OUR HISTORY
THE CLASS OF 1966
During the 1966 NCTA Convention held at the Americana Hotel, in Miami Beach, Florida, 21 of our early entrepreneurs of the Cable TV industry met to become the first Cable Pioneers’ class. Most of those Pioneers are responsible for building the systems and MSOs that would become the nucleus of today’s modern cable broadband industry.
At that first meeting, Mr. Stanley Searle, who helped propose the formation of the group, presented each member with a “Pioneer” plaque. From the original 21, membership has grown to almost 700. For over two decades, the Cable Pioneers have been responsible for establishing and funding the Cable Center. Originally located at Penn State, the Cable Center was moved to the campus of Denver University in the 1990s. Following the Center’s grand opening, the Cable Pioneers initiated a further recognition of exemplary service to the cable TV industry through The “Cable Hall of Fame” program.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Meet the 21 people who founded the Cable TV Pioneers.
M WILLIAM ADLER
Served in the Radio Intelligence Division of the Army Security Agency in Germany from 1945-46 and managed his father’s retail store for several years in Weston, West Virginia. Adler entered the cable industry in February 1953 when he and two partners established the Weston Television Cable Corp. to provide television reception in Lewis County, West Virginia. He was also a part owner of cable systems in Charleston, Summersville, Gassaway and Sutton in West Virginia and Covington and Clifton Forge in Virginia. Adler was a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International and a devoted member of the Weston Rotary for almost 50 years. He was a longtime member of the Stonewall Jackson Hospital Board of Directors, the District Advisory Committee for United Bank, and served on the Stonewall Jackson Lake Advisory Committee.