REMEMBERING RALPH ROBERTS

Getting the check for $2.7 million following Comcast’s IPO in 1972 (clockwise from bottom l.): Comcast’s Ralph Roberts, Dan Aaron and Julian Brodsky and Keen Butcher of underwriting firm Butcher & Sherred.

Ralph Roberts with son Brian (l.), Comcast’s current chairman and CEO, in 2010 at Ralph Roberts’s 90th birthday celebration at “Ralph’s Café” in the Comcast Center.

Ralph Roberts and his wife, Suzanne, take in some tennis in 1984.

AT&T chairman and CEO C. Michael Armstrong (l.), Ralph Roberts and Brian Roberts shake hands on Comcast’s 2002 acquisition of AT&T Broadband.

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (l.) introduces Comcast’s Ralph Roberts and Steve Burke (r.) to their new NBCUniversal employees in a 2011 event at 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s iconic Studio 8H in New York.

Ralph Roberts (l.) and then-National Cable Television Association president and CEO James Mooney in 1988.

(From l.): Spencer Kaitz, Dan Aaron, Alan Gerry, Ralph Roberts and Brian Roberts in 1988.

Buddy Valastro of TLC’s Cake Boss (l.) presents Ralph Roberts with a cake for his 90th birthday in 2010 in Philadelphia.

Cable Pioneer Burt Harris (l.), founder of Harriscope Broadcasting, and Ralph Roberts in 2002.
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Mike Demenchuk has served as content manager of Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News since 2016. After stints as reporter and editor at Adweek, The Bond Buyer and local papers in New Jersey, he joined the staff of Multichannel News in 1999 as assistant managing editor and has served as the cable trade publication's managing editor since 2005. He edits copy and writes headlines for both the print magazine and website, wrangles the occasional e-newsletter and reviews TV shows from time to time. He's also the guy to bother with your guest blog, Fates & Fortunes and Freeze Frame submissions.