The wit and wisdom of Ted Rogers
Fifty years ago, most television programming made its way to people’s TV sets via rabbit ears. The newest mass communication technology—frequency modulation (FM) radio—was still struggling to catch on. And in Canada, the broadcasting business was dominated by the CBC. But in a few months in 1960 and 1961, a young lawyer, Ted Rogers, arrived on the scene and for the next five decades would radically shake up the media landscape, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become one of the world’s biggest communications companies.
In 1960, while still a law school student, Rogers and his then partner, media personality Joel Aldred, paid $85,000 to buy CHFI-FM, the first FM radio station in Canada. It was a bold venture, coming at a time when only five per cent of homes had FM radios. He also ventured into television broadcasting with a cold call from a law office library to media tycoon John Bassett. After wrangling a meeting for the next morning, the pair was soon pitching the Board of Broadcast governors (a precursor to the CRTC) for a licence to start the first private TV station in Toronto. In 1961, CFTO-TV hit the air, with Rogers as a minority owner. Those early forays into radio and television—marked by equal parts hard work, attitude and vision (and a little luck, of course)—would come to define the next several decades for the company, which has been celebrating its 50th anniversary over the past several months. “We were always trying to do the impossible,” Rogers wrote about the period in his book, Relentless .
Rogers credited his driving ambition to the ghost of his father, who died when he was just six years old. Edward Samuel Rogers invented the plug-in radio at a time when most radios were powered by cumbersome, messy batteries. He also started the CFRB radio station in Toronto to help increase demand for the radio sets he manufactured. But his life was cut short when he died at age 38 of an aneurysm. The business would later be dismantled, with young Ted determined to regain what had been taken from the family.
editor Peter C. Newman as Canada’s “riverboat gambler” for building an empire “based almost entirely on bank debt and his nerve.” In 1962, he bought 43 hectares of farmland in Mississauga for $477,500 as a place to put transmitters for the company’s newest AM radio station, 680, despite not yet having won the actual licence for that space on the dial. When Rogers scooped up its first cable licences in Ontario in 1967, only about 15 per cent of Canadians had signed up for cable TV services. The rest watched over the air for free. But Rogers figured people would pay for a better quality signal and set about building a cable system from scratch. “The loss you take on the first few subscribers you sign up is enough to blow your ears off,” Robert Francis, a former RCI executive, told a Toronto newspaper in 1985. “But the solid base of assets you’re creating ensures that there will be a pot at the end of the rainbow.
Buffalo Forge Company - News
—Rogers could be very convincing, a key to his ability to forge critical business ties. His first venture into broadcasting began with a cold call from a law office library to media tycoon John Bassett, whom he convinced to give him a meeting the next
"We get people coming in here all the time who say, 'I can weld,'" says Denis Gimbel, human-resources manager at Lehigh Heavy Forge Corp., of Bethlehem, Pa., whose products include parts for ships. "Well, my grandmother could weld.
Ms. Finnerty launched Bella Faccias -- the name translates as "beautiful faces" -- from the basement of her Old Forge home four years ago, fulfilling a long-held dream to own her own business. The company prints photographs, logos and messages directly
The project follows the band and its trainer – Australian expat 'Miss Nikki' – as they struggle to forge a career in a country ruled by a highly oppressive regime that censors anything which does not conform to party ideals.
Bring at least two items for Buffalo Auction. Info: email mnrberry@msn.com or 865 984-0114. * Samuel Frazier chapter, Daughters of American Revolution — Tribute to Memorial Day celebrations and tour Farragut Folklife Museum, 11 am Saturday, May 21,
Who Invented Air Conditioning? | Premier Indoor Comfort Systems LLC
For hundreds of years, people have been trying to figure out how to stay cool in the heat of the summer. But it wasn’t until 1902 that the first modern air conditioner was put into service in Brooklyn, NY. Since then, many adjustments and improvements have been made to make air conditioning available and convenient for people to use in their homes and cars. But through it all, the basic principles used in that first air conditioner have remained constant.
The Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company
The heat and humidity in New York in the summer isn’t something to be taken lightly, but it posed particular problems for the owner of the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company. The conditions inside his facility were such that the paper used was warping and the dimensions fluctuating, causing the printing to constantly come out misaligned.
To try and solve this problem, he hired the Buffalo Forge Company, which itself had just hired Willis Haviland Carrier, a recent recipient of a Master’s Degree in Engineering from Cornell University. Carrier approached this problem by trying to find a way to cool air by passing it over cold coils in the same way air was heated in those days by passing it over hot coils.
As it turned out, this process worked to reduce both the temperature and the humidity in the area and Carrier’s first air conditioner began running at Sackett-Wilhelms in July of 1902.
The Next Steps
As the potential for this new technology became more and more apparent, demand for Carrier’s device grew in all sectors of the economy. Employers were delighted by the way air conditioners increased the productivity of their workers during the hottest months of the year, and in order to keep up with demand, Carrier eventually founded the Carrier Air Conditioning Company which still exists today.
The coolants used in the earliest air conditioners were generally either highly flammable or toxic, and often both. In order to make air conditioning safer and easier to use, a safer coolant needed to be introduced, which was what drove Thomas Midgley, Jr. to develop Freon in 1928. Freon was initially made up of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but as the disastrous environmental impacts of those chemicals became apparent, usage shifted first to hydrogenated chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and then to the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are predominantly used today.
Buffalo Forge Company - Bookshelf
Buffalo Forge Company, a case study in sales engineering management
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Buffalo Forge Company
Buffalo Forge Company. The text below is reprinted from. Buffalo: Lake City in Niagara Land, ... As Buffalo Forge improved its wide range of air-moving products, the ...
Howden North America
Buffalo Forge Company - History - OWWM Knowledge Base (Wiki)
THIS NEWCOMEN ADDRESS, dealing with the history of Buffalo Forge Company and its subsidiaries, was delivered at the "1952 Niagara Dinner" of The ...
Willis Carrier
Established in 1878, Buffalo Forge Company specialized in the the manufacture of ... Carrier moved his company to Syracuse, New York, in the 1930s, and Carrier ...
Welcome to Buffalo Machines, Inc.
NEWLY formed Company of Buffalo Machines, Inc., same products, newly innovated Customer Service excellence center. Formerly 'Buffalo Forge' company. ...