CABLE’S ‘PEACEMAKER’

RETIREMENT SALUTE TO INDUSTRY PIONEER BOB MIRON

By K.C. Neel -- Multichannel News, 8/23/2010 12:01:00 AM

When Bob Miron picked up his phone one snowy day many years ago, and the line was dead, he knew it was the fault of the cable TV technician that had been at his home in Syracuse, N.Y., the day before. He trudged to the nearest pay phone to call the cable system, which was owned by NewChannels Communications.

Miron was no ordinary cable customer: He was the NewChannels president at the time. Th at detail didn’t matter at that particular moment as he shoved quarter after quarter into the pay phone, waiting to talk to a customer service rep. In the middle of a cold, wet snowstorm, Miron learned firsthand what millions of cable customers around the country were experiencing every day, and it steeled his determination to create industrywide customer service standards.

It wasn’t easy. Everyone had a different opinion on what needed to be done. No one wanted to budge from their viewpoints or demands.

Miron was not deterred. It’s now part of his legacy that he went on to coax and convince operators into agreeing, in 1995, to a set of uniform customer-service standards that helped polish the industry’s tarnished record of service.

Miron’s ability to bring disparate groups and opinions together is one example of why he will be sorely missed when he retires at year’s end after 46 years in the cable industry.

Miron joined the industry in 1966 as operations manager at NewChannels in Syracuse following stints in the news business — both print and broadcasting. A media career was a natural choice for the nephew of S.I. Newhouse, and Miron has worked for the family business, Advance/Newhouse, since high school. He was instrumental in aligning the company’s cable business with programmers and engineered its relationship with Discovery Communications, where he has served on the board since 1986.

He retires, at age 73, as chairman of Bright House Networks, the sixth-biggest U.S. cable operator, with 2.2 million customers and an enviable cluster of systems in Florida and elsewhere, closely linked with No. 2 cable operator Time Warner Cable. (For a detailed look at Miron’s career history, and to learn more about his dealmaking prowess, see “Bob Miron’s Savvy Built a Monumental Enterprise”)

He is considered one of the strongest and most effective leaders in the business, and some industry colleagues wonder whether anyone will ever be able to fill his shoes.

“Bob has always been willing to do more than his fair share of the work and he is also always willing to take on the tough jobs,” said John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media. “His wisdom and hard work have always helped make decisions that steered the industry through regulatory and competitive difficulties.”

Miron has been called a peacemaker, bridge-builder and “cat herder.” Recalling how he skillfully brought indisposed National Cable Television Association (as it was called then) board members together to create the On-Time Guarantee customerservice standards in the early 1990s, CTAM president Char Beales said, “Back then we didn’t do projects together. Everyone had a different idea what it should look like, and many were opposed. Bob proved his leadership mettle [by] cajoling virtually every MSO to participate. It was a job no one else would do and it changed the industry’s fortunes in short order.”

For his entire career, Miron has been “the go-to guy,” said Michael Willner, CEO of Insight Communications. “I don’t know how we’ll fill the void he will leave.”

Miron is considered “Mr. NCTA” in many industry circles. But he resisted joining the trade association for years before reluctantly agreeing to become a member. Tom Wheeler, NCTA president at the time, determined a full-court press would be necessary to lure him in. He brought in his big guns — Barbara York, NCTA’s senior vice president, industry aff airs; Jadz Janucik, NCTA’s senior vice president of association affairs; and Beales, who at that time was executive director of the National Academy of Cable Programming.

“Bob was super skeptical, and we had to work hard to win him over,” Beales said. “Of course, NCTA became a hugely important part of his career... Bob’s been a behind-the-scenes and out-front leader of NCTA ever since.”

Miron resisted NCTA’s overtures for years, but he quickly made up for lost time. He was elected to the NCTA executive committee in 1984 and, with the exception of one year, has served on that committee ever since. He was NCTA chairman from 1989 to 1990 and again from 1997 to 1998. He was appointed cochairman of the music licensing committee in 1982 and has served as either chairman or co-chairman ever since.

“That is the definition of a thankless job, let me tell you,” said Kyle McSlarrow, president of what is now the National Cable Telecommunications Association. “It’s not a committee that demands a lot of attention but is so important.”

