Through the Wire

Rock 'N Rollin' Dolan

At a VH1 Save The Music Foundation event last Tuesday at a Newark, N.J. public school, Cablevision Systems Corp. president James Dolan — sharing the stage with the likes of former President Clinton and singer Mariah Carey — encouraged students to make the most of their music education.

The students applauded when Dolan shared with them that he played the guitar. He then mused that his life after Cablevision may be filled with the sounds of music. "Someday when I'm not the president of this great company, I will always have that one thing … the ability to play music," Dolan said. "That's something that nobody can ever take away from you."

One 'Wales' of a Goof

Super politically correct former FCC chairman William Kennard got into deep Cardiff with the head of a Welsh-American organization regarding his comments June 22 in response to the FCC's $16.8 billion court debacle against bankrupt wireless company NextWave Telecom Inc.

In a statement that ended up in the pages of the Washington Post and other major print outlets, Kennard said: "The tragedy here is that by welching on its promise to pay the U.S. government, NextWave could walk away with billions." (The Post's editors changed "welching" to "welshing," but that's distinction without a difference, according to Webster's.)

Kennard's remarks caused a stir when seen by California lawyer Rees Lloyd, co-founder of the Welsh-American Twm Siôn Cati legal defense, education and development fund. Lloyd, who said he sued NBC and the Los Angeles Times in 1993 for the derogatory use of the word "welshing," claimed that Kennard slurred the good name of 6 million Americans of Welsh ancestry.

"Mr. Kennard owes us an apology and he should apologize," Lloyd said. "As a former high government official, he should know better." Lloyd said his efforts to safeguard the reputation of Welsh-Americans have borne fruit. Major newspapers and broadcasters have either changed their style manuals or published apologies for using the word "welshing" to mean a person who won't pay his debts. Lloyd said the epithet traces back centuries to when the English branded deadbeats as "welshers" after the conquered Welsh people refused to pay tax or tribute to the English crown. "We want to be treated with equal dignity like everybody else," Lloyd said.

Kennard spokesman Joy Howell was quick to issue that apology: "No offense was intended. We've now been appropriately educated on the term and will not use it again," she said.

Dan York Sizzles

On a Southern California beach on a hot June day, sultry actress Carmen Electra would obliterate any cable operator in a popularity contest. But last week at the ESPN Zone restaurant during an Ultimate Fighting Championship press conference, Electra received slightly less applause than In Demand's senior vice president of programming Dan York.

It's not that UFC fighters fancy York's looks over the voluptuous Electra, but In Demand will provide UFC participants desired exposure — and hopefully additional revenue — by offering the mixed martial arts organization's events on pay-per-view. The UFC will appear in cable-subscriber homes for the first time in three years, since cable operators banned the controversial event because of its perceived violence.

Shaving on the Job

HGTV.com's editorial director Jim Sexton is clearly a man who strongly believes in being cool on the job, as evidenced by a recent public display.

When Sexton learned that more than a million subscribers had signed up for the new "HGTV Ideas" e-mail newsletter, he decided that this benchmark called for something radical. So the dedicated media executive celebrated by joining the shaved-head crowd. Dedicated HGTV employee that he is, in the name of team spirit, Sexton invited the entire Home & Garden Television staff to watch and cheer him on at the network's Knoxville headquarters. Talk about cooler heads prevailing.