00:00 - The first time you started thinking

00:02 - about getting into the industry.

00:03 - Do I remember?

00:05 - Yeah, sure.

00:07 - I was just

00:13 - going to start.

00:14 - Or we can just start. Yeah, just part of it.

00:17 - Yeah, well, you know, strategies

00:21 - story many time, but

00:27 - I'm a perfect example

00:29 - of somebody that really

00:31 - and truly was at the right place at the right time. And

00:36 - because

00:38 - if I can go back a little bit and start

00:40 - so I can get this story in the right perspective

00:45 - after

00:48 - the service and I

00:52 - went to college

00:54 - and got a degree in engineering.

00:58 - I made a career choice and

01:02 - to some degree, if you call it a career choice,

01:06 - I always aspired, I thought to I'd like to begin

01:10 - a little business someplace

01:13 - and go down that road on my own. So

01:18 - after

01:20 - college I had my dad,

01:24 - who is a Greek immigrant,

01:26 - did what all good Greeks

01:29 - should do.

01:29 - He opened up a restaurant and encounters

01:33 - bought NO in Wellsville, New York,

01:36 - which is 30 miles from Carter Sports, just across

01:40 - the state line. So

01:43 - and by the way, the restaurant is still an existence.

01:48 - My brother

01:50 - has run it for many years and now my nephews have it.

01:55 - So it's 80 years.

01:57 - And I was born over the restaurant.

02:00 - So what's the restaurant called?

02:04 - That's that's the real tricky one

02:06 - that's got a fancy name called the Texas Hot.

02:11 - Was that always the name of it?

02:12 - Always the name of it.

02:15 - And it

02:19 - began its reputation with the working

02:22 - man's restaurant in 1921.

02:25 - And probably,

02:30 - you know,

02:31 - with my dad and working in a restaurant

02:34 - in those years, people didn't eat out as much. And,

02:38 - you know, it was a struggle and

02:40 - but it was a great experience working in that restaurant. So

02:44 - I'm very lucky

02:46 - and fortunate to this day that

02:49 - I can park my car behind the restaurant

02:54 - in the alleys that I grew up and played in,

02:57 - and go through the kitchen

03:01 - and have a cup of coffee or a sandwich

03:03 - with my brother or people that I went to school with and

03:08 - and restore some of all of that

03:13 - history and and support that was important to me.

03:17 - So it's, it's, it's a great thing.

03:22 - But going back so after school, I, um,

03:26 - I elected to, as I said, to,

03:29 - to begin a little business.

03:31 - And I tried my dad's restaurant for working in there,

03:35 - put on a white apron and,

03:39 - and people have to make choices.

03:41 - And sometimes

03:43 - as I look back on it, I didn't realize at the time, but

03:49 - we have to settle for something less.

03:52 - And there was a time when I began

03:57 - to work in my dad's restaurant that I feel

04:00 - a little bit

04:03 - uneasy.

04:04 - I felt some

04:09 - pressure from

04:12 - people perhaps

04:14 - being critical that I didn't go into

04:18 - my chosen profession of engineering, but

04:23 - took something less.

04:24 - But it was certainly the right decision for me

04:27 - because as it worked out,

04:30 - although I didn't stay in a restaurant, only maybe

04:34 - something about nine months,

04:37 - it gave me the opportunity that

04:41 - another great gentleman

04:44 - introduced me to the kind of sports theater

04:47 - and the Qatar sports theater came into play, which later on

04:53 - is important.

04:54 - Getting to this story is that, you know, the

04:59 - the kind of sports theater was

05:02 - a pretty

05:04 - rundown

05:08 - theater

05:10 - and the future look kind of bleak

05:14 - because television was coming in and box office

05:18 - was affected very dramatically where television had come in.

05:22 - And therefore,

05:24 - there was a risk there, you know.

05:26 - But when was this 1951.

05:30 - I acquired just this first to Qatar Sports Theater in 1951.

05:35 - We familiar with Qatar's sport.

05:36 - Before then, I was not

05:38 - I had only been there one time to play softball.

05:42 - And we but

05:46 - it was a start.

05:48 - And so we went to

05:50 - the two local banks, my dad and I,

05:54 - to see if we could

05:56 - borrow some money to acquire this theater.

05:59 - And the banks did the right thing.

06:03 - They turned us down

06:05 - because it truly was not a very good

06:10 - business proposition.

06:13 - And the price that was being asked was

06:15 - as I look back on it, it was pretty, pretty exorbitant.

06:20 - Remember how much that was, I'd say.

06:21 - How much was they asking for the theater?

06:23 - $72,000.

06:25 - And that was a lot of money.

06:27 - And particularly for a theater.

06:28 - When I say it was pretty neglected, it truly was about

06:35 - once again, it's strange how

06:39 - the community came together and there was a

06:44 - couple other Greek families in my hometown of Wellsville

06:49 - that had a few extra dollars and came to my dad and offered

06:55 - to, uh, to give us the necessary money for the down payment.

07:00 - And so we borrowed the money

07:04 - and we acquired the Cottage Sports Theater.

07:08 - And if you remember the first movie you rent.

07:14 - Sure.

07:14 - You coming

07:16 - were all in the morning with Abbott and Costello.

07:19 - Yeah.

07:20 - So it was a crowd we did.

07:23 - Opening night was a smash because it rained.

07:27 - You had a nice little rain.

07:28 - It was August the first and 1951 and coincidentally

07:34 - I just started getting off a little bit.

07:38 - You know,

07:40 - I was reading the autobiography of Sam

07:45 - Walton, who was the founder of Wal-Mart.

07:48 - And in his autobiography, he had

07:52 - said that

07:55 - on August the first, 1951,

07:59 - he went to Bentley Ville,

08:01 - Arkansas, and opened up his first store.

08:04 - Well, and on August the first, 1951,

08:08 - was the first day that I sat in that

08:13 - ticket booth.

08:13 - So my first tickets made me like popcorn.

08:16 - And so you just assured 50th anniversary.

08:20 - Yeah.

08:21 - So we and I know how

08:26 - actually a pretty frightening

08:30 - strange town

08:32 - risky but

08:36 - like I said, it

08:38 - eventually turned out for the best because

08:40 - what had happened in the process is that that

08:49 - there was a film salesman by Samuel Burke

08:53 - and Samuel Berg's

08:56 - work for

08:58 - picture company called RKO.

09:01 - And Sam was a gentleman

09:03 - that perhaps

09:08 - a lot of people couldn't

09:10 - take a real warm liking to him.

09:15 - But Sam, as a young man, I noticed that

09:22 - he had great experience and a great passion

09:25 - for the film industry, and he took a lot of pride

09:29 - in being a film peddler in those days.

09:33 - His parents, his father had been a film peddler,

09:37 - and he had entered that world and he knew the product

09:41 - and he knew so many people, his

09:46 - history, so much history of the

09:49 - movie pictures and the characters and the actors.

09:52 - And he kind of took a liking to me.

09:54 - So when we'd have a meeting together and book the movies,

09:57 - he would advise me and tell me what he would.

10:01 - I should play or shouldn't play in a small town.

10:04 - And one day now.

10:07 - But during this process he would say to me, like,

10:10 - Well, don't play that picture with

10:13 - Joan Crawford

10:14 - or with Rowland Coleman, because they're too

10:17 - sophisticated for a small town like cottage for I.

10:22 - But he says, I've got a picture here that would do well on

10:27 - Tarzan and the Apes.

10:28 - I'll sell it to you for $12.50 and

10:34 - go over to Republic Pictures

10:36 - and get it Gene Autry or Roy Rogers.

10:40 - And they'll ask for $17.50

10:44 - hold out for $12.50

10:47 - and doesn't sound like a lot of money, but,

10:51 - you know, that's

10:53 - you know, so we had to play it very close.

10:56 - How much did it cost to get it into the theater?

10:58 - It cost me cost $0.20

11:01 - for children and $0.40 for adults.

11:05 - So that's where we were

11:08 - anyway.

11:10 - Sam one day came to him and he said, John,

11:14 - this is the interesting part.

11:17 - That whole life

11:21 - sometimes

11:24 - is somebody is

11:25 - either looking after you or

11:29 - you certainly have to be at the right place.

11:31 - I think someplace not that you shouldn't

11:38 - be aware

11:40 - that you have to make some choices again, but

11:45 - Sam said to me,

11:48 - you know,

11:48 - I've been traveling through Pennsylvania

11:50 - and a couple of small communities

11:52 - have they're bringing in television by wire.

11:58 - And he said, True, true statement, Mr.

12:01 - John, that's your future and you've got to get into it,

12:05 - because when television comes in any way to cut a sport,

12:10 - they're going to have to

12:13 - your box office going to be hurt.

12:15 - So you should protect your box office by getting in television

12:21 - and what you lose at the box office you can

12:25 - pick up. So

12:28 - I thanked him and I said, but, you know, I've got a big debt.

12:33 - And now I had taken a job working daytimes in Emporium,

12:37 - which was 30 miles away, and I was working daylight.

12:42 - Daytimes and Emporium

12:44 - had a position in the engineering department,

12:47 - and then at night I would come back and open up the theater and

12:50 - do what was necessary and close it up at 11

12:53 - and take off at six in the morning to

12:56 - because that extra revenue income helped

13:00 - because I was anxious to get that debt reduced very quickly.

