There was someone that made a comparison between road pavers building the transportation industry and linedawgs building the Cable industry. Well I guess we were to busy building to chronical the history of the industry. We did build the industry... there were times that in order to get paid we had to make sales on the streets we spliced. WE determined if an area could get built. WE talked to people and got promises to sign-up for at least a few years, invite their neighbors over to check out the service. We did design with a street map and a wheel. We waited for payment based on sales from phase one before starting phase two. If there was a decesion to be made about if we could build an area there was no waiting on the "Home office" to decide. The Home office was some guys muddy back acre. It was your crew your boss and the bank. There use to be 1000's of cable systems in this country. All built on a dream and sweat. People forcing you offf of there property at gun point, you having to call the cops on them just to explain that we don't have to pay them to be on the pole even though the power company pays them rent. Some sucessfully stopping construction and then later calling up asking for service. It was the little 3 and 4 man operations that made it happen. Sure we did got to work for some of the big players once in a while. But for the most part it was touch and go for years. You guys today enjoy luxuries with cash flows that we never had. Our invoices when straight to the bank, if they were paid we up to how the bank felt about progress. You ever been on a job were you had to "bug off" your strand halfway through your run, pack up and leave town because the price of money was too high. No fellows it was the guys in the trenches that built the industry. That's what "from the ground up" means! Today you see the results of large MSO's buying up smaller ones built by a lot of mom and pop's. Just like the transportation industry isn't the Superhighways you cruise on today but the beginnings were railroads and cobblestones. Companies like Commscope and TFC, SA C-Cor and Jerrold spent a lot of time in the field coming up with new ways to "git er done" side by side with us who actually had to make it work. I know as a fact that SA camped out on a couple of my jobs and did many redesigns for real world applications for it was proven usable. Today (and I'm still here today working) you pretty much got it laid out for you in design and operation. Nothing to tweek no pots to adjust no one company does it this way and another brand does it that way. It's all in the book. So I understand that there are you that think things have always been like this, but you'd be wrong. This is a built industry.
But carry on I guess us old "dawgs" will just go on knowing!
LongClimb
A little Line Dawg History
Member #: 39257
Registered: 7/12/2005
Posted:
43
Name:
Chuck Jones
Name:
Chuck Jones
Company:
GCJJ Splicing &Technacal
Occupation:
Cable Guy
Location:
Anchorage Alaska
There are 2 replies to this message
