At the Ancient Olympics in 396 BCE, the ceremonies commenced with a musical competition. The cornets competed for the prize of being chosen the best heralders, and thus entitled to signal events, such as leading the processions of the best athletes and the best coaches into and out of the games. Similarly, in so many ways during the summer and early fall of 1972, many came to Germany to compete as the best announcer and storyteller. Yet one clarion voice -- and character -- stood out.

The 50th anniversary of the Munich Games -- including, horribly, the terrorist massacre of 11 Israeli team members -- is less than five months away. Regrettably today, because of those colleagues since deceased, I find myself among a dwindling and rarer crowd of those who were actually a living part of both those events. Yet, conversely, the Games of the XX Olympiad also meant a first of many opportunities to meet and work with some of the best sports-to-news-to-sports journalists -- while also being just good, decent people -- the world has ever known.

“Sports” Personalities

These include ABC Sports characters and personalities like the late Roone Arledge. Arledge was the president of ABC Sports, whose leadership inside that Olympiapark broadcast center known as Barnathan’s Bungalow, lead five years later to his concurrent appointment by parent ABC Network as the broadcaster’s news president, as well. Another was John Wilcox, who, to this day, I am proud to say is still a close friend and one I reach out to fairly regularly for advice. John was a multi-decade ABC producer and one of the directors of ABC Sports' films unit that third quarter of 1972, using his exploits there to catapult up the executive ladder, at one point becoming Roone’s executive assistant. Yet another was one of the first people to qualify for the moniker I learned from my German-born father, Willy Schaeffler, that of a “mensch,” this one in the form of ABC’s Munich operations planning head, the late and beloved Marvin Bader. Plus, for her work ethic, due diligence, wisdom, and kindness, I became one of thousands who met and respected her from that point on. She was Antoinette “Toni” Brown, the manager for ABC Sports' films unit in Munich. These were my all-time favorites.

Nonetheless, two people stood out for me even above those four. That is because those two had more reasons to not focus on me and instead stay laser-focused on themselves and their sole duties. Yet, both still focused on me. One was the late Peter Jennings, the then head of Middle East reporting for ABC News. Jennings was instead “borrowed” by Arledge to serve for sports in Bavaria, traveling that central European region with a film crew to complete ABC’s iconic “Up Close and Personal” (UC & P) vignettes. I worked for Jennings in Munich for 5-6 weeks as a “production assistant,” which meant I did everything from order beers, sandwiches, and coffee for the crew, to actually direct a film segment in the Munich town center, and later described and arranged footage together with the film editors back in “The Bungalow,” as each piece got rushed to air. I had the good fortune to be able to tell some of that remarkable story of working with Jennings in these columns almost 10 years ago, titled "Peter Jennings’ First Olympics" and "Olympics, Munich '72, Jennings: Post-Script # 1"

McKay the Man

The other iconic personage who excelled because of who -- in his heart -- he was, and the way he displayed his amazing character, was the late James McManus, also known by his stage name Jim McKay. Not long after I first accidentally helped him in the main ABC Munich studio in August and September 1972, he coined a nickname for me, “Shamus,” which matched his Irish roots, but was actually quite a Leprechaun’s leap away from my combined English and German DNA. My father had a saying about someone who “had time for the little people,” and I will always admire Jim’s skill in this area, which most around him were often not very good at. Why, until now, I have not written about Jim McKay and my admiration for him as both a professional and a human being, I do not know. Yet, as the five-decade anniversary of that convergence arrives in the next several months, I know now that if I was ever going to write this tribute, this is the time. And I got some help…

McKay Junior, Mary

In the late summer of 1972, Jim and Margaret McManus’ daughter, known by her married name today as Mary McManus-Guba, was a 19-year-old soon-to-be college sophomore in New York State. She already had a solid friendship with ABC Sports announcer Frank Gifford’s daughter, Vicki, and together they reveled in the relative freedom to move around what the Germans called the Olympiagelande for all the time up until the late, late night of Tuesday, September 5. That even meant near “walk-through” access to the athletes’ Olympic Village, just to the east of Barnathan’s Bungalow… as long as they wore one of the team jackets they were lent by some energetic young members of the Canadian Olympic swim team. 

