Through the Wire

Cable Guy Lamont Makes National Noise

Ned Lamont, the Connecticut Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, did more than win a nationally watched race when he defeated three-term incumbent Joseph Lieberman in the primary election on Aug. 8.

He also made his friends in the cable industry proud.

Lamont, whose campaign focused on Lieberman’s support for the war in Iraq, worked at Cablevision Systems Corp. before starting his own company, Lamont Digital Systems, in 1984. His company’s Campus Televideo claims 175,000 subscribers to cable and satellite-TV services on more than 130 college campuses. Back in the day, he managed Cablevision’s Fairfield County, Conn., system, according to the LDS Web site.

A former Cablevision colleague, Donna Garofano, praised him last week as a man who has, “to use a trite phrase, the courage of his convictions.” During the campaign, she said, Lamont was depicted by his opponent as a rich-kid dilettante. “The opposite is true. He is a very, very serious and substantial person who has deeply held political beliefs. And he’s certainly proven it in the last several months.”

Garofano, now at cable operator Atlantic Broadband, said she’s hoping to hold a fundraiser for her old friend in Chicago, where she lives. “He has a lot of support in the Midwest,” she said. “Barack Obama [the U.S. senator from Illinois] made a significant donation the day after the primary.”

Lieberman, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2000, has vowed to continue his bid for re-election in November as an independent, so Lamont presumably can use the cash (although he’s often described in the media as a “cable-television millionaire”). In a Quinnipiac University poll released last Thursday, Lieberman had the support of 49% of registered voters in Connecticut, compared with 38% for Lamont and 4% for Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger, FoxNews.com reported.

Reese Helps Gospel Net Feel an Angel’s Touch

Talk about divine intervention: The first TV ad campaign from Gospel Music Channel, scheduled to break next Monday with broadcast buys in Denver, Jacksonville and Dallas/Ft. Worth, features musical artist, actor and minister Della Reese.

Integrating such diverse artists as Michael W. Smith (pop), Canton Jones (hip-hop) and George Huff (R&B), as well as the network’s wing logo motif, the co-op branding/acquisition campaign with carrier DirecTV tries to dispel the notion that the genre is merely for that old lady in church and instead sounds through many different forms and influences.

Reese’s route to the spots stems to the letter of support she sent to the channel a couple of months back. Network officials called with words of thanks and received her promise “to do whatever she could do to help Gospel Music Channel be successful.”

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Gospel vice chairman Brad Siegel took her up on the invitation. As Atlanta-based Blue Sky Agency was developing the campaign in Nashville, Siegel thought, “What could be better than having the angel from Touched By An Angel involved.”

A production crew flew to Reese in LA and the spots now conclude with her preaching the tagline: “Do it for your faith. Do it for your family. Get Gospel Music Channel.”

Reese’s ascension marks the second time Siegel has received promo manna from heaven. During his days with Turner Classic Movies in the mid-1990s, Siegel said Bill Cosby called noting how much he enjoyed watching the retro film network from the City of Angels, but was dismayed that he couldn’t view it in Manhattan. “I want to help get you on in New York,” Siegel recalled Cos saying, and promos were filmed. “Who would have thought this would happen twice?” Siegel asked rhetorically.

How to Pick Up Customers, Old-Fashioned Style

Or maybe that’s under an Old-Fashioned. Verizon Communications Inc. is reaching out to potential customers where they socialize: in bars in Washington, D.C.

These coasters are showing up under drinks within the beltway, presumably to tout the video service to commuters from the Virginia suburbs, since Verizon has not launched FiOS in the nation’s capital.