the late eighties.

14:44 - So, Jim, let's talk about you for a few minutes.

14:47 - You started in the cable business in 1969.

14:50 - So how did you enter the business?

14:52 - What were you doing immediately before you got into cable?

14:55 - Well, I was a radio disc jockey.

14:57 - I you might just call me your basic market announcer.

15:02 - I did news and sold advertising copy,

15:05 - and I had a rock and roll radio show from seven to midnight.

15:09 - And I had some difficulties with my voice or our time

15:13 - because I was working too many hours

15:15 - and too many smoky concerts, MCI.

15:20 - So I took some

15:21 - time off in my first day back on the at work on

15:24 - the air was the grand opening for a cable company

15:27 - in Tifton, Georgia.

15:28 - And the owners were there as a three day event.

15:32 - We signed up a couple of thousand people for this

15:34 - brand new 12 channel cable system,

15:37 - and on the end of the third day,

15:39 - the guys approached me and asked

15:40 - if I'd like to come to work for them.

15:42 - So I said, Well, I'm not real sure about that

15:46 - until they told me that it was significantly better pay and

15:51 - daytime hours.

15:54 - And so my family signed on to that pretty quickly.

15:57 - And I became a cable manager

15:59 - before I could spell a lot of the names of the spare parts.

16:04 - That very fortunate term for me.

16:07 - Cable store communications store broadcast.

16:10 - It bought that little company two years later

16:13 - and we were in a very rapid growth period.

16:17 - So I got on the fast track to senior management

16:20 - with Storer and that was that's basically the story.

16:24 - Radio two cable and here I am.

16:26 - And when was there this rapid growth you spoke of?

16:30 - Just how explosive was that?

16:32 - Maybe more importantly,

16:33 - what do you suppose was the event that made it happen?

16:37 - Well, I think what made it happen,

16:39 - and I'll take that first, is that places like Montgomery,

16:43 - Alabama, that had three television

16:45 - stations already and might not have felt the need for it,

16:49 - but did tend to UHF stations that even in the city and

16:53 - and the local suburbs were not that reliable.

16:57 - So Montgomery,

16:58 - Alabama, was one

16:59 - of the first of the larger cities to need cable.

17:02 - And I was sent out by a store to investigate the franchise,

17:07 - which we ultimately were awarded and built that that was 1976.

17:14 - It took a little bit

17:15 - of a couple of years before the franchising battles

17:19 - really picked up in cities like Louisville,

17:22 - Cincinnati, Oklahoma City began to get on the

17:26 - you know, let's let's issue

17:28 - a cable franchise and get our people

17:30 - the television that they're asking for.

17:33 - And it was really the the most active

17:36 - period was of growth was 79 to 81.

17:39 - And my company was speaking for Storer.

17:43 - We were awarded over £2 million under franchise

17:47 - rewards during that period.

17:49 - And of course, the next several years,

17:51 - we undertook the construction of those operations.

17:55 - Phenix, Arizona, the last major market

17:58 - that I built and was working

18:01 - when Star was acquired in leveraged buyout.

18:05 - But again, it was the desire for more signals.

18:11 - The C-Band satellite business had just gotten started.

18:16 - People were being able to get additional television

18:19 - with with the large backyard dishes from c-band

18:24 - before they were all

18:25 - encoded, encrypted.

18:28 - And it was it was it was quite done.

18:33 - Jim, we've been talking about events

18:34 - that have been taking place

18:36 - over the course of the last 70 years or so.

18:39 - So at the risk of giving you whiplash, how does cable

18:43 - fit into the television landscape of 2023?

18:47 - Well, that's a very interesting question.

18:50 - You hear the term cord cutting quite often these days.

18:54 - And people, friends

18:55 - that know my history in the business will say, well,

18:59 - how do you feel about cable losing all their business?

19:02 - Well, the fact is that cable

19:05 - is the most efficient way to

19:08 - provide Internet high speed Internet service

19:11 - for all the streaming businesses that are out there.

19:15 - So a customer who

19:18 - who cuts off their video service from their cable provider

19:23 - generally is going to keep their Internet.

19:26 - They have to have some Internet service.

19:28 - And typically it's cable

19:29 - that's the best, if not the only option

19:32 - to provide the Netflix and the Amazon

19:35 - and the Disney Prime's that

19:38 - are so popular today.

19:40 - And it's always interesting to me to meet someone

19:44 - who's got five or six or more streaming services

19:47 - and they're paying

19:48 - more for their video than they were

19:49 - when they had the full cable package.

19:52 - But it's it's current taste.

19:56 - Got to give it Netflix credit.

19:58 - They do a tremendous job with original programing.

20:02 - And many people, most I know

20:06 - have a good cable connection, their Internet

20:09 - and Netflix as well.

20:10 - Amazon, of course, as and Disney

20:14 - being the third most popular today.

20:17 - But I think the future continues to be the provision of higher

20:22 - and higher speeds of Internet service to provide more and more

20:27 - not just the streaming, but other features that

20:31 - that come with that with that high speed connection.

20:35 - So, Jim, what do you suppose the next five years or so holds

20:39 - for the future of cable?

20:40 - Are you able to say that?

20:43 - Well, the thing that that I think is going to be

20:46 - the best development is that the government grants

20:50 - for the broad the broadband grants

20:52 - for building fiber into the rural areas.

20:56 - As a South

20:57 - Georgia boy myself, I've got friends and family

21:00 - still that live in areas without cable access.

21:04 - So they have a dish or direct TV,

21:07 - they own a high speed internet.

21:09 - They have is from his net, which is okay down stream

21:14 - and not any

21:15 - where near upstream available for some of the streaming

21:19 - they want to do.

21:20 - And so as some of these areas get fiber

21:24 - and get constructed by under these grants,

21:28 - I think Charter just this week was awarded

21:31 - some additional grants in North Carolina for

21:35 - several tens of thousands of homes that have had no access

21:38 - to either Internet or cable up until now

21:43 - or when these just when these construction projects

21:47 - are completed in the next year or so.

21:50 - Last question for you, Jim.

21:51 - You're the executive director of cable TV Pioneer.

21:54 - So and all the pioneers get together and have a talk.

21:57 - What does this subject usually turn to?

22:00 - Oh, my goodness.

22:03 - Mostly the people that are wanting to be pioneers

22:08 - that that are have been in long enough to be inducted.

22:13 - We talk, obviously, about the competitive issues

22:18 - with with the awards.

22:20 - For example, in a state like North Carolina,

22:22 - you can have three or four competing companies

22:25 - looking for these government grants.

22:27 - So it's it's more we're a social club.

22:31 - We're still social organizer.

22:33 - So we don't get too heavy into the business in

22:36 - or in our meetings other than introducing the

22:40 - new class, which we'll do again in October this year.

22:43 - Jim Faircloth, executive director of cable

22:46 - TV Pioneers, thank you very much.

22:49 - Pleased to be with you.