Direct Tv Installation

Owning and operating the cable system on California's Catalina Island isn't the only thing that keeps Ralph Morrow on the run.

Besides running for mayor of Catalina's city of Avalon, Morrow, a cancer survivor, starts each day with a 5 a.m. jog over its hills, and has completed more than 17 marathons and triathlons.

As an operator, he's also racing against direct broadcast satellite--DirecTV is now vying for his customers--as well as against programming increases.

Morrow, who turns 65 in April, founded Catalina Cable TV in December 1984 after getting the city's approval and help from the Santa Catalina Island CO., the island's largest private landowner (10% of the island), to develop and run its cable system.

"The Santa Catalina company asked what I needed, and I said a site for my head-end and dish," says Morrow. "Their only stipulation was that everything stay out of view from residents and visitors."

"We found him to be extremely responsive in his efforts to site his cable dish in an unobtrusive manner," says Ron Doutt, president of the Santa Catalina Island Co. "We're 26 miles from the mainland here, all hills and mountains, which makes a line-of-sight TV service plain awful. Ralph overcame a huge technical and financial challenge just to get the service up and running."

Rose Ellen Gardener, president and CEO of the Catalina Island Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that owns 88% of the island, says that the cable system falls within Avalon's city limits, so there are no real environmental issues to deal with.

After a stint in the Navy, the native of South Central Los Angeles was an electrical engineer for McDonnell Douglas from 1962 to 1975--three of his designs are now on the moon. Morrow commuted to the mainland in his own seaplane after moving with his wife Pat and children Nick, now 41, and Lori Anne, 39, to Catalina in 1972. "We liked coming here with the kids to visit, so [we] decided, why not?" says Pat.

Morrow counters: "The family took a vote about moving here, and I lost!"

Long before he brought ESPN to the island's 3,600 year-round residents, Morrow and Pat ran the Catalina Department Store from 1973 to 1976. He also served on the city council and the local hospital board.

Morrow, whose entire staff consists of a customer service representative, a full-time cable installer and a part-time Internet consultant, puts in seven-day weeks. He scaled back his cable role during his two terms as mayor, from 1994 to 1996 and 1996 to 1998.

In his dealings with programmers, Morrow puts his customer's bottom line first. He dropped the Disney Channel after a rate-hike dispute last summer. "I have 40 families that get Disney out of 1,426 subs," says Morrow. "I might make those 40 homes happy, but I would make about 1,000 people really happy by not having to raise their rates ... As soon as I can afford to bring Disney on I will bring it back, but I had to make a point."

Glen Bergstedt, manager of Catalina Cable's high-speed data business, says that dropping the Disney Channel wasn't easy for Morrow. "He really struggled with the decision to stand up to Disney. He anguishes over rate hikes, but at the same time there has to be a profit margin here. He would pay everybody so you can put your food on your family's table before he would pay himself."

Morrow is now rolling out a digital service and is weighing the costs of cable telephony.

"I've been [soft-launching] to understand some idiosyncrasies of the system by setting up beta sites in parts of the community," he adds. "For instance, if you get a small power outage, you lose your program guide and you have to wait an hour before the data gets downloaded."

Morrow hopes his efforts will keep the competition at bay.

"I've got notices on channel 3 and 49, saying, `Please don't convert to DirecTV Dish; we're implementing digital,'" he says. "Some people keep the cable service because they like the local origination channels but add Dish because they want the NFL package. I've even helped some subs install the dish, so long as they keep my service."

If he wins the current race for mayor and serves his third two-year term, he will once again recuse himself from any cable-related matter before the city. "I have kept the cable system out of any political matter," says Morrow, who doesn't carry ads for any mayoral campaign on his system.

"We're a little microcosm," he says. "When we get bad weather, it affects my business; we're isolated. I'm the little guy, out here fighting this battle [against DBS] with a small number of potential subs. But I'm never giving up."

Know a cable operator with a story to tell? Send pitches to Shirley Brady at sbrady@rnediacentral.com.

CATALINA CABLE TV CATALINA ISLAND, CA

OWNERSHIP: Privately held by Ralph Morrow

MILES OF PLANT: 12 miles of coax plant; 5 miles of fiber plant

UPGRADED: Upgraded to 750 MHz

HOMES PASSED: 1,600

BASIC SUBSCRIBERS: 400

HIGH-SPEED SUBS: 400

BASIC CABLE RATE: $33/month, 77 channels

DIGITAL CABLE RATE: $12.95 to $74.95/month

HIGH-SPEED RATE: $29.95 for modem, $99 installation fee, $29.95/month

ADVERTISING: Offers three channels with local advertising

COPYRIGHT 2002 Copyright by Media Central Inc., A PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

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