13:03 - Who did you work for in Emporium?

13:04 - Sylvania Electric.

13:06 - Doing what?

13:07 - Well, I was in the

13:10 - in the sales engineering

13:13 - part of it where we introduced a new products and

13:19 - promoted the

13:19 - products and that sort of thing.

13:23 - So he kept

13:30 - bugging me,

13:32 - You've got to get into cable television.

13:34 - It wasn't called cable television.

13:36 - It was just called Get into the television, get a license.

13:41 - And I couldn't get rid of them.

13:44 - So one day

13:46 - I weakened and I said, Okay, Sam, I'll call up

13:50 - and see if I can get the license of the franchise

13:55 - and get any television and all encounters

13:57 - bought at the time, there were

14:01 - people in

14:05 - uncertain streets at the top of the hills

14:09 - that were that the neighbors had gotten together

14:13 - and started to string some wire

14:17 - and they had each

14:19 - there would be three or four neighborhoods

14:21 - they were just starting to bring in

14:25 - one picture or two pictures and

14:29 - very primitive

14:31 - ribbon wire,

14:33 - which whenever rained, you know, they would lose

14:36 - your picture, but

14:38 - and they became very loyal.

14:40 - And so they all volunteered to maintain it.

14:43 - And so they get about a ten or 15 on the neighborhood.

14:47 - So that was the beginning of it.

14:49 - But there was nothing coming down into the to the main

14:52 - part of the community and and so

14:55 - on, so

14:59 - I went, I call

15:00 - the president of Bureau Console and I tell him I would like to

15:04 - receive the apply for a license.

15:08 - The gentleman

15:12 - at Fisher said, Well, Johnny says you're too late.

15:15 - We've already given that to somebody else.

15:18 - And I thought, Great, that's good news.

15:20 - Now I don't have to worry about the hook, I'm off the hook.

15:24 - And so

15:27 - I went back to Sam when he

15:29 - visited me and I told him, Sam, you know, I'm I'm too late.

15:34 - They've already given the franchise away

15:37 - and without blinking.

15:39 - And I said to me, Johnny said, That's a fuge

15:42 - you have got to get that franchise.

15:44 - You got to get into it.

15:47 - And he had such a

15:49 - strong belief in it and I kind of dismissed it.

15:52 - I just wasn't focused in on it at all.

15:56 - And this was in 1952.

16:00 - And so

16:04 - he kept persisting.

16:05 - And what I learned was, Sam, after a while, the only way

16:08 - that I could really dismiss the subject was to make a call.

16:12 - So I made the call

16:15 - to the gentleman that had received the franchise.

16:18 - And the conversation went like this, as you said.

16:21 - I said, Well, I understand you have their franchise and

16:25 - how you do on with your

16:28 - enterprise.

16:30 - And he said, well, he said, we're doing very well.

16:32 - We, we tested this signal

16:35 - up and top of the mountain and we're getting to

16:39 - two pitchers, one from Johnstown and one from Altoona.

16:43 - We're trying to get one from

16:45 - Buffalo, New York, but we're not sure.

16:48 - And we got three people that are

16:52 - going to invest in it and we're going ahead with it.

16:56 - At the time, he said, we had met with

16:59 - somebody from Jerrold Electronics and

17:05 - the construction person had come up from State College,

17:08 - Pennsylvania to discuss it and

17:13 - he said everything looks very positive.

17:16 - So I thought, well, that's that's good for me because

17:19 - I really wasn't interested in making an investment,

17:23 - so I wasn't paying attention.

17:28 - And finally he said to me,

17:29 - Are you interested in investing any money?

17:31 - And I said, No, not really.

17:33 - I guess what I was interested is

17:35 - maybe you'd let me buy the franchise.

17:40 - And he said, Yes, I'd be glad to sell you the franchise.

17:45 - And I said, Oh,

17:49 - think it's terrible

17:51 - to have that happens here.

17:53 - Didn't I hear this great litany of how well things were going?

17:57 - And he said, Well.

17:59 - And I asked him, Why is this,

18:02 - you know, why are you doing this when you

18:05 - you know, you had the investors.

18:07 - Well, he said the investors

18:10 - were very prominent citizens in Carter's book,

18:13 - and they indicated to me that

18:17 - I had to put up my share of the financing.

18:21 - And I don't

18:23 - I don't have much an idea.

18:26 - I couldn't meet that criteria here.

18:29 - And I offered to sell them my license.

18:33 - And they told me that it wasn't written,

18:35 - it wasn't worth the paper was written on.

18:37 - So I was looking for somebody

18:42 - to just get what I had into this project,

18:46 - not counting all the time I'd spent, you know,

18:49 - just in a seven or so

18:53 - I and

18:54 - so I said, Well, what would you sell it for?

18:58 - And he said, I'll sell it to you for $300.

19:02 - So I overdue the checking account

19:08 - and bought a franchise

19:11 - and so it was through the efforts of Sam Milberg

19:17 - and Fate that, that this opportunity came up

19:23 - and a little

19:28 - continuance of that.

19:29 - So what happened?

19:30 - I didn't have any any real resources.

19:35 - I just had a piece of paper,

19:38 - but I thought I would look into it.

19:40 - Did you understand the engineering of it at the time,

19:42 - how it was?

19:43 - Not really just was

19:47 - something that was all strange and new to me, you know.

19:50 - And so I started to

19:53 - make some inquiries and started to learn about it.

19:56 - And this I could and there was a system

20:00 - being built nearby in Gail in Pennsylvania. And

20:05 - I had made the contact with the Jerrold

20:10 - and Milt chap came up to talk to me.

20:16 - So I, I got started to get

20:20 - a little interested in, in this prospect.

20:23 - And about that time, about three or four weeks later,

20:28 - one of the gentlemen

20:29 - that was going to invest in the in the franchise

20:33 - came to me and had a we had a cup of coffee together

20:38 - and I'm trying to

20:40 - work my way through what am I should I do

20:44 - what I should do with this franchise?

20:46 - And it was kind of scary to me and not having any

20:51 - or any real I

20:54 - resources and

20:57 - being a stranger in town

21:01 - and he said to me,

21:02 - he said, I understand you bought that franchise from Jack.

21:05 - And I said, Yeah.

21:07 - And he said, Well, you can't protect

21:10 - your box

21:11 - office and just sit on that franchise

21:14 - because we're going to build this system in Harrisburg.

21:18 - And I said, Well, I'm don't intend to

21:23 - do that.

21:23 - I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't expect it.

21:26 - He said, What are you going to do with it?

21:28 - And I guess I, I exaggerated a little bit

21:32 - because I said, well, I intend to build it,

21:35 - you know, and I don't know what made me say that, but

21:39 - did you not intend to build it at the time?

21:41 - What did you intend to build it?

21:43 - At the time, I wasn't sure.

21:45 - I really wasn't sure because I had to put together

21:50 - some investors and

21:52 - and I was trying to really make

21:55 - an honest determination

21:58 - what was I getting into?

22:00 - And, you know, did you talk it over with your family

22:06 - a little bit?

22:07 - But they weren't

22:09 - they weren't familiar with it at all.

22:11 - So we didn't know.

22:13 - I think probably so.

22:16 - Anyway, the final finally said to me,

22:19 - he said, well, he says after some discussion,

22:22 - he said, you know, that franchise isn't worth anything.

22:27 - And I said, Well,

22:30 - I think it is because I don't I understand

22:33 - you can't cross the streets and you can't use the poles

22:37 - without this franchise now.

22:40 - Well, he says we can go from tree to

22:42 - tree and building from building and I said, Well,

22:46 - I suppose you can, but, you know, I intend to

22:50 - pursue it the other way and do it the right way.

22:54 - And he said, Well, he says, you have a degree in engineering

22:59 - since we've been talking it over.

23:02 - You know, if

23:04 - you join us, we'll give you 25% of the company.

23:08 - And I said, well, how much

23:12 - what do I have to put in in I know by way of

23:16 - hard cash.

23:18 - And they said

23:21 - Jim and the other partners on the local bank board,

23:25 - and he's made arrangements to borrow $40,000.

23:29 - So if you just sign a note with the rest of us,

23:31 - that'll be enough to get us started

23:34 - and then we'll see where it goes from there.

23:36 - So I signed a note,

23:39 - became a quarter,

23:42 - 25% partner

23:44 - and was in charge of building the system.

23:49 - So we started down that road

23:52 - and in March of 1953 we hooked up our first customer.

23:56 - Who was your first customer?

23:58 - Who was it you remember?

24:00 - You know, I was just trying to think my my memory isn't good.

24:04 - I do remember

24:06 - her, but I can't remember her last name.

24:09 - We'd have to come to me.

24:10 - I apologize for that.

24:12 - But we charge them.

24:14 - We charge $150 to hook up

24:17 - and we charge $2.75 a month.

24:20 - How many channels?

24:21 - Two channels.

24:23 - We promise to clear channels.

24:25 - And in our reality, we ended up giving them two snowy ones

24:30 - and very unpredictable,

24:33 - because Cold Channel would come in and wipe them

24:36 - both out and and then we had a very,

24:41 - you know, our first technician

24:46 - was my projectionist.

