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today is Thursday June 2nd 2011
and we're here to cable Center in Denver Colorado which
with Richard kester founder and chairman of Massillon cable till television
and Robert caster president a mess like cable TV
so I want to start first question no to you richer
I'm how did you become interested in cable television
well I read work my way up
through broadcasting sales manager for a television station
utica new york and I was general manager also have a radio station in the same
mark
and it was single station mark
which means that I got all the business
to sell advertising and
I forget what I was talking
sickle scaler same process market and I'm
to I I look around I said where somebody ever built a cable company
here the kindest steal my eye its so if anybody is gonna build one that's BS
so I went to the owner and he said yes sounds good
may and I said well I also want ten percent
have each franchise side at
which is what I did and I I think that that was
probably was a the first things I did
and about what year was that every night
the
that's around 1960 to you Micah
and mmm and the
by up um how long have you been involved in the industry
in with you always interested in getting involved in the family business
well I by official start date with mass and cable TV was in 1979
so I'm 32 33 years now I'm
I have to say it was probably still in my high school
when told my father I'd like to come back
no I'd like to work in the family business at the time
there really wasn't anything for me to do you know
did some warehouse kinda work in those early
you know high school days of the college
and couple years after college I was working for a large insurance company
and had literally just moved to Detroit
call my father to say we've but my wife and I had just purchased our first house
I can really remember clearly he said how soon can you sell it
because it's time to come home and work company now so
within a couple months for the house and backing up back at home so
been there ever since great omen
these questions here like this right to both of you a
where they remember what people that you work within the the early days in the
business
I'll defer to your
II I really yet say I don't know
what you mentioned earlier that you had visits from buildings
oh yeah here program has had a jet play
and he was 5 bender
New York City every once in a while
and the price of gasoline for it jet airplane
was a lot more in new york city there was
and my mark so he would stop of
save me and have his jet failed and a cheaper fuel
and we go out have us together so we're good friends
and have I use their go through his house
on the back at both and this is a great guy
had to say
lot of member but they're there are so many memorable and colorful character of
characters in the cable industry that it's hard to read
to say which are memorable but as I think about it
I think both my memorable characters are probably memorable to me because I was
in scrapes with from
rather than as coworkers or
or buddies I'm we had
we had some run-ins with TCI so you know
oppression even say who they were ever in
so did that with an and had some and has some
really royal battles with and the same thing with
to a summer program networks you know
I mean I know charm practice and George bodenheimer DSP and we've had some minor
mental struggles there
and we've had our fights with box and and so forth and
I like to think we have respect for one another
I but I I guess I'm to their my memorable characters but they're in my
memory because
we had tough times not good times the apt but that's perhaps indicative of the
cable industry as it's changed
you know if they've seen some of those articles that
you were quoted missus is all about the affiliate
affiliate fees that correct word that's right fees and such
there per home
says
we talked earlier on We Heart were about the Barkers youjizz
went up by relations is where the parking lot over here the cables there
you just talk about your connections with a alright he is the one on the
workbook
yeah I i met your rhonda a couple times a
because their system in need bill is only bill 50 60 miles from mars
it is interesting course there in pennsylvania so they weren't really in
our Ohio Association or we in pennsylvania but
I do remember her as being a highly respected in a very intelligent woman
are very tough and
bill even into the seventies eighties it was still a man's world in the cable
industry you don't see a lot of
for didn't see a lot of women in in system
system roles at that time or the a high rank to the program are also shoes
very well respected lady on
would have been so the challenge is a running a smaller cable company
now I realize missiles are really as well 45,000 subscribers but
betting and I've handed getting enough money to do it
I can remember ordering
art our and I don't have any money
at all
and I ordered it sold stock
and got to know that our and that I felt relieved
although I I'm not so sure has I think back
because the payroll is always more
and the bank deposit you have great taste going anyway
and I can remember despite not be an answer to your question but it's
happening
comes to mind when a customer came in
by Weaver hook somebody up it would be seven dollars and
and fifty cents
for the installation Press
the first months rent which was $3.95
and I can remember we work the first not
Henry got about 20 customers
and one of them came in and paid for the second month
I L all thank goodness this thing's gonna work
yet rated yeah
why I would say that that it is kinda sick thinking back but as we've been
talking about that the history the company here the last couple days