Reflecting ever-so-fondly on her late dad, she gives great credit for his successes to her late mom, Margaret McManus, who was ever-so-strongly supportive of and tuned into her husband, for 60 years of marriage. “She was his greatest cheerleader. Together, they practiced a humbleness, a humility and a groundedness, that kept them from getting into that stratosphere of conceit,” said Mary. 

Moving to Jim McKay’s on-air performance that day, Mary concluded, “He was there to tell, not be, the story, unlike too many announcers today. He was especially reflective of the thought that he might actually be the one to tell the Berger Family, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, that their son, David, was not coming home.” "He once told me," she explained of her dad, "'I thought all day that day, How might I tell these parents their son is dead?'" 

Taking that one step further into her own experience that day, Mary remembers vividly watching in the early evening hours of what some call the “Hostage Day,” the departure of the two helicopters just above her head to the south turning west toward the military airport 10 or so miles away in Furstenfeldbruck. “Today you couldn’t get within a mile of a spot like that, because of security, but I was at the Village Gate, right there with hundreds of others. It still haunts me: I could see their faces, prisoners in those helicopters! They were right there! We all felt so helpless!” 

"The Germans tried so hard to offer a different Olympics, to erase the stain of 1936 and Nazi Berlin. They didn’t want a military presence, instead we were enveloped by an upbeat, celebratory, spirit of a safe, welcome, hospitality, and the Hofbräuhaus," she said. "It was a really good time, until it wasn’t. With Munich, security globally, but especially the Olympics, became a whole new game. I especially remember how serious and focused the ABC Sports team instantly became. How hyper-focused."

Summarizing the dual topics of her dad's character and how he best displayed them that Tuesday, September 5, 1972, Mary gathered these words: "He didn’t have to be, but he still was: James McManus really was a genuinely good man. He studied his subjects and knew his audiences. And he treated both with great compassion. The fact that people still seem interested in dad at all is a tribute to him and all those qualities."

McKay Junior, Sean

Sean McManus, Mary’s younger brother, was also interviewed for this article. He was a 17-year-old joining his family in Europe when they accompanied their father to his job as the lead announcer for, first, swimming, then track and field, during those Munich 1972 Games in August and September. Today, Sean is 67, chairman of the sports division at CBS, and certainly still deeply involved in rights and other pivotal business affairs for the network. From more than one recent interview, Sean poignantly reminded me of his father’s overall gravitas. 

“As we drove back in the car so late that night, after the tragedy, dad’s thoughts were on the effect the killings would have, not on him or his career, rather on the good that the Olympics might always achieve. The Olympics of Germany’s revival was now the Olympics of the massacre,” Sean said.

“So much of what that day became was because of Roone Arledge,” Sean said. “Roone knew in his gut, that because of dad’s background in news at CBS, his storytelling, and his journalism, his calmness and relatability, that he would be the best in-studio anchor that day.” And, that would be instead of the impressive talents of both ABC Sports’ assigned studio announcer, Chris Schenkel, and ABC News’ Middle East Correspondent, Peter Jennings. Yet, at the break of the news, Arledge instinctively selected his new live, on-air talent for the next 16 hours, before the latter even got out of the sauna at the Sheraton Hotel that morning, around 8 a.m. local time. Featuring a rare all-day trip with Margaret to nearby Salzburg, Austria, September 5 was to be Jim McKay’s one “vacation” day of the entire Munich Olympics.

"In a few hours, we went from the wins and losses of the various teams, to life and death, and from captivating sports to tragically important news, almost miraculously," Sean continued. "Dad got progressively more emotionally and physically drained, and yet he got better in the last hour of his work that day and night, than he was in the first."