24:48 - And if he was work in

24:51 - the theater at night

24:53 - and the pitcher would go out,

24:54 - there was no way he was going to do anything.

24:57 - And then on weekends it was continuous show.

25:00 - And so generally if it broke down on Friday night,

25:04 - I would feature when people wouldn't get a pitcher probably

25:07 - until next Monday when he felt like going out and repairing it.

25:11 - It was a pretty primitive

25:14 - organization we were at at the beginning.

25:16 - What did your customers think of it

25:19 - initially?

25:21 - Well, they were excited about it.

25:22 - I'll never forget

25:25 - the lady's name was Jane.

25:26 - I'm trying to think of her last name

25:28 - when we brought that picture down off the hill.

25:32 - And what

25:35 - what our excitement

25:38 - it was for both of us, the excitement for her

25:42 - to get a television picture down in her house.

25:46 - And and fortunately for us,

25:49 - the picture was looking pretty good at that time.

25:52 - And the

25:57 - for me, it was just

25:59 - exciting to think that with the magic

26:03 - of bringing down a picture from the top of the mountain

26:06 - down that hill into somebody's

26:09 - house, and the enjoyment

26:15 - and the pleasure and the excitement

26:17 - that it brought to them.

26:18 - And it was just a wonderful feeling of an accomplishment

26:22 - and so on.

26:23 - Being part of all of that was a big news in town.

26:27 - It was

26:28 - captured the front page,

26:31 - the story, television is here.

26:34 - But you know what?

26:35 - A lot of people think that

26:39 - it was an easy sell and it was it.

26:44 - No, you know,

26:46 - it wasn't because

26:49 - as I look back on it

26:51 - for a number of reasons, one is that

26:58 - the people that were

26:59 - running those lines off the hill

27:02 - and being a kind of a cooperative thing,

27:05 - and they weren't charging each other.

27:07 - They were just maintaining it.

27:12 - Other people in town felt that, well, you know,

27:16 - those lines will come down.

27:18 - And then, you know, I won't have to pay anything.

27:22 - That was a factor.

27:24 - And people were resistant to going onto the cable.

27:28 - And there was another thing that was happening psychologically.

27:33 - I believe that

27:37 - a lot of people

27:38 - resented the fact that most people in

27:42 - America were getting television for free, half an antenna,

27:48 - and by golly, they weren't going to pay for something.

27:51 - And if they waited it out,

27:54 - stations would come

27:55 - closer to kind of support in a few years

27:58 - and they could

28:01 - they could hook up.

28:03 - And that resistance resistance

28:06 - lasted for a whole lot of years.

28:09 - And it was something in need of something

28:13 - inside of that just said, hey, I'm not going to pay for that.

28:17 - And thirdly, I think that not only were the

28:21 - open lines, wires coming in from off the hills,

28:25 - there was a factor.

28:27 - But we made some business decisions that were wrong.

28:31 - One is, when I look back on it, we charge $150.

28:36 - And that was a lot of money because people had the radios

28:40 - and that was their means of communications.

28:42 - Now they had to

28:43 - invest in a black and white set in those days, $500.

28:47 - That was a big then.

28:50 - That's insult and injury to some people.

28:53 - They had to pay the cable company $150

28:56 - to hook up, and we wanted it all upfront.

29:01 - They had mistake.

29:03 - And then we also had a complicated contract

29:07 - too, kind of abrogated them to all kinds of thing

29:11 - we asked them to sign and people were hesitant about that

29:15 - and were wondering what they were getting into,

29:17 - what kinds of things that you obligate them to.

29:19 - Oh, I think that they had to stay on for so long

29:23 - and that if this went wrong or that we're fighting anything

29:27 - wrong was their fault, you know, and we were just oh,

29:31 - it was kind of a

29:32 - ridiculous instrument as I look back on it now.

29:36 - But it was well intended.

29:38 - And the reason was

29:39 - a lot of the theory was, yeah, you know, that

29:42 - reason we went with $150 is that,

29:45 - you know, I can remember the conversation

29:47 - I first had with Milt where he said, we're not sure that

29:53 - this way of

29:54 - transporting the signal will be around very long,

29:57 - so you ought to get your money upfront.

30:00 - And so we were trying

30:01 - to recapture as much as we as we could up front.

30:05 - But that changed for me in a couple of years

30:10 - after watching

30:14 - how people feel about television

30:17 - and watching what we're beginning to happen

30:19 - in communities in Pennsylvania and nearby communities,

30:24 - and what the possibilities were and understanding what the

30:30 - the ability to offer people choices.

30:33 - I started to be become

30:35 - a believer in its future, but not the first two years.

30:39 - Did you get to know

30:40 - any of the other cable operators around the state at the time

30:43 - I did not.

30:44 - I think my first experience is that,

30:47 - I mean, I was having we were having an issue with

30:52 - with the the sales tax.

30:56 - We had a very aggressive sales tax

31:01 - person out of our area

31:04 - that was making the claim

31:07 - that we had to pay sales tax

31:11 - and then I had contacted

31:14 - a gentleman by the name of Joe Ganz

31:17 - and he assured me we didn't have to pay that.

31:21 - And then my recollection was that

31:26 - I made a contact with

31:29 - Strat Smith and

31:33 - we had a discussion with him about the sales tax issue.

31:38 - And so that was practically my first

31:43 - introduction with the people outside

31:45 - of the industry that I recall.

31:47 - You know, there was

31:48 - there was a contact with the people in State College

31:52 - that they already had to build a system down there.

31:55 - So we were starting to to move in that direction.

31:58 - It wasn't until about 55 or 56

32:01 - that I really became

32:03 - more familiar with a lot of the operators

32:06 - was at some point in the process,

32:08 - did you think that you had made a dreadful mistake

32:10 - getting into this business many times without a question?

32:15 - And I will tell you that it's very difficult

32:20 - to put into words

32:24 - the uncertainty

32:26 - that existed for so many of us.

32:29 - And that was

32:34 - something that

32:38 - I think was

32:46 - why so many of our my partners

32:49 - for many years, it would come in and

32:55 - they would exit as soon as they thought

32:57 - they could find somebody that would

33:00 - buy them out or give them a price.

33:04 - The differences with a lot of the early pioneers stuck it out.

33:10 - I think that they really understood

33:14 - that the American public

33:17 - wanted choices,

33:19 - and that was what cable was all about

33:23 - and the ability to begin

33:25 - to offer those

33:28 - choices

33:32 - is what

33:34 - sustained me and understanding that that broadband pipe,

33:39 - as we call it today, that's coaxial cable,

33:44 - you know, after separate opportunities

33:47 - and all that, we didn't have the satellite, but

33:50 - our dreams were that we would microwave more signals in. And

33:56 - so we believed that

34:00 - that the more pictures,

34:03 - no matter

34:04 - if there were duplications of networks or whatnot, was

34:08 - and the possibilities were great.

34:11 - But getting back to the in the early days, yeah,

34:16 - you know, there were many times that I would attend to

34:21 - being on a board in the fifties and sixties

34:25 - and the problems and the threats

34:29 - you know, from

34:32 - the telephone companies not allowing the monopoles

34:36 - or charging exorbitant

34:40 - makeready cost

34:43 - or the broadcasters

34:46 - beginning to try to limit what we could bring in

34:51 - and the threats of

34:56 - trans

34:59 - transmission coming closer.

35:02 - And it was always this UHF was going to come in

35:06 - and then there wouldn't be a need for

35:09 - television.

35:11 - Plus, if I could just

35:14 - remember all the issues that were facing us, but,

35:18 - you know, from the political issues of municipalities

35:22 - wanted to control our rage, wanting to control what signals

35:26 - we could bring in and how we would service the company to

35:32 - to the to the copyright issue.

35:35 - And all those played in my mind,

35:38 - plus the fact that if I had to look at one thing

35:41 - that always troubled me, and maybe as I look back on it,

35:45 - it was

35:46 - but it did worry me because I remember our second

35:50 - franchise in my home town of Wellsville.

35:54 - We were negotiating the length of the contract

35:58 - and we ended up with a 100 year contract.

36:02 - Now you say 100 years.

36:05 - Why 100 years?

36:07 - Because I always had this fear, as a lot of us did, that here.

36:11 - We had all this hardware up there and here we had

36:15 - some of our subscribers

36:19 - in the franchise who come up for renewal

36:21 - ten years or 15 years

36:25 - and the local fathers

36:30 - would say, Well, we're giving it to somebody else.

36:34 - And so take off your hardware.

36:38 - I know that sounds very naive,

36:41 - but that was always a possibility

36:43 - and we used to discuss that many times

36:45 - what's going to happen.

36:47 - So that threat where you would go to council

36:50 - and meet with the council members

36:53 - and they'd have another group that they would say, Well,

36:58 - you know, we're going to give it to was a real threat to us.

37:02 - And so you lose a lot of sleep with that.

37:04 - Fortunately, as a

37:06 - as the years went by and the

37:10 - the regulatory

37:12 - process saw the injustice of it all.

37:16 - So yeah, there was a and I remember talking to

37:19 - my was my friend John Watson who was a true pioneer

37:26 - and who is the largest independent operator.

