| Title: |
Lawrence (Larry) Flinn
|
| Document type: |
Oral history
|
| Accessibility: |
Free Only
|
| Repository: |
Cable Center. Barco Library. Special Collections
|
| Collection: |
Cable Center Oral History Collection
|
| Description: |
Larry Flinn pioneered the satellite delivery of independent broadcast stations and in the development of electronic programming guides. Born in North Carolina, Flinn grew up in Germany and New York City area. He graduated from Yale and received an MBA from Columbia. While working as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in New York, Flinn became interested in the cable business. He bought a system in Vestal, NY, and built a company serving some 25,000 subscribers. In 1965 he sold all but his systems in Maine and Texas abut reentered the business a few years later starting United Video Cablevision, which grew to serve some 250,000 subs. In 1975 he purchased a microwave relay company that sent the signal of Chicago broadcast station WGN to cable systems throughout the midwest. Two years later he put the station up on satellite and within a year was serving some 10 million homes. Flinn launched three more distant signals on satellite and later started an electronic programming guide that was the precursor of Gemstar. In the early 90s he began to serve the backyard C-Band dish market, eventually delivering a package of basic and premium channels to one million homes. In his oral history, Flinn talks about the entrepreneurial instinct which led him to enter the cable business and to launch so many innovations. He also speculates on the future of cable and offers advice to young people considering a career in the business.
|
| URL: |
http://www.cablecenter.org/education/library/oralHistoryDetails.cfm?id=89
|
| Original Language: |
English
|
| Video: |
[Video available]
|
| Audio: |
[Audio available]
|
| Time span: |
Not indicated ... to 2000 (Year of interview)
|
| Speaker: |
Flinn, Lawrence, 1935-
|
| Speaker gender: |
Male
|
| Speaker date of birth: |
1935
|
| Speaker place of birth: |
Durham, NC; North Carolina; United States; North America
|
| Age at speaking: |
65
|
| Document location: |
Greenwich, CT
|
| Document date: |
15-Nov-2000
|
| Interviewer: |
Fleming, Joel
|
| Locations discussed: |
North America; United States
|
| Topics discussed - ASP terms: |
Broadcasting; Cable television--United States; North America; Oral history; Public broadcasting; Television; Television programs; United States
|
| Topics discussed - Other terms: |
Cable administrators
|
| ASP release: |
2005-06
|
| Document code: |
OHI0022726-24133
|
