Historical April 1981 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
As you probably know from The Paper, I was appointed by Mayor Conway to the citizens’ group writing a proposal for a franchise for cable TV in St. Louis. Now that a new mayor will be elected April 7, by the time you read this article, a whole new cast of characters may be in place.
In any case, several people in the neighborhood have stopped me with questions and suggested I get an article in The Paper on cable in St. Louis. I guess you could blame Lee de Forest, the Iowa-born inventor who put together the first three part vacuum tube in 1906— long called the de Forest tube. You might even go back further and study J.J. Thomson’s demonstration of the properties of the electron in 1897.
But all of that fails to suggest the coming communications possibilities inherent in the notion of cable TV.
The first franchise for cable TV in St. Louis was given to the Dubinsky brothers, Melvin and Harold, in 1969.
They did nothing with it, in part because of the slump in the cable business in 1974 all across the country.
When one of the Dubinsky brothers died less than two years ago, Melhar (as the front company was styled) lost all interest in the business and the city declared the first franchise null and void.
No court suit followed, paving the way for the Public Utilities and Board of Public Service of St. Louis to make a report to the Mayor on 4 April 1980.
This document called for the creation of a citizens’ advisory panel “to advise and comment” on the proposed possible systems for the city.
As of this writing, the panel has met four times.
So far, we on the panel have considered four areas: (1) we are concerned that no “rented citizen” operation as happened in the county occur in the city and have thus formed a statement for the major officials in city government.
At the same time (2) we attended a series of lectures from a consulting firm on the technical aspects of cable TV.
Some of us have followed cable for some years now, and these lectures served to bring our focus onto the potentials in St. Louis.
It is clear we will want the most advanced system which will include not just pictures but also home health systems, home information systems, two-way capabilities, fiber-optic potentials, etc.
We are coming to agree that the entire city communications should be coordinated for the best possible results at the least cost to the consumer.
It is already clear, since the relaxing of FCC rules about cable, that the three major networks are in for major competition from cable delivery systems, and that bundling of services offers more packages for the home than is commonly perceived.
At our next meeting, two of us, Judge Simeone and I, are to present a draft of a purpose statement, drawing some of the current discussion to a focus.
We will (3) then seek a concurrence from the new mayor regarding the existence of the advisory panel and that same purpose. (Clearly it will be the prerogative of the next mayor to do away with the panel, reject the public utilities report suggesting its creation, and start over.) Finally, we are (4) beginning to consider goals and time lines for their achievement, presuming we continue as we are more-or-less now structured. (Jacqueline Beulick of Forest Park Community College media services is chairperson of the panel.) In light of publicly aired goals we can both accept input from various interested groups and seek input from other groups who may not realize what cable TV means for the city.
The foregoing is only a brief synopsis of what is underway.
By next month more should be clear. Nevertheless it is time for all of us to get some notice of what cable TV can mean so that as it develops we can use it to our best benefit. Further, the city franchise will certainly be the largest in the area and will thus influence any interconnects and future franchise distributions as the five year amortization periods draw to a close.
The picture is only beginning to develop.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1981.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1981_04.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
