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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

value and that there is no future for us in commercial over-the-air TV because we can't get into any of the big markets”--

Q:

This was when you decided to sell your four TV stations?

Heiskell:

Yes.

Q:

To McGraw-Hill?

Heiskell:

Yes. I said, “But we will find a new way of getting into this field.”, I didn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about, but I said that. I was also wrong about their peaking; they are worth a hell lot more now than they were then. But anyway, we got 80 million dollars or 57 million dollars--I think it turned out to be 57 because we couldn't se, ll the first station because the rules were that if you were going to sell five you had to sell one to a minority group, and there was no minority group that was ready to buy any one of them. So we sold the four.

But we were aware of cable, and we began to explore what the possibilities of cable were. And we got to know the American Television and Communications [ATC] people, and found that this was very interesting. Then, I forget the reasons, but the cable business went to hell all of a sudden--

Q:

This was just--let's place this in time. You sold--in 1970; I believe--you sold the television stations, and you invested more heavily in cable, and TV went straight up in the beginning of the





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