some of the challenges have remained
unchanged I from 10 most
difficult times in the company's history before I was even really a rabbit was
the complete failure of the electronics
we were we were trying to be first I can say weeks I was not involved the company
was being first
first transistor I system in the mid-nineteen sixties
completely crapped out in the first freezing weather
all the equipment taken out and replaced with
a to type ample fires at work for them for many many years
that same sort of thing still kinda plagues
a smaller cable operator in that we have to rely on our suppliers
we have to rely on their word really that what they're selling this is gonna
work
because we're not large enough to have a research and development center
not large enough to have a consulting engineers and
really do these deep dives into the technology
so instead you bill take something up a leap of faith
on some equipment and if it doesn't work you find a way to make it work
and we have the same thing happen every word up a
in 2008 we were the first one the persistence to become
all-digital no analog with the first company bebe rollout
a specifically made
DTA box and it had some %uh those same growing packed
so that's one thing doesn't change how you you're all things out
and you you find ways to make them work I love the challenge is when you do that
as a small system is
you don't have a testbed
so you take somebody like time warner cable when they launched their
full-service network in Orlando was but 4,000 how to love
maybe ten million customers to very small number
when we roll the dice on new technology or a new marketing program
or anything new we have to them
take that gamble with a hundred percent of our customers so it said
a little bit more difficult we perfect
but that at the same time I think there's a bear some blessings to being a
smaller system and one up which one of those is
were flying below the radar most the time and deal
what happens in washington or the FCC
about doesn't really affect is quite as much and
I don't know if that's because we are too small for them care
or if we're so local poor so focused on
about doing what's right for our customers that
we don't run into the same problems ok perception problem
you think this to your advantage sure every blessing and a curse
yeah voted to being a %uh medium-size system see
one other good things we have a hundred and
28 employees
the last time we counted yeah angry at fifty-six trucks
on the road and I group both
employees that are just second to none
we have a dispatcher oliver
trucks have computers
and are dispatched as they're needed
regardless of where they are I tell
by a keyboard there we've that that's one other
it's interesting to you first a small system and I guess we r II we say
were tweeters with a large to the small small so the large
right and that does give us I think something I have a unique advantage
over larger and smaller systems where were large enough that we can afford to
have
right now a terrific crop of network engineers
who really like a challenge and like being
innovative and creative and up
but were small enough that we can focused on where we want them
so not a lot of higher after your bureaucracy
never had a budget for anything in the whole company we just say
got the money yep good idea let's do it
I and facts of photos a I think this is one the best stories about our employees
I was at a CableLabs summer conference a couple you summers ago
I was talking about some new proactive maintenance tools that we developed to
reduce
I inbound service call to our call center and how bout truck growth
after I discussed that for a while a group somebody from cable that came to
me and said
come with me I wanna show you something took me to the exhibit hall in here was
a Comcast technician
who took me through a proactive maintenance tool
beta demonstration and Irish
come laughing the whole time because it was our system
we had exactly the same stuff and when he was all finished I said
that's really good I said where is the same use he said its beta
it six months were been working in our system you're really like this
and it had been in do you know developed entirely in-house
by our own guys and we knew it worked
I we didn't have to rely on anybody else to help us win so
those are you know the challenges are there for small operator
arm basically game respected your contemporary larger contemporaries I
think that's a difficulty
I it's certainly difficulty in terms of
prices contract negotiation and that's where I think
but the ability to really focus our resources on me
on me consumer at the end have to worry about the
the ivory tower in at a distant town somewhere
is a great benefit to us so the there's a bouncer and I i think for smaller
system operator keeping your employees happy
his extremely necessary
in fact we pay for our employees
kids college after the game was for five years
all they do is it to us for successfully
completed semester or quarter removed it from eighty percent
I there is and the only reason that we do
only eighty percent is here was somebody to go and say I want
100 percent I'm going to 27
Harvard I yeah yeah I need some skin in the game
third keep that serious about 900 yeah it really house
we're always having two or three kids to go yep
yeah so let's continue Naveen
home you know the company seems very active in the community as well
man we have now the two are we talked a little bit about local region each
and things like that you however even if you weren't there
well yeah we have found it's probably one of our
all posit that you're in a second we have I
I think one other for capstone I'll
of one of our projects and I'm askin system
