My Television Network Executive Experience
     Just as I was wrapping up my assignment at the Disney Studios in late 1983, there was an interesting development in the television broadcast industry that would affect me and my family quite powerfully and personally…unbeknownst to me at the time, of course. The Federal Communications Commission had approved a new technology which they called LPTV (Low-power Television) and which allowed a station to obtain a license to operate outside of the area of dominant influence of the major television markets. In other words, those signals could not cross.

     But, these tiny-market stations needed programming, right? So, it turned out that a rather enterprising person from California named Jim Devaney had created a network which he titled the JPD Television Network (his initials, of course). 

     Jim and his wife, Susan, had obtained broadcast rights to some really old TV shows, purchased time on a satellite transponder and had started broadcasting (or maybe narrow-casting is a better term considering the ultimate reach of the signal) for 12 hours a day in September of 1983. The FCC had announced that they would award construction permits in the hundreds and thousands by the end of 1983 so the future of the JPD looked really, really good as the network could then add station affiliates by the bucket-load and thereby grow the business rapidly.

     Didn’t happen.

     For some reason, the FCC was dragging its bureaucratic boots and this fledgling industry was floundering and not quite off the ground. While I was in LA, however, Jim Devaney had discovered the deep pockets of the LCM Group and had gone to Dallas and made what must have been a pretty convincing presentation regarding the potentially bright future of LPTV to Bruce, Kenny and Alan to the point that they agreed to back JPD…but, only if they could have their own guy who knew something about the television business on the inside keeping a watchful eye on their investment.

     Guess who that was going to be?

     You guessed it, I was about to take yet another detour.

     Bruce and his partners were okay about me putting all of my Wuergler Productions efforts on hold and asked me to move from Dallas to Southern California to be their venture-capital-investment watchdog and to become, of all things, a television network executive. Who knew? 

     I think Jim Devaney was very reluctant in having someone look over his shoulder, but because he needed the financial backing of LCM, he wound up taking their deal and agreeing to have someone (me) come to Palos Verdes and take up residence inside his company.

     So, once again, away we went.

     I found an absolutely fabulous home for rent in East Palos Verdes that was only a one block walk to the Pacific Ocean – Lunada Bay. I have often said that if a person was going to live on the West Coast, why not live on the west coast?!?

     So we did. 

     Getting there was half the fun. We had three cars, so Sherry drove one with one of the kids, Debbie did the same and so did I. I bought three CB radios, one for each car, so that we could talk along the way, announce the need for a bathroom stop and let everyone else know when someone was hungry. Somewhere in west Texas, Debbie had a great big ol’ 18-wheeler truck driver call her on her CB radio and after they chatted for a while he tried to get her to pull over so they could “get acquainted” a little better. She coyly replied, “Well, you’ll have to ask my daddy first”. He came back with “ok little darlin’…where’s your daddy?” And she told him, “He’s the one right behind you in the black Cadillac”.

     We never heard from him again.

     We moved into the home, got Leah and the boys registered at Lunada Bay School and Debbie enrolled at Palos Verdes High School. We went to church and made instant friends that are still in our lives to this day. The Palos Verdes Peninsula was an absolutely fabulous place to live. It was the southern-most tip of Los Angeles with the Bay on the west and the LA Harbor on the south. We were right in the middle. 

     The JPD offices were on the other side of the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates so the drive to work was beautifully breathtaking, each and every day. And, they had not spared any expense on decorating the offices, they were stunning, right down to the huge seawater fish tank filled with truly exotic fish.

     I got right to work by negotiating a more favorable satellite transponder deal, acquiring some more upscale and newer programming, creating an affiliate relations department and putting in place more rigorous expenditure policies than what they had been used to. After all, I was now the company officer responsible for the investor’s investment (and, they were my partners remember).

     I called my old CU buddy, Bill Little, and he and I also went right to work creating a more pleasing “look” for the network, with station break graphics, music bumpers and animated logos that were really cool and fun to create on the newest video editing equipment that had just gone into production use. I mean, these were cutting-edge machines in that day. And, if I say so myself, this small little low-power network looked really good.

     Our station affiliates were beyond happy with the changes.

     In February of 1984, we were invited to the annual NAPTE convention. This is the National Association of Programming Television Executives and we were asked to appear on a panel discussion that featured the low-power industry, probably because we were, at the time, the “only game in town”.

Here is the article that covered our discussion.

How to sell LPTV: change name.

NAPTE panelists say outlets should be called “community television stations” and be heavily promoted in market.