Lately, Miron and Comcast’s executive vice president, David Cohen, have cochaired NCTA’s Cable Organizations Review Committee, formed to reassess industry events and associations. Like the customerservice standards committee that Miron led in the late 1980s, this group had the potential to create consternation and conflict. Because the other board members knew Miron would be thoughtful and fair, there was little controversy over the changes the industry undertook in 2008 when it consolidated its myriad events and conventions into two, cohesive megaevents, McSlarrow said.

“No one in this industry makes a more compelling argument than Bob Miron,” CommScope chairman and CEO Frank Drendel said. “Bob has always been the one person who could negotiate all the big issues and he was the one person we could all rally around. We will all miss his ability to pull everyone together.”

Miron has also been able to bridge generational gaps. He is one of the last executives of his generation to have had an active role in the development of the industry moving from a retransmission service of broadcast signals to the multi-pronged business it is today.

And while he is the first to say he rarely looks back, his institutional knowledge and experience are highly respected and regularly sought out by industry peers.

“Bob’s tenure overlaps with those that built the industry as well as those taking it to the next level today,” said David Zagin, executive vice president of distribution for AETN.

Zagin, who who has known Miron since he was a kid growing up in Syracuse, N.Y., added: “He has been very successful at bridging those generations and is able to provide a historical perspective that has helped the industry evolve and develop into what it is today.”

Part of Miron’s success in creating cohesion among his industry brethren stems from his lack of ego and the absence of specific company- centric plans, several executives said. Miron agreed, noting, “I never came in with specific agendas. I think that is why people trusted me.”

The folks at Advance/Newhouse Communications trusted him as well. Donald Newhouse, Miron’s cousin and president of Newhouse Publications, said that while Miron always briefed the board on what he was up to, “We invariably did what Bob wanted us to do... I appreciate his reasoning for retiring. But I am sad and will miss him. He’s done a nice job of bringing along Steve [Miron, Bright House Networks’ CEO] and Nomi [Bergman, Bright House Networks’ president ], and I am confident in their skills. But I am not the only person who will miss Bob. No one will ever really fill his shoes.”

Miron is one of the few people in the cable industry who could consistently bring “different parties together to solve difficult problems,” said Nick Davatzes, CEO emeritus of AETN.

Time Warner Cable president Glenn Britt said if it hadn’t been for Miron’s exceptional bridge-building skills, he suspects Cable- Labs may have floundered and tanked.

“Bob can get people to rise above their parochial agendas for the greater good,” McSlarrow said.

Miron rarely is the first to offer his opinion during discussions and negotiations, said Jim Mooney, former NCTA president and currently a partner in JLM Partners Inc. “He says what he has to say with an economy of words and uses pure, dispassionate reasoning. He would cause people to rethink their conclusions if he disagreed with them. And he never lost his temper, which is impressive.”

Miron’s quiet demeanor should not be disguised as timid or tepid, executives said. To be sure, industry cohorts consider Miron a tough negotiator and a risk-taker.

“Trust me, Bob is a gentleman but he is a tenacious negotiator,” said George Bodenheimer, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports.

Bergman, Miron’s eldest child, recalled when he ditched his yearslong habit of writing everything down on a pad of paper in favor of working on a computer long before personal computers were commonplace. Miron decided he wanted to learn how to use a computer, and it was tech-savvy Bergman’s job to set him up and teach him how to use it. Within a matter of a few days, the paper was gone, and Miron was using his computer exclusively. He has never looked back, embracing the technology with fervor.

He does the same thing in business. When other operators were selling out, Miron was looking for a partner who could help the Advance/Newhouse systems move to the next level. When the cable industry was deregulated in the mid-1980s, he knew programming would explode and be the key to customers’ satisfaction with the service, so he helped several networks get off the ground and guaranteed carriage of those services.

His ability to read the tea leaves correctly has served Advance/Newhouse — and the entire industry — well. “Dad will see things early on and he’s ready to bet on it if he thinks it has promise,” Bergman said.

Added Steve Miron, his second child: “We are defi nitely all early adopters.”

He’s also an early riser. Many executives credit the years he spent in the newspaper business for his propensity to get going early each day. Regardless of the reason, Miron manages to get quite a bit of business done hours before most people are reaching for their first cups of coffee.

