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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

Q:

Any details from that that you remember, vis-a-vis New York City politics?

Heiskell:

Well, it became sort of a racket. I don't mean necessarily dishonest, but as every city set its rules, people competing for the right to have the cable--and you can only have really have one cable in any one city, it's impractical to have two--there would be things like you would try to make yourself popular by every devise possible. One of the gags was “rent a minority,” and everybody rented a minority. You would, in effect, give a minority group or individual a percentage of the system just to get over that obstacle--

Q:

You lost me there. You mean, in a black area--

Heiskell:

No, no. If you go into Pittsburgh, for example--

Q:

Yes, go ahead, [laughter]

Heiskell:

--and there are five companies competing, each one would--it was called “rent a minority.”

Q:

What did it mean?

Heiskell:

It meant having a minority partner, and, in effect, the minority partner was getting something for practically nothing. So





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