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My Personal Condolences For Gatekeeper Dressler
December 26, 2007
News of Fred Dressler’s death on Christmas Eve struck home in a very personal way for me. My family and I spent a good portion of Monday afternoon in a hospital emergency room, as doctors frantically tried to stabilize my father’s blood pressure and racing heart beat.
My father, with a long history of serious heart disease, is still in the hospital. We all have our fingers crossed and prayers said. So with the issue of mortality still looming, and ruining the holiday, my condolences go out to all of Fred’s family, down to his three grandkids.
I met and interviewed Dressler on several occasions, but truth is that he wasn’t a guy who was always accessible to the press – even though he himself told me he was an ex-TV journalist, a kindred spirit of sorts. But I could tell, just from my meager dealings with him, that he was a smart, non-nonsense guy. He was respected by some and feared by others. By all counts, he was a worthy adversary.
I wrote a profile of Dressler in 2000, and one of my favorite anecdotes was about the time – in the heat of a tense negotiation – he threw a calculator at Lindsay Gardner, who was then head of distribution for Fox Cable.
Dressler was also the Time Warner Cable executive at the helm, in terms of programming, when his company engaged in one of the most bitter retransmission-consent battles ever, nearly eight years ago, with The Walt Disney Co. In that battle – where both sides pointed the finger of blame at each other – Time Warner dropped Disney’s ABC stations, creating a public furor.
But while Dressler had his share of blow-ups with programmers, he was better known as a guy who could get deals done.
According to former GSN president Rich Cronin, Dressler was enjoying his “retirement,” relaxed and happy doing some consulting.
Of course, Dressler’s sad demise comes as the industry is still reeling from the passing of former Cox Communications chief Jim Robbins in October. It’s beyond a shame that Dressler and Robbins, only in their sixties, weren’t granted more time.
Posted by Linda Moss on December 26, 2007 | Comments (0)
