Born To Be a Newspaper Man
by Martin J. McGowan Jr.
Cable TV System
Blue Earth had a cable television system. This was something that intrigued me as a coming information and entertainment medium.
I can't recall how the contact was made but I had a call from a technician who had built a cable system in Mitchell, S.D., and was looking for other locations where a system might be built. I met this technician in the twin cities and we talked it over. We needed a third person and a location and somehow I came up with Wells at the east end of Faribault county.
My only connection to Wells was the publisher of the Wells Mirror. I took an afternoon off and drove over to see Thomas Kuechenmeister. It was quite a surprise to him to propose a cable system but the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. He even suggested using his newspaper office as the office for the cable system.
So each of us put $10,000 into our bank account and worked out an agreement if anybody had to sell out. I was elected president of the company.
The technician went to work making all the arrangements with the city for rent of space on city utility poles and some installations underground in a new housing area. We hired a crew from Oklahoma to put up the 500-foot tower. The crew turned out to be fearless Indians who sat on a seat face to face and were pulled up to the top of the tower. I often wondered what their life insurance premiums would be-if they could get it.
The system was completed and there was a good response from local citizens. This was one of the best investments I ever made, investing $10,000 and receiving $30,000 when I sold out to my two partners when I also sold my newspaper holdings and moved on.
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