Pioneers in the new field of low power television who want to succeed should heed the advice of the ad man who said that selling the steak meant first selling the sizzle. And the first step in that direction, an audience of broadcasters at a NAPTE panel session was told, was that low-power operators should stop referring to their operations as “low-power”. They are “community television stations”.

We can get rid of the “low power” and concentrate on “community television”, said Michael Wuergler president of Wuergler Productions, which provides programming for low-power stations that are beginning to emerge from the mountain of 12,000 applications on file at the FCC (96 are on the air in the continental U.S., 200 in Alaska, with 158 under construction). The FCC staff, which is preparing to set up a series of lotteries to dispose of competing applications, hopes to clear out the backlog by the end of the year. “You compete with other stations, however their signal is received, whether directly or by cable television,” said Wuergler.

     Sadly, back in the office and in my capacity of being the watchdog, and after several months of “watching the dog” I had discovered several policies and practices that had placed the investor relationship in jeopardy and which would lead to the partners taking full control of the network. I had become the “hatchet man” for the investors, and as you can well imagine, that move made things extremely tense in the office from then on.

     Here is the press release announcing that move.

American Television Network (ATN), a newly-created network, will be taking over all programming, technical operations and facilities of JPD Television Network, Alan Preston, a successful Dallas businessman and land developer, will control the new network.

Michael Wuergler, who was the Chief Operating Officer of JPD, will step in to head up the new management team of ATN. The new network will continue to air family-oriented programming to LPTV stations with interruptions of daily broadcasting. James Patrick Devaney, who was President of JPD, will continue affiliation with the new network as a consultant.

“ATN will represent heightened professional standards in the LPTV industry”, states Wuergler. “Our first step in this direction is an intensive market study of LPTV stations. Market research of this scope has not yet been done in the LPTV industry.”

The new management will be focusing on building a local image for the affiliates with programming scheduled to facilitate local promotions and the sale of local advertising.

As ATN is targeted to entertain America’s heartland, it is introducing its new logo on Independence Day, July 4. On that day each affiliate will introduce its viewers to the new on-air look of ATN.

“I feel these positive changes will enhance not only current ATN affiliates,” states Wuergler, “but will attract many more construction permit holders who, with their addition to the network, will help to create a more prosperous LPTV industry."

     The NAPTE convention created a great deal of positive press for us.

     But, at long last, after really struggling to grow the business over the past year or so, we started to take notice of the gigantic elephant in the room – the FCC. Their lack of approvals of station construction permits did not allow this promising industry to grow, but instead, was causing it to spiral downward at a rapid rate.

     One of the most difficult jobs of a consultant is to recommend to the people who hired you for your expertise, is to tell them that your expertise is guiding you in telling them the sad news that it’s time to pull the plug, which would of course, cause them to lose their considerable investment.


So…with much regret, we pulled the plug.

     Here is the press release announcing the news:

The American Television Network stopped its service to the Low Power industry today, it was announced by Alan Preston, the Dallas-based businessman who acquired the network last May. Preston, citing the cash flow problems of the affiliates, with several in default, and the slow growth of the industry in general, said that “it was too early to provide such a ‘Cadillac’ service to an industry that was only ready for something less. The FCC has hurt us as well, by announcing their intent of awarding construction permits in the hundreds and thousands by the end of 1983, and only delivering a fraction of that number to date.” There are only 107 low-power stations on air and ATN had 17 of those on air as of yesterday, with the balance of stations either broadcasting religious programming, teletext, or educational fare. “You can carry somebody else’s business just so long before it catches up with you,” said Preston, “and we were just unable to be the bank for the industry as well as a source of programming. I am sure there is future growth in the business, but we couldn’t carry individual stations along with us and expect to survive the long haul.” 

Preston said that the syndicators and program suppliers have been “champions” in the startup of this business and he had nothing but praise for their assistance in helping ATN go on the air last September. “They have been good to us and we felt that this business was going to be beneficial for both of us, but the affiliate base has just not been there, and some of those that are on the air have not been making paying us for the programs a priority.”

So closed a very interesting part of my work history. I walked away having learned a great deal about both management and leadership. I was managing an enterprise that struggled to grow and was adversely affected by conditions beyond our control. I was also leading several teams (production, marketing, publicity, operations, accounting and finance) and was learning what it meant when that leadership wasn’t always welcome in certain circles (being, of course, the guy who represented the financial backers). It was, truly, an advanced course in both executive “combat” and in continually striving to do and be your best in extremely difficult situations. With all of that going on in the background, we still were able to produce excellent content for the network and create a product that was smart-looking and had the potential of great success. I was truly sad that it never took off as it was projected to do. But, what an absolutely fabulous business education I obtained along the way.

Okay. So now what?