When McKay arrived back at his hotel room at 4 a.m. Munich time September 6, Margaret woke and mentioned her relief that the hostages had survived. Jim’s lament, however, was enhanced, because he now had to tell his wife that the German TV she watched when she went to sleep had not yet revealed: that all the hostages were dead. As McKay had had to infamously fashion a couple of hours before for a late-night U.S TV audience of many scores of millions -- and which Margaret could not witness at her hotel in Bavaria -- in his inimical wording laced with such stunning grace, he again paraphrased, “They’re all gone.” It was at that point, late night on Wednesday 19 hours after leaving the Sheraton Tuesday morning, that McKay finally had a chance to absorb the fact that he was still wearing his damp swimsuit from the morning before in the pool.

The Games’ Impact

Back at Barnathan’s Bungalow Wednesday daytime, with 3-4 hours of sleep, McKay pulled a telegram envelope from his Bungalow letter box. Inside was a congratulatory message from his own news idol, CBS News’ Walter Cronkite.

Jim and Margaret McManus waited months before they were able to witness the on-air telecasts of the Munich Games, and specifically September 5. Moreover, it took the many, many bags of mail McKay received after those competitions, to start to develop a decent understanding of the impact his work had on the American public, on his own career, and on ABC. McKay, personally, won two TV Emmy Awards for 1972, one for sports announcing and one for news. And because of their foundational work in Munich, Arledge a half decade later added head of ABC News to his resume. Plus, as Arledge himself later explained decades later during a tribute to him at Central Park’s Tavern On The Green, the risk taken by bidding a then-astronomical $25 million for the Munich TV rights, backed by the actual performance of the producers and announcers and other talent in Munich, had finally put ABC on the map as a telecaster of national status. ABC’s founder Leonard Goldenson would perhaps one day compete admirably with his counterparts, William Paley and the CBS he founded, as well as the NBC David Sarnoff created.

“Whenever someone came up to him at an airport or a sports event, they would always say, ‘I’ll never forget you at Munich.’ Not another Olympics or the Indy 500. Munich had such an incredible impact,” Sean said.

ABC Sports in Munich’s Producers and Directors

Five key production people are alive today and made time to speak with me about our idol McKay. He is one of those rare people who very few in life speak ill of, so the remainder of this project remained a joy. Those producers and directors are Jim Jennett, Jim Spence, Doug Wilson, Dennis Lewin, and Howard Katz.

Jim Jennett was inside the Bungalow for much of September 5, 1972, serving as sports’ control room associate director. His job was to be a “traffic cop,” as he words it, coordinating all the video and live elements, and the timing -- especially with the main studio at ABC HQ in New York City -- for the two weeks’ worth of Olympic telecasts. The rather tall -- even by today’s standards -- 1966 graduate of University of Missouri’s school of journalism, remembers Munich much for his work directly with Arledge. Subtly merging this article’s subject matter with himself and Arledge in the earliest morning of September 5, 1972, upon word of the terrorist attack, Jennett said, “When the story broke, Roone knew he needed someone with real chops, someone with the most heart, and he had to step on some toes to get there.” Of course, Arledge chose McKay. “What a brilliant and gutsy thing to do,” said Jennett.  

Jennett’s memory of the day of the Munich Massacre was seeing his colleagues lift and place a huge studio live telecast camera on top of the 15-foot-high berm just east of Barnathan’s Bungalow. It faced the Israeli delegation’s rooms that had been attacked on Connally Strasse. He said, “That was the first time I realized the true significance of what was happening. Before that, it was just ‘get to the studio on time and coordinate the feeds and timings.’”

Of McKay’s character, Jennett most remembers McKay’s “love of what he was doing…he so admired the sports, the athletes, and just the storytelling of it all.” Not surprisingly, when asked about what made Jim McKay’s soul click, what made him work so well as a human being, he insisted, unprompted, “Margaret was the answer. She was a spouse like none other, they were so close and perfect for each other, the way they treated one another, that affection, the admiration. Whenever you saw them together, it brought a smile to your face.”

