Lo-Res, 6 mb - Making Connections - Time Warner Cable

TelePrompTer CEO Irving Berlin Kahn took Monty Rifkin’s
advice and bet his company on Community Antenna
Television (CATV), later becoming an influential, as well
as infamous, industry figure.
4 Making Connections : Time Warner Cable and the Broadband Revolution
Rifkin was the man in charge at TelePrompTer
that afternoon because Kahn (who always found
an excuse to remind those in earshot that he was
named after his uncle Irving Berlin) was having
one of his elaborate, extended lunches, probably
with some of the colorful characters associated
with the fights TelePrompTer had been showing
in movie theaters across the country via closedcircuit
television. Between drinks, Kahn spun tales
of TelePrompTer’s potential beyond the “idiot
boxes” the company created, which scrolled lines
of dialog for television actors and announcers
to read on-air.
An accountant by training and temperament,
Rifkin prayed that Kahn’s stories bore at least
a semblance of reality to the cash-strapped
enterprise Rifkin, still several months shy of his
30 th birthday, was effectively running as executive
vice president. Kahn may have been a visionary,
but he had a habit of not letting facts get in the
way of a good story. 1
“What’s That?”
Despite his reservations, Rifkin recalled liking
Bill Daniels almost from the moment the stocky
Westerner, with his signature tailored suit and
pocket handkerchief, strode across the office,
shook his hand, and got right to the point. He
had been referred to Kahn and TelePrompTer
by Television Digest editor Marty Kordell. 2
Daniels had read about the company’s closedcircuit
televised fights and wanted to talk to
TelePrompTer about a related opportunity:
community antenna television, or CATV. “What’s
that?” asked Rifkin, who like most Americans,
especially those living in cities and towns served
by broadcast television, had never heard of CATV.
Daniels explained that roughly a half-million
homes in the United States were receiving
television through systems connecting giant
antennas, usually built on hilltops, to homes via
what was known as coaxial cable. These customers
were either too far from broadcast television