37:30 - And he understood

37:35 - the possibilities of cable,

37:37 - a real visionary in many ways.

37:39 - And, you know, if you talk to John,

37:43 - sometimes you wouldn't think

37:44 - that he had a grasp of what was going on.

37:47 - But as you listen and you and you

37:51 - and you watch what he did and what he believes in,

37:56 - he became kind of a mentor because I can remember days

38:00 - when I would sit down with him

38:02 - after a board meeting and I'd say, John,

38:05 - I don't know. You know, I think.

38:07 - Do you think we ought to stay in SDR?

38:09 - I think we ought to sell.

38:10 - I didn't have many subscribers

38:11 - in those days, maybe two or 3000.

38:14 - And John would say, he give me all the reason

38:18 - why the the coaxial cable could offer these signals.

38:22 - And he was microwaving in and and he was going to bring

38:25 - in all those things. And

38:27 - and then he would turn to

38:28 - me and said, Well, John, he says, if

38:31 - I'm buying, if you want to sell, I'll buy.

38:35 - And I thought, well, maybe they better stick it out.

38:39 - So I stuck it out

38:41 - at the bank street.

38:42 - You, the banks,

38:46 - if you're talking about the early days,

38:49 - that was a difficult situation too, because

38:54 - you would

38:55 - you know, the and

38:57 - the money centers the cable in the early days

39:01 - wasn't in the cities in the urban areas.

39:04 - So we would go to the local banks

39:08 - hoping for some kind of the

39:14 - support and hoping that they would

39:20 - again

39:21 - see the possibilities and have a sense.

39:26 - And so you would go to the local banks and

39:29 - you would lay out the proposition

39:33 - of and

39:38 - I think

39:39 - it became a question for me.

39:42 - I don't I can't speak for everybody.

39:44 - For me, as I went to community, to community

39:48 - and we got a franchise,

39:51 - I think it became

39:53 - a situation where whether a trust

39:58 - and they could look at me and say, well,

40:02 - I believe that the

40:05 - John's got

40:07 - something here and I can trust him.

40:09 - And so it was a trust factor as much and the loans

40:13 - weren't very large from, you know, the initially 100,000,

40:16 - 40,000, 200,000 for along with that.

40:21 - I don't think that

40:24 - in the early

40:26 - there would have been

40:28 - possible to build the system

40:31 - if it wasn't for the vendor financing that was done by

40:38 - certain vendors

40:40 - and particularly in our case, Milt Sharp.

40:44 - And he would lend you the money to buy his image.

40:47 - He would buy.

40:48 - Yes, he would, you know.

40:50 - Sure. And yeah.

40:51 - And I must confess that there were times that

40:57 - we we abused that because I did.

41:02 - Because, you know, there was a payment due on a note.

41:06 - And and Milt and his gang were pretty, pretty sympathetic.

41:11 - They were interested

41:12 - in selling the equipment, getting out there.

41:15 - But there was a time

41:16 - when they had to turn over their paper and,

41:21 - you know, and

41:24 - can you tell the story about the woman who worked for you

41:26 - who ended up lending you money? Sure.

41:29 - Well, you know, that's one of my more famous stories,

41:33 - I guess, as I look back on it, because,

41:38 - you know, it's

41:44 - you have to be at the right place at the right time.

41:48 - Yes, that helps.

41:50 - And you have to see the opportunity

41:53 - if there is one, and you have to take a risk and all of that.

41:58 - And lots of times

42:01 - people will

42:02 - say, well, you're an entrepreneur.

42:05 - And the early days,

42:07 - at least from my perspective,

42:10 - I heard anybody call me an entrepreneur.

42:13 - I suspect that

42:15 - in order to become an entrepreneur, you first

42:18 - have to be called a little crazy and a little careless,

42:22 - and I think that's probably accurate. So

42:26 - I know that in my heart

42:29 - that when I was

42:32 - going down this road

42:35 - with cable television

42:37 - and that, you know,

42:40 - there were very few people that really saw its future

42:43 - and believed in it.

42:45 - So and and so

42:48 - I think the people that get a

42:51 - start in any kind of endeavor

42:54 - have to be a little perhaps

42:58 - at least have to understand that

43:01 - they're going to be criticized and second guessed.

43:04 - It's not a conventional thing to do,

43:07 - but along with that, you also have to have breaks.

43:10 - And I and I really believe that, too.

43:13 - And so the story is

43:16 - that when we were building our third cable system

43:19 - in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, 1962,

43:26 - and we were doing it on a shoestring.

43:30 - And what you have to realize is that

43:35 - Punxsutawney in those days, could receive five signals.

43:39 - Now, the the state of the art had gone from maybe

43:43 - two, two signals in the early fifties

43:47 - to in the middle fifties.

43:49 - We had gone to five channels.

43:52 - And, you know, that was pretty darn good.

43:56 - And now in the early sixties, we go on to 12 channels.

44:00 - And the question was,

44:02 - people would say to you, why do I need 12 channels?

44:06 - You know, and there wasn't that much choice. And

44:12 - in Punxsutawney there was five

44:15 - signals they were receiving all if there's

44:18 - ten foot antennas or the six foot antennas

44:22 - over there over the air,

44:25 - and we could bring in and buy

44:28 - microwave or retail off the air.

44:31 - Seven And that wasn't much of a margin.

44:35 - And so you were hoping that

44:40 - there would be areas in Punxsutawney

44:43 - that didn't receive good signals.

44:46 - So that would give us some, some places you were hoping.

44:50 - Also, there were other customers you could convince

44:54 - that antennas were unsightly, dangerous.

44:58 - And so we would get a market there.

45:02 - And also you would hope

45:04 - that microwave would bring in more and more signals.

45:07 - Eventually where we went offering more than seven,

45:11 - more than the seven that we were going to give them.

45:13 - But there was also enough

45:16 - variety and choices and it two Xs channels.

45:19 - They were entirely it was all about getting choices again.

45:24 - And so when we built, we started Punxsutawney

45:28 - and we went to the local

45:30 - banks and submitted and we got a $40,000 loan

45:34 - and Gerald took a big hunk of the paper

45:39 - and we had a certain length of time before that.

45:42 - We had to turn that over.

45:45 - And this lady would somehow know that I was in town

45:49 - and we were stringing the strand and the cable,

45:52 - and she say, Mr.

45:53 - Regus, I need a job.

45:55 - Would you please

45:58 - hire me?

46:00 - And in all honesty,

46:03 - I said to her, Well, I'm not sure

46:06 - if we're going to

46:09 - have an office.

46:10 - We just my collects in the local drugstore at the bank,

46:14 - because I'm not sure how successful

46:16 - we're going to be with this endeavor.

46:18 - Well, as it was, we we did hire Betty.

46:22 - And Betty was our first lady in the office, collected

46:27 - the money, answer the phones, you know,

46:30 - and took care of the of whatever was necessary.

46:35 - And it did it all clean the office, you know,

46:39 - and so

46:45 - I had a partner by the name of Jim, Jim Brush.

46:48 - And one day Jim called me up

46:51 - and he said, John he said, Do you remember Chirk and Paul?

46:54 - And I said, Sure, I remember Chirk and Paul. And

46:59 - he said, Well, they just got a franchise

47:01 - outside of Punxsutawney and they like to

47:07 - build that system.

47:08 - They went to the local bank and they asked for a loan

47:12 - and the local bank

47:15 - banker said that

47:17 - if John Regas would cosign that note,

47:20 - he would give them the money.

47:22 - And I said, Jim,

47:24 - you know, first of all, how much are they asking for?

47:30 - He said, You're asking for $50,000.

47:32 - And I said, Jim, you know, 50,000.

47:36 - That's a lot of money. We're going to the bank

47:39 - every day trying to cover our checks.

47:43 - We're making three or four deposits.

47:45 - So as we get a few dollars, we're running over there

47:48 - and we don't have that kind of resources.

47:50 - And if anything went wrong, everything would topple.

47:54 - They just wanted you to cosign as a favor to them. Yes.

47:58 - And so

48:01 - I said, Jim, I don't think we ought to sign that note.

48:04 - I should.

48:05 - And he said, Well,

48:06 - they're good friends of mine and I'll watch it. And

48:12 - to me, do me a favor.

48:15 - So I said, Okay, Jim, send the papers up and

48:19 - I'm trusting on you to watch it.

48:22 - So I signed the papers

48:24 - and every once in a while I would say to Jim,

48:27 - How are we doing there in Germany?

48:28 - And he said, They're doing okay.

48:32 - And I didn't pay much attention in the last six months of it.

48:35 - And one day the one lady that was working in

48:39 - my office, Angie, came in and said,

48:43 - sure of hokum, is would like to see you.

48:46 - And I said,

48:49 - Oh, it's not an election year.

48:52 - I got troubles.

48:54 - She says He sounds pretty serious. So,

48:58 - Sheriff came in.

48:59 - He said, You know these gentlemen, Jim and Paul?

49:04 - And I said, Yeah, sure.

49:07 - He said, Well, he said, they've been

49:13 - sending out bad checks,

49:16 - floating checks

49:19 - behind you and your interest and payment.

49:22 - And the attorney for the bank said in no uncertain terms

49:26 - that you're calling in the loan

49:29 - and they're calling in, you're your guarantee.