Jim Spence, the No. 2 executive at ABC Sports for eight years, also recently shared a tale or two about Munich 1972 and the diminutive announcer (in height only) from Maryland. Approaching Barnathan's Bungalow that fateful midday after a luncheon meeting where he discussed the forthcoming Montreal Summer Games with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1972's sports VP of program planning asked his driver to let him out at the entrance to an adjacent indoor arena. Already having learned about the terrorist attack from a very troubling phone call that morning with the aforementioned Marvin Bader, Jim Spence, Arledge's "right and left hand man" is, to this day, captured by the contrast of the fans still cheering the ongoing Games that day. Meanwhile, several hundred yards away, two Israelis had already been murdered and some of the worst of human evil was rushing forward like a badly oiled Frankensteinian timepiece. "In front of me was a friendly volleyball competition; a short walk to the east, the worst in the way of hate and terror, and a horror," Spence. The reflection was amplified when Spence reflected back: he -- accompanied by McKay and others -- had six or seven hours earlier exited the broadcast studio and control room in the dark at 6 a.m. local time, to head back to the hotel, very likely having been noticed by the terrorists themselves, as they were staging nearby to break into the Olympic athletes' village, and then to attack the Israeli delegation.

As for his views of McKay, "He was the face and voice of ABC's Wide World of Sports", Spence said. "He really did get to the substance of an event, making the competitions feel important to the audience and causing the viewer to care about the participants -- not only through his delivery and articulation, but so importantly through his writing, Spence said. "Jim McKay was just brilliant in capturing the essence and excitement of the events he covered, with the words he wrote and spoke on the air."

Being admittedly rather television-geekie, Spence concluded his admiration of the man from Baltimore, extolling his on-air ability to both listen to producers via an ear-piece, while concurrently reading from a script or printed announcement or speaking to an audience of millions while looking directly into a huge metal box that was the camera. "It was seamless, he was amazing the way he could do that," said Spence. “He had great respect for athletes -- both the stars and the unknowns. He had absolute integrity. I have often said he was the Walter Cronkite of sports television."

Doug Wilson, yet another icon of ABC Sports from the earliest to most of its later days was, in 1972, working as a 30-something producer/director, who would by most accounts eventually become one of McKay’s best friends. Wilson had started at ABC in 1958, a college graduate of Colgate University in upstate New York. He likes telling sports stories of his Garden City High School in Long Island beating Arledge’s Mepham High School in Merrick, Long Island during the 1940s-1960s. Mepham was known nationally as a wrestling powerhouse, and Arledge managed its wrestling teams.

Wilson’s fondest and strongest memory of McKay in Munich was his reliance on A.E. Houseman and the poet’s iconic poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young”, to summarize the tragedy of Munich during the nighttime funeral and tribute held by the IOC on Thursday, September 7, 1972. McKay even being familiar with the magic words was indicative of his love for knowledge, and to almost always, ahead of time, research the people, places, and event and sports he was covering.

Yet, likely my favorite was Wilson’s tale of McKay characteristically placing his first and middle fingers together by his eye and nose, which the few who really knew him meant he was really angry. The cause of his ire that day? It was his WWOS producer/director colleague, Doug Wilson, very late at night, who tried relentlessly to identify the perfect woodwind music to accompany a voice-over, making a tired and restless McKay redo the piece over and over, at which point McKay complained to Arledge, “What’s with Wilson and his damned flutes?” 

“Whether it was grand prix auto racing, barrel racing, or the Olympics, Jim McKay never took the event nor the people for granted. He was always grateful for the role he played, which is why so many people say the Olympics coverage -- the history and what it was like to be there -- will always have something missing, even today,” Wilson said as only a good friend can.

Dennis Lewin grew up in a sports-centric family in New York City, went as a 16-year-old to Michigan State University, and started as a 21-year-old production assistant for ABC’s WWOS and ABC’s other sports programming in August 1966. He arrived for ABC Sports’ Olympic coverage in Munich, six years later, as a full-fledged producer. Among his responsibilities by then was coordinating the production of WWOS and producing Monday Night Football. Lewin had a ton of both accurate and fond recollections of McKay, who was the on-air host of WWOS. “He became a great friend, I would do anything for him,” said Lewin.

