Rogers Communications founder Dies

Feedback.pdxradio.com message board: Archives: Portland radio archives: 2008: Oct, Nov, Dec -- 2008: Rogers Communications founder Dies
Author: Craig_adams
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 3:35 pm
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This from R&R:

----------------------Rogers CEO Ted Rogers Dies----------------------

By Keith Berman

Rogers Communications founder/CEO Ted Rogers died early this morning (Tuesday, Dec. 2) at his Toronto home. He was 75. He had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had recently spent some time in the hospital, and he was with loved ones when he died. Chairman Alan Horn, who had taken on acting CEO duties a few months ago when Rogers' health issues resurfaced, will continue in that role for now while the company forms a search committee to find a replacement CEO.

Rogers founded the company that bears his name back in 1960, expanding it from a single radio station -- CHFI/Toronto -- into an empire that spans the radio, broadcast TV, cable TV, Internet, mobile phone and publishing industries.

"We wish to express our deepest sympathy to [wife] Loretta and all of the Rogers family for this loss," said Horn. "Ted Rogers was one of a kind who built this company from one FM radio station into Canada's largest wireless, cable and media company and was a leader also in giving to the community through his and Loretta's many philanthropic initiatives. He will be sadly missed."

"Our sincerest condolences to Loretta, the children and the grandchildren," said Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind, who worked with Ted Rogers for almost 40 years. "He will be missed by so many. Though Ted was relentless in business and building this company over the years, he was also very much a family man. His impact on family, community and country was as impressive as his business success."

Author: Kkb
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 4:26 pm
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Not the same Ted Rogers as the Portland guy, right?

Author: Stevethedj
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 4:38 pm
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correct.

Author: Craig_adams
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 8:08 pm
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This is the same Ted Rogers that owned Portland's Rogers Cable.

Author: Newflyer
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 8:10 pm
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However, I remember when Rodgers was the cable company in E. Portland, before it became Paragon Cable. I think I remember hearing that the reason was Rodgers was going to focus on growing in Canada instead of the U.S.

Author: Craig_adams
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 8:15 pm
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I remember when the cable companies were competing for the Portland area, the winner was a Canadian outfit, Rogers.

Author: Stevethedj
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 10:21 pm
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but this is not ted rogers the d.j. who worked for kupl and kpdq.

Author: Chris_taylor
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 10:51 pm
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Correct Steve. The Ted Rogers we know is very much alive.

Author: Semoochie
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 - 12:59 am
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I almost started this thread to avoid confusion, when I read about it Tuesday morning.

Author: E_dawg
Thursday, December 04, 2008 - 5:51 pm
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I prefered 97.3 EZ ROCK over 98.1 CHFI. Plus, I hate Rogers Cable. They have poor customer service.

Author: Adiant
Monday, December 22, 2008 - 7:23 pm
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Had to look long and hard to find any information on Ted Rogers, Jr. setting up shop in Portland. Finally found a presentation talking about his franchise approach to doing cable TV for Portland and Minneapolis. Very interesting.

In Canada, Rogers Cable cut a deal with Shaw Cable around the turn of the century, effectively dividing up the country. Shaw took over all Rogers-owned cable operations in Western Canada. And Rogers got all Shaw's interests in the East. The dividing line is the Manitoba-Ontario border.

Here is what I wrote on reelradio when Ted Jr. died:

The founder of CFTR Toronto, represented here on reelradio with a John Landecker aircheck, has passed away. Ted Rogers Jr. was 75 when he died in his Toronto home this morning. He had been in hospital for a cardiac condition a few days ago.

His father died before Ted's 6th birthday, before Ted Sr.'s 40th birthday. It was just before World War II and Ted Sr. was doing crucial improvements to Radar that would help the Allies win World War II. The man was a genius, with his greatest inventions major advances in Radio: Transmitters and Radio Receivers for the masses that ran on AC power, direct from the electrical utility company, rather than DC like "everybody else's". He founded CFRB (Canada's First Rogers Battery-less) to celebrate that fact.

Ted's mother was forced to sell CFRB to feed the family, and the station long held the honour of having more Canadian listeners than any other station in the country. Ted long tried to buy it back, but eventually settled with trying to compete against it with CFTR. When that didn't work, he switched to Top 40, giving CHUM a run for its money, but switched to All News about 15 years ago, and has done very well.

Best known in Canada for Rogers Cable, it is Ted's cellular business that makes the big bucks, a result of some daring investments in cellular infrastructure in the '90s when everyone thought he was an idiot.
------

The awkward wording about CFRB's listeners is because CKLW holds the honour of being the Canadian station with the most listeners ever; most of them lived in the U.S. when The Big 8 was at its peak in the early 1970s.


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