is a full-blown digital
television studio in our local high school that is
operated and staffed by students
so vocational course I they produce hundreds of hours of programming every
year it's very professionally done
have their own full-time channel on the system they sell advertising
they create the ad starring on-camera talent as well as behind-the-scenes
so they really are getting of full-blown
a education in new media or television media
and it started in 1967 1968
with my father trying to overcome a Dr
a franchising obstacle that had been put away
during the initial franchise efforts all
well they talk about that they said that a cable company could never return a
programming
reviewing here yet
sever okay well I'll do that how have the kids originated programming and I'll
help
which is what we did and
I went to the 10th can company and I got a grant
to buy equipment tamraz
have works bill a studio in the school
for the kids and they've been running that paying now
ever since yeah no one is in 1966 rightly
yeah forty-four years so I am some other graduate from school
go right and the radio stations yeah they do a great job in
again we've talked about this but the small town aspect of this is
one of the first to mention that program is now works at the school district and
is in charge of the program
and his son works for us
%uh in our in our call centre great young man have four sides
very much a small town atmosphere there but also a
very innovative program that overcame an obstacle where the
the local radio station and newspaper and
I movies a movie theaters were frayed the cable company it at the time and
unknown
was going to change their world to significantly to compete
so so it's been fine
he really has and if somebody told me that I had to pick some kind of a career
I R-rated there
it's been fun there instead
I've got a very generic question here is whether some other memorable
memorable moments in your people career
their couple that stand out to you I'm using we've had some highlights here wit
I'm many others and I'm not thinking very well
I I have to say always think
your the most memorable thing in your career is probably
the next thing and it relate to as I
as I think about the stuff that I'm sure must've been
tremendously excited and it was a very memorable week
you're put in that first her station and then put in the first time of that
station
and when we were addressable and then we were digital
and then we launched cable modems and phones and now it's IP video
and it goes on and on arm I talked about some other memorable moments were you
know up
a overbuilt battle in court with TCI
mean that was I still have reams of papers about that stuff
huge thing I'll
but there's always feel there are so many exciting things I think coming
coming toward us in the future and word would just launching
home security and broadband best home security
though this really memorable things were doing there I
the that the push to be the first all-digital system using the TA's
very memorable time but and you think but now there's
IPTV coming up and work your worst we're starting to build the
the the foundation for that Narcisse so their always a
kinda keep looking at it saying those things were memorable but
for what's coming up it's going to be even more memorable it's gonna be you
know
I think just continue to be an exciting industry I'll tell you something that
reminds me out
by way of first getting started my wife was the only one on the payroll
other than me and
I had a an interview as a young gal
the name abedi and who is in 1965
for jobs and after we had a successful
meeting I said okay you can start Monday
she said I have to be perfectly truthful with your
I'm only gonna be here for the summer
I said well come on let's see if we can get along anyway
until I can find somewhere else
she just retired after 42 years out
you and gave me a card that said it's been a long long summer
I
those wonderful Aggies related
what you're talking about are you looking to the future um
we look the other way did you rethink the cable industry would involve
have the way it has everything you'd be in the phone business unit you know I
wasn't even a business writer
writers think I i her that question
by definition I think evolution is such a slow process
it's almost imperceptible so no at what point
certainly not went when I started 1979
I thought it was going to be a revolution to have a computer system
and to have HBO
wTB S&W or by satellite mean that was
revolutionary but as we've evolved into it
it seems like we can always look a few years out and see
the next generation OSV a bar technology
but you know to think that in your in nineteen ninety we were thinking
fiber in digital we were thinking internet
by ninety who are who are you internet
and maybe phone and now it's
something beyond that so I
I i cant say I'm that much a visionary did to say that
you know ten years before we were in the phone business i was thinkin upon
me it is constant marble
that there are so many smart people is an issue keep thinking of new ways
you know we kept talking about we're going to exhaust our spectra
we found a way around it now we'll we're gonna find a way past
the don't pry find a way past the
the huge demand right now for IP bandwidth
for streaming video I'll find ways to work with Netflix more find ways to
to work with over-the-top an IP and wireless and all the pads and pods and
and phone taps that are coming our way now I think will continue to evolve
nothing is mass alone as a great football say
an air here when this happens in the United States usually
for Paul Brown got started et cetera
hand I think when we bill
at that channel and put football on their