Miron’s early-morning communiqués are well-known in industry circles. When McSlarrow joined NCTA, he made it a point to figure out to schedule his time with board members. He learned quickly that his night-owl tendencies were diametrically opposed to Miron’s early-bird habits. Now, McSlarrow will email Miron or leave text messages late at night, when he’s most active, and knows that Miron will respond a few hours later. “It’s worked out quite well,” he said.

Miron’s ability to sense what’s important and what will be important — to customers, regulators and the bottom line — is legion. For example, he convinced the Advance/ Newhouse Communications board that the company’s broadcast stations should be divested and the funds reinvested in the nascent cable business.

Advance/Newhouse was one of the original investors in Discovery Communications and has been on the board for 23 years. NewChannels was the first operator to carry Home Shopping Network, which was a local shopping channel in Pinellas County, Fla., in the early 1980s. The company participated in the formation of Cable Value Network, which later became QVC. Advance/Newhouse was a founding partner in what has become In Demand and was an early proponent and participant in trying to get VOD product from Hollywood.

The company was also a founding partner and instrumental in the formation of E! Entertainment Network and the Golf Channel and was one of the founding partners of Primestar Partners, a satellite-based delivery service that was eventually sold to DirecTV.

When asked what he was most proud of during his almost 50 years in the business, Miron cited his kids’ maturation, both personally and professionally, as well as the value he has been able to create for Advance/Newhouse with its cable operating and programming holdings. He’s also proud of his involvement in entities such as C-SPAN, Cable in the Classroom, CableLabs, the Kaitz Foundation and other industry-wide groups. He said he takes pride as well in his commitment to the development of programming and making sure that his customers always came first.

“All these projects make me feel good for diff erent reasons,” Miron said. “I’ve done a lot. I have had a good career.”

Miron is actively involved with Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. He sits on the school’s advisory board and has been instrumental in helping reshape the curriculum and direction needed to appropriately address changes in the communications business. The latest adaptation of the school’s new focus took three years to polish.

Miron employed the same skillsets he regularly uses on his cable peers to get the program revamped and reworked. The school is also redesigning its TV studios to better reflect the real-world environment students will later find themselves in. Miron has been consulting school officials on what they should look like and include, said Lorraine Branham, dean of the Newhouse School.

“Bob has been a tremendous help in making us a school on the cutting edge,” Branham said. “He is the third leg of the stool, with Donald Newhouse and Steve Miron being the other two. They are all willing to consult and advise us on a regular basis. But they don’t interfere. We are hoping that when Bob retires, he will have more time to get involved here.”

Miron’s involvement with the school also includes a lot of mentoring. He has helped a number of students get jobs in the cable industry over the years. He’s also spoken to students and brought in other cable executives to lecture and support the school.

“He takes that very seriously,” Branham said. “He has been a good mentor to a lot of people in the industry and he has introduced a lot of wonderful people to the university as well. For instance, John Hendricks [chairman of Discovery Communications] has become a strong supporter.”

As Miron buttons up this stage of his life, he is a bit wistful at all he will miss: friends and peers; working closely with Steve and Nomi in a professional setting; and helping the industry prepare for and react to what is thrown its way from regulators, competitors and the speed of technology.

Some industry colleagues wonder whether Miron will really be able to walk away from a business he has shaped and spent almost fi ve decades in. Indeed, he will remain on Discovery Communications’ board, and that will keep his fingers in the industry pie for some time.

“I think he could be the Brett Favre of the cable industry,” Steve Miron said. “Dad has always been about work, and it’s hard to picture him slowing down much. But I know he wants to. Whether he actually [retires] remains to be seen.”

CommScope’s Drendel acknowledged the hole Miron will leave when he retires at year’s end, saying everyone in the industry owes him a debt of gratitude.

“We all want to say ‘Thank you for your service,’” he said.

Drendel also believes some event or fight will eventually bring him off the couch. “He’ll come back if he is needed,” Drendel said, sounding a bit hopeful.

In the meantime, Miron said he is eager to move on. He’s looking forward to spending time at home with Diane, his wife of 48 years. He wants to putter around his house on the St. Lawrence River and spend some time outdoors.

“The fact is, I made a lot of friends in this business and built a pretty good reputation,” Miron said. “I have had a good career. I am comfortable with what I’ve done. I want to see what it’s like to do what I want to do when I want to do it.”