49:33 - And they want me to post on your house

49:38 - of foreclosure.

49:40 - And he says, I don't want to do that job,

49:42 - but he says, I have to.

49:46 - And he says, But I'll give you a couple of hours

49:51 - before I act.

49:54 - I will literally panic because we had

49:57 - two other systems, all leverage, all you know, and

50:03 - didn't have $50,000.

50:06 - So I called up Jim and Jim was

50:09 - his eyes

50:10 - since he was in tears and not, you know,

50:15 - felt that he had let me down and

50:20 - didn't have an answer.

50:22 - And the foreclosure had gone on his house

50:25 - and it was an embarrassment.

50:29 - And I said, Well, Jim, I don't know what we can do.

50:32 - Can you not get any time at all with the bank?

50:34 - Would it be worth it if I said doesn't

50:38 - get pretty adamant, pretty angry at all of us.

50:42 - So I said, Betty would like to talk to you.

50:45 - And Betty was a lady that we probably hired for $35

50:49 - a week and very

50:53 - got on the phone.

50:54 - And she said to me, she said

50:58 - and John, you know,

51:03 - I know what the problem is

51:05 - and I enjoy my job

51:08 - and I like working for you and Jim

51:12 - and she says,

51:16 - and maybe I can help you.

51:18 - And I said, Well, Betty, how could you help? US?

51:21 - She says, Well, she says,

51:25 - I have $50,000 in my account,

51:30 - and if you tell me, I'll go over and pay it.

51:34 - And I often jokingly say,

51:38 - Well, I don't know how long it would

51:41 - take you to make that decision,

51:44 - but it probably didn't take me too long in my mind to say,

51:47 - Betty, would you please go over and play that note?

51:51 - But before you go over, would you tell me, you know,

51:55 - how you had $50,000?

51:58 - And she said, well, she said, my dad

52:02 - had an interest in a coal mine.

52:04 - He sold it last week and he put $50,000 in my account.

52:09 - And so

52:11 - she went over and paid

52:12 - off the note and

52:18 - it's one of those stories that,

52:20 - you know, you need a little luck.

52:24 - And she still gets free cable television from you,

52:26 - still gets free television, although she'd move

52:29 - different areas I haven't heard from very.

52:32 - And I ought to give her a call

52:35 - where there's some point at which you knew

52:36 - it was going to work,

52:37 - that you felt like you'd turned the corner financially.

52:41 - You don't.

52:44 - I always is.

52:48 - I look at all those years, 50,

52:53 - 60, 70 years, a lot of uncertainty.

52:58 - It probably didn't begin

53:00 - to feel comfortable

53:05 - until

53:09 - early eighties

53:11 - because

53:14 - the satellite came into play in about 76.

53:19 - And then 78 and 79 began

53:22 - the introduction of all of these

53:27 - new programing

53:31 - that we see today and that sense that

53:38 - that we were finally

53:40 - being recognized and accepted

53:43 - in the world as being part of this communication world.

53:49 - But before that, there was always, you know,

53:52 - and in the middle seventies began a new period of

53:57 - reregulate deregulation to sort it to some degree,

54:01 - because it almost killed the industry in 67, 68 and 70.

54:06 - And what was the FCC doing to us and the broadcasters?

54:10 - And we were at a situation where we were almost up from

54:15 - I won't go

54:15 - into all the things that had happened

54:17 - and what they were demanding of us.

54:19 - It was impossible to grow and bring in signals

54:23 - that started to come unraveled

54:24 - a little bit in the middle seventies.

54:27 - And they recognized that they we had hurt did a lot of hurt.

54:30 - But so I was never sure where we were going to be. But

54:36 - in 82 began, we

54:38 - we got one of the finest thing that ever happened in our lives.

54:42 - We got a bill that deregulated

54:46 - the industry did away with the ability for municipalities

54:51 - to control our rates, allowed us to breathe and grow

54:55 - and do the things

54:56 - and compete that we all dreamed about for so many years.

55:00 - And I would say in about when that that act came about,

55:05 - was the first time I started to feel comfortable

55:09 - about its future.

55:11 - And probably in the last

55:16 - three or four years, I felt even more comfortable

55:19 - because I think that with all the possibilities

55:24 - that I see for the future of telecommunications now,

55:29 - with the new products and everything from digital

55:32 - and compression to video on demand

55:35 - coming into play in high speed modems

55:39 - that we never dreamed about, and then eventually

55:42 - residential telephony, great pop.

55:44 - Yes, competition is there, but that's okay.

55:49 - I think that we're in a I think our industry is

55:52 - in a very good position to meet the future. So

55:58 - I guess so

56:00 - all that along with

56:03 - something else was starting to happen

56:05 - in the late seventies and eighties

56:07 - that were very important

56:09 - is the money centers for the first time

56:13 - we're starting to recognize the potential

56:16 - of cable television

56:19 - and money became available to

56:24 - to build out into the urban

56:28 - areas and suburbia and all those areas.

56:32 - So we were involved with

56:35 - to essentially to the satellite delivery

56:39 - in the late seventies,

56:42 - but back up a little bit

56:43 - when when you were in the early days

56:44 - of operating in cable systems, you used to have your name

56:48 - and phone number on the bill that you set out to be sure.

56:51 - How often would you hear from customers?

56:53 - Well, I remember when I first time

56:55 - did it with any real I did it with smaller systems.

57:01 - But I guess my my best story as I can relate to

57:04 - it is when we had about 700,000 customers

57:08 - and, you know,

57:11 - essentially I'm a mom and pop operator

57:14 - and have never been able to get away from that.

57:17 - And I'm kind of a hands on operator or I,

57:21 - you know, I'm now one that perhaps

57:26 - would be a real financier

57:30 - type of of an individual, although I understand it and I,

57:34 - I understand the importance of it.

57:37 - But so one day I said to the gentleman

57:40 - that was doing our building, I said,

57:43 - why don't you

57:45 - I think I'm getting away from our customers.

57:48 - And I want to understand what's happening.

57:51 - And so I said, why don't you put on the bottom of the bills

57:56 - that if they have a suggestion

58:00 - or a complaint,

58:04 - they can write or call

58:06 - the president of the company and give him my

58:09 - name and my telephone number.

58:11 - And I

58:13 - forgot to tell everybody in my office that I had done

58:16 - this and I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.

58:21 - And when the bills hit, they all hit practically

58:23 - at the same time.

58:27 - The phones really started to ring off.

58:29 - You know, they

58:31 - and my secretary was coming in and different people

58:34 - in the office.

58:35 - And then my sons

58:37 - were coming in and saying, Dad, what did you do?

58:40 - You know, what is going on?

58:43 - And I said, Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you.

58:45 - You said, I told you so

58:50 - we got all these calls

58:53 - and it was a great catharsis as I look back on it,

59:00 - because what I discovered

59:04 - was that a lot of our subscribers,

59:09 - more than I care to admit, were really

59:14 - being mistreated.

59:16 - And as you gotten bigger, you get away

59:20 - from the everyday details, because in the early days,

59:23 - if you had one or two or three systems,

59:25 - you could call up your manager and you say, well, you know,

59:29 - what's a complaints?

59:30 - And he'd tell you that ten or 15 that you got complaints and

59:33 - service calls or the 30,

59:35 - and you go over them, you try to work it out,

59:38 - or you would say,

59:39 - Well, you know, how many customers have new customers

59:42 - we get today?

59:43 - Well, we got five new orders.

59:46 - And I'd say, how many do we disconnect when we got

59:49 - to the disconnected?

59:51 - Why did they disconnect?

59:52 - So you would have that

59:54 - close relationship with your managers

59:57 - and everything is as you get bigger

01:00 - 03.032 that starts to go away.

01:00 - 04.934 And what you found out when these calls

01:00 - 08.137 start to come in on 800,000 customers

01:00 - 12.642 that some managers

01:00 - 14.844 had not been

01:00 - 17.981 careful enough, diligent enough

01:00 - 22.719 and misused and made policies or ignored certain things.

01:00 - 25.888 So what one of the things that I always say is I found out

01:00 - 29.792 where my good managers were and my weaker ones were

01:00 - 33.162 in fiber calls, of course.

01:00 - 34.831 And then you could relate that.

01:00 - 38.434 And what you also could find out is that

01:00 - 44.574 you, which is very important to me,

01:00 - 49.979 is the customers that were perhaps treated unfairly

01:00 - 55.118 or perhaps had a real reason to be upset.

01:00 - 59.822 You could go to that person and correct it, but

01:00 - 03.393 you could also correct a manager and you had an opportunity.

01:01 - 05.995 One of my favorite

01:01 - 10.099 laughs went up along that same line is I remember I got

01:01 - 11.901 a call from a

01:01 - 15.872 customer and he said, Are you Mr.

01:01 - 18.141 Vegas? I said, Yes, I'm Mr. Vegas.

01:01 - 19.042 He says,

01:01 - 21.244 Are you the president of the company?

01:01 - 23.713 And I said, Yes, I'm the president of the company.

01:01 - 26.549 And he says, I remember this.

01:01 - 29.619 He says, Are you the real president?

01:01 - 31.954 And I said, Yes, I'm the real president.