In Munich 50 years ago, the 27-year-old who grew up in Queens was the ABC Sports producer for the dominant trio of water sports during the Games’ first week: swimming, diving, and water polo. That meant that even though McKay had been assigned to gymnastics, the two still had many interactions inside “The Bungalow.” On that Tuesday, those sports had ended, thus during the intensity of the day, Lewin sat in the control room next to ABC’s Games’ coordinating producer, Geoff Mason. Lewin recalls at that point his contributions were minimal. He was always there to help, but there was “not much” he could add. Others inside and outside that control room had the storytelling well in hand.

Lewin’s main memory of time with McKay, comes from Thursday, September 7, the day after the actual shootout at the Furstenfeldbruck airport. He remembers them both being so troubled by the insensitive, shallow, and inappropriate words of the then-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Avery Brundage, at the public “memorial” inside the main Olympic Stadium.

As for McKay, Lewin said, “Jim McKay was the best, both as a friend and a talent. I always looked forward to that production schedule with his name on the same line as mine. His humanity, knowledge of the world, history, his way of communicating. He never talked down to you. You would want him to be both your best friend, and your favorite uncle. One of a kind…” were his words as they trailed off into a mutual, respectful silence.

Howard Katz was, like me, one of the youngest among the several hundred shown in the “ABC At The 1972 Summer Olympics, Munich” photo below. Katz was the Olympic film unit’s lead production assistant coming into and during those Munich Games. His was a position I later assumed after graduating from Cal Berkeley in 1975 with an undergraduate degree in communications & public policy. I am honored to say we have stayed friends since.

McKay memories abound for the now 72-year-old former president of ABC Sports and NFL senior VP for scheduling. They start with the voice-over narrations McKay did for most of the UC & P athlete vignettes ABC Sports prepared leading up to the Munich Games. Katz helped Jim prepare, gathering research, taking notes during global filming expeditions, and other aides. Katz vividly remembers, too, being, coincidentally, in the same passenger van that fateful September 5, 1972 morning, as a last-minute passenger with a wet swimsuit on under his slacks hailed the driver. That extra rider was, of course, McKay. They were headed to the broadcast center.

As McKay was to me, so was he to Katz: “A special person who cared about people,” are his quite-ample words. “P.A.s [production assistants] were treated like dirt. Jim was kind, decent, and understanding to the P.A.s. That did a ton for morale. He was amazingly approachable. A man of conscience, decency, in a business that was all-consuming and demanding, he still managed to make his family a priority. He understood folks, what made the world tick. He understood the human spirit.”

“And then, as a professional, he could look into a camera and see millions of people, yet he saw them one at a time, you thought he was talking directly only to you and your family. He had this incredible knack to say and do the right things at the right time,” Katz said. As president of ABC Sports during the Salt Lake Winter Olympics timeframe, Katz broke all the rules of fierce internecine network rivalry by granting NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol’s wish to employ McKay as “ABC Sports’ Jim McKay, Special On-Camera Contributor.” Katz sums up, “After gaining Margaret’s blessing, it was just the right thing to do.” Like me, Katz didn’t just admire McKay, he learned from him.

A final thought from Katz: “I had planned to visit the German concentration camp near Munich, Dachau, but after the tragedy, I could not. Conversely, 30 years after, when it came time to authorize and support a 'Munich 1972 Commemoration Co-Narrated by Peter Jennings and Jim McKay’ -- which was awarded an Academy of TV Arts & Sciences Emmy Award for 'Best Edited Special' -– that was the award that made me proudest! We told the best story!”

For the record, efforts were made to reach out to former ABC Sports operations or production leaders Bob Iger, Roger Goodman, and Jack Gallivan. For various reasons, each was unavailable at press time.

Summing Up McKay, Munich, and 1972…

Where was the world in 1972? For context, The Godfather was released by Paramount Pictures and popular songs included Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” Roberta Fleck’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” and Looking Glass’s “Brandy.” President Richard Nixon visited and began opening the U.S. to China; the Committee to Re-Elect the (that same) President (CREEP) broke into the Democratic National HQ in Washington, DC; the U.S.’s Bobby Fisher defeated chess master Boris Spassky; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average first went above 1,000.

