The following is an excerpt of comments Vanguard Award winner and Reed Television Group senior vice president William McGorry delivered during the Awards ceremony at last week's National Show in New Orleans.
I've been getting a fair amount of abuse lately related to the awards I have been receiving, which now number three over the last 60 days — a Beacon Award from the Cable Television Public Affairs Association, the Joel Berger Award from Cable Positive and now the Vanguard Award from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Receiving the Vanguard is especially meaningful in that it comes from you, my cable television family.
I was welcomed into this family some 15 years ago by a gentleman named Bill Daniels, who is arguably the father of the cable television industry. Bill impressed upon me the importance of Cablevision
magazine to the industry and my place in the family.
And what a family it turned out to be. An industry populated by great families such as the Dolans, the Robertses and the Rigases, and Amos [Hostetter] and Dr. John [Malone] and Glenn Jones and certainly the Bresnan boys, who I am pleased to see have returned to the fold.
I was receptive to the family analogy as my wife of almost 40 years Phyllis and I have six children of our own. She has enabled me to do whatever I have done to earn this award and to that end, whatever I have accomplished is directly attributable to the people I have gathered over the years, beginning with Marianne Paskowski who leads directly to others, like John Higgins, Kent Gibbons, Linda Moss and Carol Jordan, who get the paper out every week — and, of course, Simon Applebaum.
And my business partners over the past 10 years, Larry Oliver, Paul Audino and Larry Dunn, who represent the best people in the business, as well as our Denver cousins Rob Stuehrk and Roger Brown, who were there from the beginning. And a lady many of you do not know, Carolyn Gibson, who has labored tirelessly over the past 20 years insuring that the [Multichannel News] show dailies are in front of your door every morning.
I am honored to be included with my fellow honorees, people of the caliber of Chuck Dolan, who unfortunately is unable to attend due to his wife Helen's recent illness. We wish Helen a speedy recovery and are pleased that Jimmy is here to receive the Vanguard in his father's name.
Rather than dwell on the past I have a certain wish list for the cable television family of the future:
- I wish for the recovery of my pal Peter Barton who is gravely ill and worthy of your full support and prayers. He is also worthy of inclusion in this year's Hall of Fame and I am personally campaigning in his behalf.
- I wish for our old friend John Rigas to "get out of the woods" and recover from the recent setbacks he has experienced.
- And lastly, I wish for the recovery of our business, which will enable you to build the broadband business of the future as articulated in [NCTA] chairman Robert Sachs' remarks.
I believe in that broadband vision … I believe in your ability to deliver it, and I am proud to be one of you!