01:01 - 35.658 And I said, How can I help you?

01:01 - 37.093 And he said,

01:01 - 38.261 Well,

01:01 - 40.930 you know, I don't have any problem.

01:01 - 43.199 I just have never talked to a real president.

01:01 - 46.569 And I was just I think that's very nice of you

01:01 - 48.171 to pick up the call.

01:01 - 50.673 And I'm just 100 that I can talk to you.

01:01 - 53.009 And I said, Well, thank you.

01:01 - 55.812 And he me for picking up the call.

01:01 - 57.447 And that was it.

01:01 - 00.183 Did you do much hands on

01:02 - 02.518 engineering for your cable systems?

01:02 - 03.619 Do I what did you do?

01:02 - 05.722 Much hands on engineering

01:02 - 07.790 when you were putting the systems off?

01:02 - 08.224 A lot.

01:02 - 12.328 You know, I would play or an early day perhaps

01:02 - 15.965 climbing up the steps of a pole, but I never really use a hook.

01:02 - 18.301 I could make a hook up,

01:02 - 20.770 you know, because a lot of times you had to have to go out

01:02 - 25.808 on a service call myself because, you know,

01:02 - 28.811 we couldn't solve the problem.

01:02 - 32.548 And, you know, we were our technicians

01:02 - 36.152 needed some help.

01:02 - 38.821 So we got to look at a picture and you look at a picture

01:02 - 42.658 and then you try to go back to the previous amplifier

01:02 - 45.695 and try to balance it and you'd read the meter and

01:02 - 50.666 but I later on I got away from all of that, you know, and

01:02 - 54.203 but I still try

01:02 - 57.273 to understand all the technology.

01:02 - 00.376 But I must confess to you that

01:03 - 03.746 I don't know all the things there is to know

01:03 - 06.415 about the Internet and the modems.

01:03 - 09.418 And and, you know,

01:03 - 12.388 I think back in the early days when

01:03 - 18.461 sometimes we were feeling a little sorry for ourselves

01:03 - 19.862 because we were getting beat up

01:03 - 23.900 and we were trying to make ourselves feel good.

01:03 - 27.537 And we'd sit down, we talk about what our future look like

01:03 - 30.373 and the signals we were going to microwave in

01:03 - 33.876 and and long that discussions

01:03 - 36.445 we get into the point of,

01:03 - 39.816 well, someday we might be in the telephone

01:03 - 43.519 and we would say, I would hear

01:03 - 45.087 people that were more

01:03 - 47.557 knowledgeable would say, well, it's an either technology,

01:03 - 51.427 just two simple copper wires.

01:03 - 54.864 They just twist them together and it shouldn't be any problem.

01:03 - 57.800 Ours is a more sophisticated system.

01:03 - 02.338 And, you know, when they see their pitcher

01:04 - 06.409 go bad, they immediately get on a complaint telephone.

01:04 - 07.977 It isn't as critical

01:04 - 09.946 sometimes it could be out for a whole day

01:04 - 12.048 and they wouldn't even miss it. So

01:04 - 16.886 but yes, I think we will be

01:04 - 21.057 in residential telephony and there is a future there.

01:04 - 27.129 But where we fooled ourselves was in thinking that it was

01:04 - 27.897 easy.

01:04 - 32.668 It's a very sophisticated, a very disciplined technology.

01:04 - 36.305 How did your company go from being just a couple

01:04 - 40.009 of cable systems in rural areas to being the company?

01:04 - 41.210 It is today?

01:04 - 45.381 Well, you know, I think that

01:04 - 48.284 I just

01:04 - 51.087 never stopped believing

01:04 - 53.489 in the future of cable television

01:04 - 57.894 and lots of times

01:04 - 01.964 I would look at it and,

01:05 - 06.035 you know, where we are now is this probably

01:05 - 09.272 I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't

01:05 - 12.408 for my three sons

01:05 - 17.046 coming into the business in the early eighties, late seventies.

01:05 - 20.516 And one of the things

01:05 - 25.755 that we all realize is that we had to

01:05 - 27.723 if we were going to

01:05 - 31.227 make a success of this business, we had to grow it.

01:05 - 37.233 And we had to also control our destiny in the regards that

01:05 - 40.503 that we would

01:05 - 42.638 keep control of

01:05 - 46.475 ownership if.

01:05 - 49.478 And so we've always,

01:05 - 53.182 as a family, kind of approached it that

01:05 - 57.553 we would look at the opportunities

01:05 - 00.957 when they became available, but at the same time

01:06 - 04.894 controlling our destiny the best way we could.

01:06 - 07.830 So but

01:06 - 09.632 I have to say that

01:06 - 11.300 probably when you ask a question,

01:06 - 13.502 I think there's two things from my perspective.

01:06 - 16.973 One is I never stopped believing

01:06 - 21.110 that there was always a bigger future ahead of us.

01:06 - 25.448 And I still believe that and the possibilities.

01:06 - 29.685 So I wanted to be there at the very end

01:06 - 32.888 and be part of all of that.

01:06 - 35.558 There's another part, too, that

01:06 - 37.126 perhaps

01:06 - 39.495 doesn't

01:06 - 41.697 doesn't resonate, right?

01:06 - 46.302 But I must say that,

01:06 - 50.706 you know, having growing up with so many people

01:06 - 54.310 and met so many wonderful people

01:06 - 58.647 from the people that were the owners

01:06 - 01.951 and just the mom

01:07 - 06.822 and pop operators to the MSO operators

01:07 - 10.126 and the sophistication that it's all about.

01:07 - 13.262 But there was always a great

01:07 - 16.098 feeling of family and entrepreneurship,

01:07 - 20.970 which was unique I think, to a whole lot of businesses.

01:07 - 25.608 And here we were on a cutting edge of this great technology

01:07 - 29.145 year after year, challenge after challenge,

01:07 - 32.248 new and

01:07 - 35.451 new opportunities to offer entertainment

01:07 - 39.088 and information and being part

01:07 - 41.023 of all of that

01:07 - 46.195 and having my family

01:07 - 50.699 join me and believing in it and doing

01:07 - 54.737 so much of the hard work and

01:07 - 58.007 in having their dreams fulfilled.

01:07 - 02.545 I think that part of what's happened in my life

01:08 - 06.048 is that my mind goes back to those

01:08 - 09.718 early people, to the guy that was a first

01:08 - 13.622 technician and how hard they worked

01:08 - 17.126 to keep those systems going and how hard

01:08 - 20.696 those salesmen tried to make their equipment work.

01:08 - 23.899 It was very primitive, but they all had the same dream

01:08 - 26.969 that we had something that was important.

01:08 - 30.873 And I think that I just would like to think that

01:08 - 35.211 I've been able to be part of this

01:08 - 37.947 world

01:08 - 40.716 and make a small contribution

01:08 - 43.752 and although a lot of them

01:08 - 46.922 aren't here today, I still remember them.

01:08 - 49.658 And maybe I can help

01:08 - 51.927 fulfill some of their dreams that they had.

01:08 - 55.097 When did your sons get into the business?

01:08 - 57.199 Was that when did you sons get into the business?

01:08 - 01.670 Well, they all began to come in the late seventies.

01:09 - 04.473 In the eighties, three sons, three sons. Their names are what

01:09 - 07.776 there is Michael, the oldest,

01:09 - 11.046 and Jim the second.

01:09 - 14.350 And James and I will tell you that

01:09 - 20.656 there isn't any question, you know, that

01:09 - 25.094 I was so pleased and I never

01:09 - 29.732 I never really stressed that, you know, they had to come

01:09 - 32.735 and keep the business going or anything like that.

01:09 - 37.306 It was something that as they graduated from schools

01:09 - 41.143 and different colleges and graduate schools,

01:09 - 44.180 they made those decisions on their own.

01:09 - 49.451 And I can well remember those calls or that conversation, Dad,

01:09 - 51.921 how would you feel about me coming in the business?

01:09 - 54.924 And that was a wonderful thing.

01:09 - 58.394 And they certainly have sustained it and grown it,

01:09 - 00.062 and I give them a whole

01:10 - 02.932 lot more credit than that I'm getting at time.

01:10 - 08.070 But as you get older, you have a different role to play.

01:10 - 11.140 And my sense is that when I talk

01:10 - 13.375 to young groups of people,

01:10 - 18.747 I, I think that it's fair to say that

01:10 - 21.150 because of

01:10 - 25.588 my beginnings and where we are, that you've become kind of a

01:10 - 28.257 a role model to certain people

01:10 - 32.061 and the ability to, you know,

01:10 - 36.298 when people used to ask me to speak many a few years back,

01:10 - 40.169 I always said I didn't really have a story to tell.

01:10 - 42.238 And I really did.

01:10 - 44.340 And I really believe that.

01:10 - 47.643 But as a favorite, you would say, Well, we need a speaker.

01:10 - 50.346 So you say, okay, I'll come up and

01:10 - 55.718 say a few words to this group or that graduating.

01:10 - 58.287 But as you started to unravel

01:10 - 01.724 the story about cable television

01:11 - 06.095 and the way it started and the people they represent

01:11 - 09.164 and their dreams and their visions

01:11 - 12.334 and your story weaved in in there.