No doubt -- and always a great loss to the world -- history and legacy will forever first associate those XX Summer Olympic Games with the Israeli Massacre. I cannot help but to image the huge pool of blood beneath one of the helicopters, their terrified faces, and the dozens of grandchildren of those 11 Israelis and one German police officer who will never be.

Yet, in the end after Munich, there was some victory. The Olympics survived. Many athletes excelled there, as they always do, and their careers took off. When I try to balance, and think of the positives of what Peter Jennings said remained, “a successful experiment in human relations,” I think of those who seized the moment and showed what they were made of. Those men and women became the future foundation of the American Broadcasting Corporation, and of many more entities, included among those many CBS, NBC, ESPN and the NFL. Among the top two or three was one James McManus, AKA Jim McKay.

Indeed, in the battle among thousands or more to be that lead clarion, none will ever doubt for Munich 1972, it was McKay. As well, when it came to his own and others’ character development, toward a man of character and worth, Munich, ABC and McKay are synonymous. 

McKay and I once talked between U C & P takes and voice-overs, oddly perhaps, about William Shakespeare. Along with A.E. Houseman, the bard from Stratford-on-Avon was another one of McKay’s favorite literary heroes. We talked specifically about Hamlet, Polonius, Act 1, Scene III, and McKay pointed me to these words, which he took to heart ever so well, indeed, mostly just by sharing that balance with the others who filled the world around him.

“This Above All:/To Thine Own Self Be True/And It Must Follow/As The Night The Day/Thou Canst Not Then/Be False To Any Man!”

Nor, did I ever see, was he, Jim McKay. ■

Jimmy Schaeffler (AKA “Shamus Schaeffler”) is chairman and CSO of The Carmel Group, a west coast-based telecom consultancy founded in 1995. He can be reached at jimmy@carmelgroup.com.

From a recent Las Vegas visit to the fixed wireless and hybrid fiber wireless association’s 2021 WISPAPALOOZA convention, a couple of fascinating new pieces of information arose (or were reinforced).

Profitability of IT Home Services

First, was a growing confirmation among wireless internet service providers (WISPs), AKA “operators,” that the top grossing among ancillary services they offer is the provision of Internet Technology (IT) services on a regular, repeating basis. Provided by WISP installers, this mostly residential service is delivered typically in the form of a monthly warranty and broad IT coverage charge of less than $10/month. This added offer is also considered the most profitable among others, such as 1) security and monitoring, 2) voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and 3) virtual private networks. The only so-called “added service” that is consistently more profitable — and is not yet regularly provided by most hybrid fiber wireless operators — is that of a so-called “upgrade” basic broadband connectivity, delivered as a business service to a new business customer.

And although not tested, one guesses that since most hybrid fiber wireless operators are locally based and trusted, most customers would feel more comfortable letting those technicians and installers regular access to their homes than they might for a distant-based, large Midwest, Southern or East Coast-based incumbent cable or satellite provider. 

Data from The Carmel Group’s two 2021 independent surveys of both vendors and operators shows further that a handful of the other services provided for the purpose of customer acquisition, retention, satisfaction and revenues are the provisioning of local and cable and other video programming, as well as web hosting, and repair and maintenance of consumer computers and other tech equipment not provided by the operator. A new offering mentioned by a greater number of respondents this time around, is that of provisioning services around the technology and software that makes up the Internet of Things (IoT).

WISPA’s Name Doesn’t Work Well

And what was second? 

For years, even when speaking at a prior WISPAPALOOZA event in 2018, I have joined many among WISPA’s leaders and decisionmakers in lobbying for the WISPA organization to change its name. 