with the kids doing it live it certainly helped the applications
immune sys that I you just have to do things that people would like
and that's gonna you
I'm home here's a really large question but
what would you say cables legacy is okie was impacted the world
that's I'll as a big win well
yea have up of spread betting half
and I'll say all-world
purses the world RN in terms of our world
I think that the legacy of our company
is she said 100 fifties
families with good jobs and well educated children
who are going to you know move forward in the world
and a community that has but I guess been the beneficiary of
philanthropy and a concern from up from a
local company continuing to be in business and that's what you know that
that's a very important legacy in our little corner of the world
and I'm I'm great for virtually every day that
and we'd be stopped entertaining brokers and stopped entertaining offers some
years ago
and said we're a family business and we're gonna be a family business for a
long long time
and we make our we make our quarter the world a better place and that's our
legacy I think that's important
in terms of the world while in the cable industry is left
such a rich legacy already of the colourful characters who are
sorta been trying here the that advance of technology certainly the
are the impact you've had on worldwide communications with
fiber and collect design and
internet and voice over IP phone in hand so what I mean
it we built satellite industry and think that the networks
up your things like CNN ESPN that
I'm not sure they would agree but
they did it with us not in spite of us
they didn't do it for us we get it together I
very often now I think they they believe the somehow get it without our
assistance but
you know that there's that whole legacy that the change of up television
you think I've you know how those networks chaff changed and beyond
were born can continue that battle with retransmission consent course in the
future but
you know the legacy to television a cable is you know
or not TV always joke with people that you know
its just TV it's not even worthy of a word
it's just two letters you think you'll how they've been characterized the Paso
as the *** tube the idiot box the vast wasteland be
that was that's the history of cable television and the critics up
but when you look at help out television or cable television has advanced that
model to
really good programming and worldwide communications
and continuing to participate in that throughout the decade
just tremendous legacy
I have nothing more to add okay yeah
and the last question here again is very open-ended are the any
last thoughts or comments on your career or the industry with their
you'd like to record yes
are you ask your me that crap like both yes
read it again any last thoughts or comments on your career or I'm
cable industry well I'm cable eighty three-years-old
effects but it's been a great life
and and I think we've made a lot of people happy
gud Mara stock this
and I saw as far as by Chris concerned I get my first but as I hope is not over
I I so hope I have quite a few years to go
and can continue to be engaged in dynamic industry
I I also hope my career came
progressed to a third generation in the family business which i think would be
a terrific thing I i long with our attorney I host the thing we call the
generations dinner every year at NCTA
we continue to get sum up the some other people who are out here
people like but Tom Gleeson
that Bradley family Dave n Volcan bernay
these guys they like to show up every year its justice what lies in
renew old acquaintances but it's great to see those
generational families that up
that continue and it there's a there's a legacy in the cable industry
for companies like ours I like to think that's part of it
its its innovation its a
sorta excitement in the industry that
in our larger corporate brother in doesn't exist so much anymore because
their public companies have to be careful with every word they say in
every step they take
but yeah I i don't wanna character in itself as a cowboy
like bill Daniels herbal breast in those early years because they were far more
adventurous than I was but that we continue that
that effort that says let's but push the envelope was challenged in people
and go let's try that if it doesn't work try something else
and we are you if you're afraid to fail you pry never gonna try so
you know we keep tryin we have some scars to prove it but we also have some
some good memories and some smiles to go along with it
virga anything else come to mind
no Rob I think I would say
two things first my father started this and said week we could not have done
this without terrific employees
and we've had I a great bunch of them only happen now
I'm so we're we are very grateful to
to their efforts over the years and I'll just mention now
we recently lost one of our super long term employees have no traps
tell after 30 seven years or so
us retired then passed away so
we have keep him in our thoughts number employees that their
over 35 48 years with us
have adjustable rear have elective a probability gently in the field and
their
very much appreciated and everyday somebody in town comes up to me and said
your man was out at our house
but I called and yours is great
you know and he wouldn't leave until it corrected everything
you know regards whose fault it was
and and it's great to have people say that to hear
yep yeah that's the idea yeah
don't often get through ideal situation yeah
support for the oral history program is made possible through a grant
by Amos Hostetter and the all history itself is
a a product of the Hauser Oral history project
at the Cable said