01:11 - 15.704 And then you say to the young people, well,

01:11 - 18.340 what did you get out of that?

01:11 - 20.743 What you began to realize is that

01:11 - 22.845 they said, Well, I gave this whole

01:11 - 26.515 they gave us inspiration.

01:11 - 30.119 And if you can accomplish that and do that, that's another role

01:11 - 34.056 that you can play as you get older, I hope.

01:11 - 37.059 As you look back, what do you think were

01:11 - 40.462 the biggest obstacles you had to overcome?

01:11 - 43.799 The biggest obstacles?

01:11 - 46.535 Well, I you know, that's an interesting question.

01:11 - 49.471 I think that probably,

01:11 - 52.608 believe it or not,

01:11 - 55.778 fear comes into my mind

01:11 - 59.214 because of fear of failure,

01:11 - 01.283 the fear that

01:12 - 05.988 that there wasn't a future.

01:12 - 08.757 And that fear

01:12 - 11.860 at times could paralyze you.

01:12 - 14.029 And I think that was the biggest obstacle.

01:12 - 19.368 And I had to overcome that fear and go beyond that

01:12 - 23.138 and times and say, hey, you know.

01:12 - 26.875 And so I had to to make sure that

01:12 - 30.679 and I by nature, I guess I'm a

01:12 - 36.719 probably a competitor

01:12 - 41.023 and I don't like to be a loser.

01:12 - 44.193 And but at times

01:12 - 47.162 that fear could say, I better sell,

01:12 - 50.799 I better get out

01:12 - 53.001 I don't want to go for anymore.

01:12 - 54.536 It's too much work.

01:12 - 57.373 And as I've seen a lot of

01:12 - 01.377 my partners and fellow people

01:13 - 04.079 that for a whole lot of reasons have exited.

01:13 - 09.918 But I think that that probably is

01:13 - 13.655 is the reason that

01:13 - 17.960 that a lot of them got out, perhaps, you know, that

01:13 - 21.163 they weren't sure about the future and they

01:13 - 26.835 but fortunate really for me, I never stopped believing

01:13 - 29.805 in cable television or

01:13 - 33.976 fiber optics and broadband.

01:13 - 37.446 But all throughout that is the ability for

01:13 - 40.582 our customers

01:13 - 42.718 to give them something

01:13 - 45.187 that them to make their choices.

01:13 - 47.356 And as we go down this road,

01:13 - 48.924 you know,

01:13 - 52.828 from 12 channels to 20, 30 channels, tell me one,

01:13 - 57.065 you know, 55 channels to 155 and 200.

01:13 - 59.034 It's all about choices.

01:13 - 02.671 And now what you see is in this world

01:14 - 05.007 today is that

01:14 - 10.078 that the transportation system, you know,

01:14 - 14.550 is is getting into play where you get the fiber in play

01:14 - 17.219 and then you see that content.

01:14 - 21.256 There's a lot of content out there in all kinds of levels.

01:14 - 26.028 And then you see that

01:14 - 31.333 the ultimate person

01:14 - 34.403 or the ultimate

01:14 - 37.406 object is to satisfy the customer.

01:14 - 40.309 And where went from the simple little

01:14 - 43.245 to channels.

01:14 - 46.248 And now you have all this civic sophistication,

01:14 - 47.749 all the choices.

01:14 - 51.487 And I what you're going to see is, is our subscriber

01:14 - 55.390 be in control of its environment to choose its

01:14 - 00.062 communications, its

01:15 - 03.298 entertainment.

01:15 - 07.135 And at the end of the day,

01:15 - 10.873 the survivors are going to be the ones that

01:15 - 14.610 can give value

01:15 - 18.046 and give service, and that

01:15 - 23.585 bottleneck that occurs,

01:15 - 26.088 getting this information, getting this product to

01:15 - 27.656 the customer

01:15 - 31.260 is critical

01:15 - 34.530 and that we survive who survives.

01:15 - 39.101 And so you can provide that service and value.

01:15 - 42.704 What did your parents think of all this?

01:15 - 44.540 My parents

01:15 - 47.910 well, at first they were

01:15 - 50.312 my dad was a Johnny.

01:15 - 53.282 He says, I don't know

01:15 - 55.817 he says,

01:15 - 57.619 you got enough.

01:15 - 01.223 You don't need any more.

01:16 - 03.125 Why don't you

01:16 - 05.861 just slow down?

01:16 - 08.330 Didn't understand it all.

01:16 - 10.265 And I respected that.

01:16 - 12.968 And I think when I look back at my parents

01:16 - 15.237 and I

01:16 - 20.309 simple people, they came from the mountains of Greece,

01:16 - 23.779 third grade education,

01:16 - 26.949 but came to this country

01:16 - 28.784 with their dreams

01:16 - 30.352 and their hopes for their children,

01:16 - 34.923 like so many immigrants, worked hard, had great value,

01:16 - 36.692 great faith

01:16 - 42.731 and simple people.

01:16 - 44.232 And then

01:16 - 46.702 to watch your son

01:16 - 49.371 get all wrapped up in this

01:16 - 52.941 pretty sophisticated world,

01:16 - 57.245 I think it was overwhelming to him and I'm sure that

01:16 - 02.050 many nights they go to bed saying their prayers

01:17 - 04.987 that I hope that

01:17 - 07.856 the good Lord take care of John, because I'm not sure

01:17 - 09.658 he knows what he's doing.

01:17 - 11.526 I suspect that

01:17 - 14.896 I always tell you one story that I kind of remember.

01:17 - 16.898 I remember

01:17 - 20.969 20 some years ago, I was

01:17 - 23.238 I had to serve

01:17 - 25.774 two bankers, very important bankers

01:17 - 30.178 visit us in my hometown of Wellsville.

01:17 - 32.781 They came then they went to Curtis board to do our business.

01:17 - 34.383 They were from New York City

01:17 - 40.656 and on the way back to Wellsville,

01:17 - 42.324 I said, Well, would you like to start

01:17 - 45.427 in my dad and my brother's restaurant, get a sandwich?

01:17 - 48.930 And they said, Sure, we'd like that.

01:17 - 50.632 We have time.

01:17 - 53.702 So as we were driving down Main Street

01:17 - 55.971 and I said, Now there is a restaurant,

01:17 - 57.339 Texas had

01:17 - 00.809 not a very sophisticated name, but that's where that

01:18 - 02.177 it all began.

01:18 - 05.113 And I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Texas hat.

01:18 - 09.418 And I said, But, you know, I can't park in the front.

01:18 - 11.219 That's for the paying customers.

01:18 - 12.387 So I'm going to have to take you

01:18 - 14.790 through the alley in the back way.

01:18 - 19.061 And they said, okay, so we parked in the alley

01:18 - 20.495 and now this alley is

01:18 - 22.464 it was pretty beat up, you know what I mean?

01:18 - 24.499 As most alleys are

01:18 - 27.335 and as we parked the car and I said,

01:18 - 32.941 if you look up, see that rundown apartment up there,

01:18 - 35.577 the building from the back, that's where I was born.

01:18 - 39.347 And They kind of looked at me and coincidentally,

01:18 - 43.051 we had stairs in the back alley.

01:18 - 48.056 And my mom was in her eighties with there with a hose

01:18 - 51.059 and a broom scrubbing down

01:18 - 54.830 the steps and the alleys.

01:18 - 58.834 And I said, Would you like to meet my mother?

01:18 - 01.603 Oh, yeah, we'd be very honored to meet my mother.

01:19 - 04.139 I said, Well, there is Mom right over there

01:19 - 08.443 with her broom and her hoe is scrubbing down the alley.

01:19 - 10.879 And I know that they would think is really my

01:19 - 13.849 what is why is this mother

01:19 - 16.318 doing that?

01:19 - 19.187 So I said, I'll go over and say a few words, some of them.

01:19 - 24.726 So I said a few words and mom, she came over and in her broken

01:19 - 28.296 English with the water running out of the hose and her broom,

01:19 - 32.601 she said,

01:19 - 34.903 Nice to have you at the Texas Hot.

01:19 - 38.140 Johnnie's a good boy.

01:19 - 39.875 And then she turned around in Greek

01:19 - 43.111 and she told me, translated, God help us.

01:19 - 49.751 She had such fear of bankers, and I'm sure those bankers

01:19 - 53.455 were thinking, Oh my God, you know, why is.

01:19 - 57.359 But you also have to remember

01:19 - 59.761 that immigrants had great work ethics

01:20 - 03.665 and being clean and doing their share,

01:20 - 07.469 and that Ellie was important to mom to be kept

01:20 - 10.605 clean and picked up.

01:20 - 12.207 You still have encounters port share

01:20 - 14.109 do for people who have never been there.

01:20 - 16.077 Can you describe the town?

01:20 - 18.313 Describe the time town?

01:20 - 19.014 One of the town.

01:20 - 21.516 When I moved there was

01:20 - 25.187 had a population of 2800, 2800.

01:20 - 28.757 It was very

01:20 - 30.258 typical.

01:20 - 36.031 A lot of Pennsylvania towns starting to run down.

01:20 - 38.233 Jobs were very scarce.

01:20 - 41.369 And the only people that had a formal education

01:20 - 44.339 with the lawyers, they had two or three lawyers,

01:20 - 49.377 three doctors at that time and the schoolteachers.