For one, the word “wisp” is, well, weak. It‘s very definition intends so. Formally, according to Merriam Webster, “wisp” means frail, slight, fleeting, light and impliedly insignificant. Additionally, the acronym, WISP, stands for “wireless internet service provider.” Yet, in contradiction, it has long been clear that for now and well into the future, the huge majority of fixed wireless operators already include and are implementing more or deploying fiber. Today, our data shows that few systems do not include measurable connectivity via fiber. Indeed, the formal title of The Carmel Group’s most recent industry report is The 2021 Fixed Wireless and Hybrid Fiber Wireless Report.

Furthermore, The Carmel Group’s question number 82 from its 2021 WISPA-affiliated independent survey of hundreds and hundreds of both operators and vendors showed that by year-end 2023, 20% of the infrastructure that makes up every system will involve fiber. Far smaller percentages were offered by respondents for systems that will add GEO satellites, LEO satellites, cable and independent third-party fiber services, for example.

So what would the new trade group name be? Many names, such as “Competitive Broadband Provider“ (CBP), “Broadband Wireless Access Provider” (BWA), “Fixed Wireless Access” (FWA), and “Wireless Local Loop” (WLL) were offered in the past. Yet, of late, the best I have heard is plain and simple: just call the broadband industry served by WISPs “ISP.” ISP is, of course, short for “Internet Service Provider.” Thus, the new name for WISPA would be ISPA, short for the Internet Service Providers’ Association. Or even BISPA, short for Broadband Internet Service Providers’ Association?

That way, the focus is always in the future on what they provide, which is the broadband content. And in turn the focus is never again on how they provide it, e.g., whether wirelessly or via wireline or via satellite. 

This presents a very elegant, logical and positively emotional solution. The Carmel Group truly hopes this name and identity change happens soon.

Meanwhile, see you at the next WISPA/ISPA/BISPA show, “WISP/ISP/BISPA America 2022.” It is scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 14-17.

Periodically, this "Mixed Signals" column includes interviews featuring some of the telecom industry’s more dynamic and change-making contributors. See, e.g., 1) Stanton Dodge, Esq.; 2) Matt Zinn, Esq.; 3) Doug Gaston, Esq.; and 4) Michael Fricklas, Esq. 

While listening to him speak about other issues recently during an industry business call, The Carmel Group’s principal, chairman and CSO Jimmy Schaeffler, inadvertently discovered a refreshing set of views about doing broadband in Middle America. The other side of that dialogue was OK-based AtLink Network Services’ CEO and principal, Samual Curtis, a decades-long innovator and leader within the U.S.’s fixed wireless and hybrid fiber wireless ranks. Here, below, he offers his thoughts and experiences for our “Mixed Signals” audience.

Q: 1

Mixed Signals: Tell us about the basics of your OK-based business, AtLink Services?

Samual Curtis: I like to parse AtLink’s description into the four categories below (See, https://www.atlinkservices.com).

Overall: AtLink is registered as a Limited Liability Company in Oklahoma, founded in 2005. Most importantly for your audience at Multichannel News, AtLink is the largest wireless internet service provider [in] Oklahoma. The Company offers fixed wireless broadband services, fiber broadband services, wholesale broadband services, telephone, plus voice and video VPN (i.e., Virtual Private Network), as well as related system installation services. AtLink is a CALEA-compliant service provider and a Trusted Third-Party Administrator, as mandated by the FCC for all broadband service providers. The Company serves approximately 12,000 residential and business accounts in rural Oklahoma. AtLink has successfully expanded its business through continuous innovation centered around its broad spectrum of broadband network solutions. In addition to receiving Phase II funding from the Connected America Fund (CAF), the company was also awarded several U.S. Department of Agriculture Broadband (USDA) Initiatives Program grants, aimed at providing internet service to unserved and under-served regions in Oklahoma for the next 25 years. 

Stemming from its broad in-house capabilities, our AtLink team is committed to providing the best and most cost-effective wireless internet services to our customers. The customers and markets AtLink targets are residential (77% of 2020 revenue) and business (23% 2020 revs) in rural Oklahoma. Overall, the Company maintains a base of approximately 12,000 active subscribing customers, and over 90% of revenue comes from recurring active customers. AtLink’s established customer base is a strong asset, one that contributes the most to its stability, and presents significant opportunities for revenue growth. 

