'A Nice Guy Who Finished First’
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 10/7/2007 8:00:00 PM
In 1956, Bill Bresnan was filling his days doing what he enjoyed most, tinkering with, fixing and selling radios and televisions. But looming in the background was cable TV. And once he saw it, he never looked back.
Selling pieces of cable equipment to the upstart Mankato, Minn., cable system was Bresnan’s earliest exposure to the cable TV business. Little did he know that would launch a distinguished career spanning more than 50 years and earn him a place in cable’s history as one of its true pioneers.
“When the Mankato system went up for sale, I didn’t know much about cable, but knew people wanted the Minneapolis stations. The little I learned about cable back then was by selling cable equipment to the system, which I also helped finish building for them,” Bresnan recalled.
It was the Rochester, Minn., system, which Bresnan designed and built in 1958, that sealed his cable career, and at the same time introduced him to the legions of cable adversaries. “There were lots of people fighting us who just wanted us to go away. The judge who granted us the Rochester franchise pulled me aside and told me that now I had a way to lose my money. But we knew it was the right thing to do because customers wanted the service. We knew we were on to something,” he said.
And what a service it was for 1958. It included innovative ideas such as a weather channel, with a camera that scanned weather-related instruments, and a news service that included a teletype machine with a camera focused on the news printer.
Yet Bresnan was just getting started, and his passion for technology and fixing radios and TVs soon gave way to the operations and business requirements of managing and growing a cable system.
“My background was technology, but in time I migrated to the business side and in 1965 moved to California to become executive vice president of Jack Kent Cooke’s cable holdings (later to merge into companies such as TelePrompTer). I understood people would really buy cable. But I’ve never lost my appreciation for the technology side of the business and have great respect for that side,” he said.
In 1975 the dawning of the satellite era turned the industry on its head, Bresnan said. “When the satellite went up, suddenly we had the underpinnings of a national network, and HBO, WTBS and CNN would follow. That was a real turning point.”
The new satellite era also marked a turning point in Bresnan’s career. In 1981, he became chairman and CEO of Group W Cable; that led to the founding in 1984 of Bresnan Communications, which remains one of the industry’s most successful operations.
His work during cable’s most formative years has gained the respect and admiration of the entire industry — not only for building and managing cable systems, but also for taking a leadership role, representing the industry through his testimony before the FCC and U.S. congressional committees on a host of issues.
“Bill is the last of a breed of the old-time cable operators. We all have great respect for him. He’s devoted his life to the industry and is a true leader who has always been at the forefront of important issues. And not in words, but in actions. All this, and he’s a regular, hands-on cable guy. A pole climber like some of the rest of us. We’ll look back and say he had impeccable integrity and would always try to do the right thing,” said Alan Gerry, founder and former owner of Cablevision Industries and a member of the Hall of Fame class of 2000.
And in 1987, the right thing for Bresnan, he said, was to help establish a Cable Center worthy of the colorful history, innovations and entrepreneurial spirit of the industry. The first order of business was to find a new home for the industry’s growing archives. “The museum at Penn State University was an uninspiring situation. There were much broader things we could do to educate people about cable. Just collecting old amplifiers wasn’t going to cut it. And we needed to look for an alternate site,” he said.
Denver was the likely choice, Bresnan added. “Denver was the most interested. They really wanted us there. But there were lots of different notions about what the Center should be. It was like herding cats.”
After much deliberation, which included a thorough assessment of the Center’s goals and mission, the Cable Center reinvented itself to include a broader mandate that featured an education arm linked to the University of Denver, the Cable Mavericks program, the Hall of Fame fundraiser, education training programs, graduate degrees in customer care, and other programs aimed at universities, education and training.
“The disparity of efforts between our industry and others is significant, so we felt it was important to engage college students and tell them about our industry. One thing our industry has lacked is a connection to colleges and the media,” he said.
And Bresnan has turned out to be the perfect conduit for the Cable Center. “He’s a very charitable guy and socially responsible. His great Irish wit gets you to do things you may not want to do. And he does it like it’s your idea,” said Nick Davatzes, a 2005 Hall of Fame inductee. “He’s held the Center together for 10 years and wanted to focus the Center on a total industry environment targeted at universities, like the Cable Mavericks program. Here’s a quiet, unassuming guy with an operations background, but with an entrepreneurial spirit. That really impressed me,”
Gerry, whose $10 million contribution set the tone for the $60 million fund-raising goal for the Cable Center, concurs. “Without a doubt, his commitment and mission made the decision for me to come up with the first $10 million. He had a very compelling story to tell. I don’t think anyone has worked harder than Bill on the Center. And there’s been some tough years along the way. But the Center is now well on the way to a future in perpetuity. And he’s acted with the highest integrity. He’s a nice guy who finished first.”
Bill Bresnan will step down as Cable Center chairman after serving as its guiding force since its inception in 1994. During that time, he has guided the Center through some tumultuous years and a reorganization that included a redefined mission statement and business plan. Insight Communications CEO Michael Willner will take over as chairman.
Bresnan has served for more than 35 years on the NCTA board of directors, and is an honorary lifetime member of Women in Cable and Telecommunications, as well as a member of CableLabs’ board of directors. He has supported several charitable foundations, including the Emma Bowen Foundation, the Walter Kaitz Foundation, the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Cable and others. He has also been awarded virtually every top award in the cable industry.
And at the finish line was Bresnan’s induction into Cable’s Hall of Fame in 2000.
“Bill has understood engineering, operations, technology and marketing and become part of the community’s fabric. That is quite impressive,” Davatzes said. “And he’s done it all in a very quiet way.”
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