01:20 - 50.712 Other than that, there was

01:20 - 52.714 not the

01:20 - 55.383 employers in town who were the employees

01:20 - 00.322 when I first moved here, there was a there was a tannery,

01:21 - 03.625 very low paying job.

01:21 - 06.161 And, you know, very,

01:21 - 09.264 you know, and

01:21 - 11.733 the chain who was in operation, they'd have an odor.

01:21 - 13.735 And that's true.

01:21 - 18.306 The village and there was a silk mill,

01:21 - 22.677 both of which have since gone out of existence.

01:21 - 26.781 And it was a pretty, would say

01:21 - 29.284 beautiful little town nestled in these hills.

01:21 - 33.955 But as far as

01:21 - 36.491 progress, you know, there was, you know, just

01:21 - 39.594 people that stayed there,

01:21 - 42.664 made a living there, loved it.

01:21 - 45.800 But most of the young people had to move.

01:21 - 49.037 So today of sport

01:21 - 53.308 is a thriving little town.

01:21 - 55.911 We have a new hospital.

01:21 - 59.014 I say it's been there for some 20 years.

01:21 - 00.815 When when I first moved the cottage,

01:22 - 01.950 Porter had three doctors.

01:22 - 04.386 Now we have 30 doctors on his staff.

01:22 - 07.455 Adelphi employs

01:22 - 10.025 somewhere between 2000, 2200

01:22 - 12.294 people.

01:22 - 16.631 And most of those that we employ have

01:22 - 21.069 some skills, education beyond high school.

01:22 - 25.106 And I'd say probably over 50% have a degree.

01:22 - 28.243 And in four year colleges

01:22 - 31.413 of some kind, that is changed dramatically.

01:22 - 34.749 The demographics in our community

01:22 - 38.320 a whole lot, but it's

01:22 - 40.255 Main Street.

01:22 - 43.191 The stores are full active.

01:22 - 46.361 We have one motion picture theater mine

01:22 - 50.732 still in existence and we

01:22 - 57.238 it still is rural

01:22 - 59.574 and still is

01:23 - 02.844 people that locate in college sport and come back

01:23 - 04.713 I come back there.

01:23 - 06.781 My sense is most them

01:23 - 09.884 for the quality that they perceive because

01:23 - 12.887 in a rural environment and

01:23 - 17.392 they're it's probably a little bit less

01:23 - 20.362 intense in the cities are

01:23 - 21.329 did you ever feel like

01:23 - 23.398 you had to move Adelphia to a bigger city

01:23 - 25.066 as you got to be a bigger company?

01:23 - 26.568 No, not really.

01:23 - 30.005 You know, I never first place I never expected to be

01:23 - 31.206 where we are.

01:23 - 34.576 So, you know, and I was too busy and my family was,

01:23 - 37.645 you know, grew up there and all of us

01:23 - 39.981 were quite comfortable.

01:23 - 43.651 Think that is one of the things

01:23 - 47.122 that over the years, that

01:23 - 51.393 it's where we started and, it's

01:23 - 53.995 working for us and

01:23 - 57.499 I think there's there's

01:23 - 00.835 I'm I have a sense of loyalty about a lot of things.

01:24 - 03.438 And I think my my family does too.

01:24 - 06.474 And these are the people we up with.

01:24 - 08.543 They went to school there.

01:24 - 10.745 They're our neighbors, our community.

01:24 - 13.348 And so it never really occurred to us

01:24 - 17.452 to move and

01:24 - 20.555 and as technologies improve and things have happened,

01:24 - 23.324 communication, it's worked out. Yes.

01:24 - 26.494 If you were, I could honestly say

01:24 - 28.963 that I missed business opportunities.

01:24 - 31.533 If I was in some of the more

01:24 - 35.970 centers for

01:24 - 39.240 financial world you get into

01:24 - 44.546 a group that becomes

01:24 - 47.816 you work together and you talk together.

01:24 - 49.150 And so probably

01:24 - 53.354 we have grown maybe in a different manner,

01:24 - 57.092 but then where we are was pretty hard to find

01:24 - 00.462 kind of support, although I must admit that

01:25 - 03.198 in the last ten years we probably have been good

01:25 - 04.365 for the

01:25 - 07.235 that most people because people would start to pull out,

01:25 - 11.172 see where the heck is car is parked and try to find so

01:25 - 14.909 and now we had a lot of visitors and you know, I

01:25 - 19.481 and I kind of laugh because a couple of years ago

01:25 - 24.719 in one week we had Senator Santorum and visitors

01:25 - 28.189 and Senator Specter and Governor Ridge.

01:25 - 31.092 And I said all in one week and Curtis, wow,

01:25 - 33.595 that's pretty good.

01:25 - 35.630 So Adelphia is the big employer in Carter's port?

01:25 - 36.331 Yes, sure.

01:25 - 37.198 It's a biggest one.

01:25 - 43.338 And, you know, with that, I am I personal basis of

01:25 - 49.177 being and

01:25 - 53.481 we there are some problems

01:25 - 56.684 and you outgrow your infrastructure.

01:25 - 02.023 And to some people, you know, we have not been a blessing

01:26 - 06.628 but the most people we have and you can see that

01:26 - 11.900 the stories are kept up better, the homes are kept up better,

01:26 - 16.538 and people are, I think, feel better about themselves.

01:26 - 18.773 And one of the great stories to me is just

01:26 - 21.709 in the last

01:26 - 24.179 year,

01:26 - 26.447 I've had

01:26 - 30.118 I know of at least six

01:26 - 32.086 children

01:26 - 35.456 and I call them children, people that had gone

01:26 - 38.493 to school with my children and they had left.

01:26 - 43.364 And 20 years later and 25 years later,

01:26 - 47.001 they've come back to Curtis bought in the Jordan Adelphia.

01:26 - 49.237 And they bring your talents

01:26 - 51.639 and they bring their great love for the little community

01:26 - 53.208 where they grow up

01:26 - 56.844 and that's really a nice feeling to to welcome them back.

01:26 - 59.547 And I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was

01:26 - 03.251 I was going through the parking lot and this young lady,

01:27 - 08.289 it was a came up to me, a pretty young lady, blond hair

01:27 - 11.459 and she came up and she said, Mr.

01:27 - 12.493 English, do you remember me?

01:27 - 13.461 And I looked at her.

01:27 - 15.730 I said, No, I can't play her.

01:27 - 17.899 She says, Well, I'm so forth and so forth.

01:27 - 21.236 And I said, Wow, nice to have you back.

01:27 - 24.839 You you're in Los Angeles, aren't you?

01:27 - 28.109 And she says, Yeah, not anymore.

01:27 - 30.311 She says, I'm back here in Carter's bar.

01:27 - 32.714 And I said, Wonderful.

01:27 - 33.982 I said,

01:27 - 36.351 she's, you know, she said, Do you know where I'm working?

01:27 - 38.219 I said, No, where are you working?

01:27 - 40.888 She says, I'm working at Adelphia.

01:27 - 42.624 Oh, that's great.

01:27 - 44.559 Nice to have you back.

01:27 - 47.161 So what do you do?

01:27 - 49.731 Worry about what might happen to counters after you're gone?

01:27 - 51.299 I do.

01:27 - 54.669 You know, as long as we do things right

01:27 - 56.804 and there's a future in the business,

01:27 - 59.107 I'm sure that the children are committed.

01:27 - 01.776 I don't think we're going to grow much more in cotton sport

01:28 - 04.979 because I think we've begun, but we will grow some.

01:28 - 10.218 But I think that what we have to do in our little community,

01:28 - 12.253 because we're embracing the whole area

01:28 - 13.354 and how people are coming

01:28 - 16.858 in, 85% of the people who are hiring recently

01:28 - 20.194 are coming from not in rural counties poor

01:28 - 21.796 because there just isn't housing.

01:28 - 24.666 They're coming from the surrounding towns, most of them,

01:28 - 26.134 and then from around.

01:28 - 28.536 But yeah, I worry about that.

01:28 - 30.672 And that's why I think that it's important

01:28 - 35.143 that as we go down the road that we begin

01:28 - 38.613 to put into place in our little community

01:28 - 41.082 a good education system,

01:28 - 44.252 a good infrastructure

01:28 - 46.854 where you get to libraries and

01:28 - 50.725 athletic fields and things like that

01:28 - 53.695 would attract other industries to come in in the future.

01:28 - 55.430 Hopefully

01:28 - 58.866 you make goals for yourself at this point in your life.

01:28 - 01.102 Do I have any goals,

01:29 - 03.371 always have goals and always have dreams.

01:29 - 04.138 And as I drive

01:29 - 08.476 through those hills in Potter County and I get excited about,

01:29 - 11.479 yeah, one of the biggest goals is to make sure that we execute.

01:29 - 14.949 We're not there yet because now we're in a transition period,

01:29 - 18.152 we're introducing all these marvelous products, but we it.

01:29 - 21.789 So this may sound like do I have any other goals?

01:29 - 23.191 Sure,

01:29 - 25.793 I have some other goals, but I can't tell you what they are

01:29 - 28.830 generally. Yes.

01:29 - 30.765 Thank you very much. Of my pleasure.