Opening Comment of Brian L. Roberts (February 4, 2010) before the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet:

"It's a privilege to come here today to talk about Comcast's planned joint venture with GE regarding NBC Universal. My father, Ralph - sitting just behind me - started Comcast almost half a century ago. He built the company from a single small cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi, to where we are today. With this combination, we are taking the next step in our improbable journey. And this is, indeed, an important moment in our history."

New York Times headlines tout federal approval for Comcast buy from General Electric of NBC Universal --

as Wall Street Journal prints "Key Dates in History of Comcast Corp." starting with purchase of Tupelo system in 1963 for $500,000 --

and The Washington Post reports the final done has fallen on General Sarnoff's NBC -- "Comcast Takes Control of NBC Universal".



What are the reasons that Comcast Cable's famous founder selected Tupelo, Mississippi, for his company's start-up in early 1960s?

One story from first-hand company sources describes a chance meeting on a Philadelphia street between Ralph Roberts and the seller's representative of the Northeast Mississippi cable system that Roberts bought a few days later. But the story of Roberts' entry into cable does not address matters that Roberts pondered when making his decision to put his company's early cable start-ups in that state. It is unlikely that an original co-founder of Microwave Communications Incorporated -- company name changed later to "MCI" -- who was in Tupelo used his powerful Washington, New York and Philadelphia contacts and business associates to assist Roberts in getting a baby Comcast up and running. However, this same MCI co-founder provided Roberts some important technological support that may have been otherwise beyond his professional and financial reach in 1963. In July 2005 Frank Kyle Spain tells Eddie Foote, Chotank.com producer, of decisions he made to leave RCA/NBC employment in Radio City two years before Edwin Armstrong's suicide and of his early meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, with Ralph Roberts, Founder and CEO of Comcast. Out of that face-to-face exchange with Roberts came a Mississippi microwave services agreement that lasted 42 years, ending in January 2005 after work had already started for this BLOG09 report. Important questions are being asked about early Comcast history in Tupelo for the first time.


Jump to complete story and read how young RCA/NBC engineer from David Sarnoff's Radio City in New York, who had special influence with FCC Commissioners, help make possible Ralph J. Roberts' extraordinary media successes and who, over 50 years later, still remembered the shock among Radio City employees and his own alarm when hearing of Edwin Armstrong's suicide from his 13th floor Manhattan apartment.

Starting on 1 December 2008, Chotank.com offered this 2nd link to www.ieee-virtual-museum.org. By 4 December 2008 the domain address had been shut down forever and the Virtual Museum content revised and presented in a new form. So, key proof from an authoritative association that the above statement on Armstrong is factual is unavailable. Sorry. But, you can still search for other biographies on Sarnoff's victim.

Or borrow a book Sounds of Change from your local library or for purchase at Books-A-Million. Read Chapter Three, The Dismal Years (1945-1957), page 68.

   Reviewed  .  Revised  .  Refreshed   31 January 2011 Our 16th Year