Service Electric President John Walson, Jr., Dies, 63

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John Walson, Jr., 63, president of Service Electric Cable TV and Communications, has died of cancer, according to various reports.

Service Electric was founded by John Walson Sr. in 1948, who is credited with creating the nation's first cable system when he strung a wire from an antenna to his appliance store in Mahanoy City, Penn., to deliver Philadelphia TV station signals to that mountainous region in an effort to sell more TV sets.

John Walson Jr. had moved through the company ranks, including stints as chief engineer, technician and head technician before taking over as president of the company, which owns cable systems serving 217,000 basic video subs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The company dedicated its web site Monday to Walson's memory. (http://www.sectv.com/).

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.