Employee Base: AtLink employs 90 full-time and 2 part-time personnel, including me, as its active owner. The company’s team has a diverse professional background, depth of experience, and an unwavering commitment to excellent customer service. 

Facilities: To support ongoing uninterrupted operations, AtLink owns approximately 47 towers, network equipment, support vehicles, and cable and wire facilities, as well as other support accessories. AtLink operates through six internal profit centers: fixed wireless broadband services (81% of 2020 revenue), grant and other government funding (10%), wholesale broadband services (5%), installation (2%), and fiber broadband services (1%), as well as telephone services and tower rental (1%). Our facility comprises 17,800 square feet, and is utilized for office purposes (8,000 square feet) and warehouse purposes (9,800 square feet). The facility is leased from a third-party, at fair market rates. Early planning has meant that the company can accommodate significantly higher revenues without major facility improvements or capital equipment expenditures. 

Success Drivers: Success in the industry is driven by access to technologically-advanced solutions, technical expertise, optimum capacity utilization, key vendor and customer relationships, tower coverage, strong customer service, and a good reputation. AtLink works hard to excel in each of these areas, and we believe strongly we are well-positioned, for growth and success. 

Q 2:

Mixed Signals: Which companies are your key vendors, on both the hardware and software sides? 

Samual Curtis: AtLink has strong vender relationships with American Tower, SBA Towers, Lumen, Telrad, Nokia, Ericsson, and Cambium.

Q 3:

Mixed Signals: What have been some of your greatest career and AtLink achievements?

Samual Curtis: AtLink has completed six USDA RUS Community Connect Grants. In each grant we have created a broadband community center and expanded broadband service to students in rural unserved areas of Oklahoma. I have witnessed the difference this has made in overall community relationships, student retention, and overall academic success. It is very satisfying, and very rewarding.

Q 4:

Mixed Signals: What have represented some of your greatest recent successes?

Samual Curtis: AtLink secured a large debt facility with Live Oak Bank necessary to upgrade our IEEE 802.11 AC network to LTE. AtLink successfully participated in the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction.

Q 5:

Mixed Signals: What have been some of your greatest challenges? 

Samual Curtis: The Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction greatly influenced the realities surrounding Fiber-to-the Household (FTTH), and certainly as a cost-effective last mile technology. In my opinion, the temptation in the auction overpowered the requisite discipline in bidding, in that multiple Census Block Group (CBG), those CBGs went for a rate of support that we believe is unsustainable. Unfortunately, this RDOF auction result has miscommunicated the realities of feasibility that surrounds FTTH in rural America. It seems as though this auction might be shifting broadband monopoly powers from traditional carriers, to rural power cooperatives, which, incidentally, are intended to be non-profit.

Q 6:

Mixed Signals:  What are today’s major threats and weaknesses?

Samual Curtis: Today’s greatest threats are heavily subsidized power cooperatives, monopolizing their last mile by leveraging their existing electric power infrastructure. Today’s greatest weakness is that the WISP industry does not yet have the lobbying power to counteract the heavily subsidized power cooperative’s message, insisting that FTTH is the only viable last mile technology. It clearly is not!

Q 7:

Mixed Signals: What are tomorrow’s most worthy opportunities?

Samual Curtis: Tomorrow’s best opportunities are staying the better broadband providers, we hope always like AtLink, staying the course and filling the upcoming broadband gap. This will be further developed by the potential failures surrounding heavily subsidized and under-thought out and under-planned endeavors. I see a future where the incumbent telephone companies work closely with incumbent WISPs. Together, we jointly combat the heavily-subsidized new competition, noted above.

Q 8:

Mixed Signals: Are you still wedded to the idea of hybrid services, mostly as in fiber and fixed wireless?

Samual Curtis: AtLink see FTTH and the WISP infrastructure as tools in our broadband toolbelt. At the end of the day, we are primarily broadband service providers. Thus, we may use FTTH (or Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP)) or fixed wireless to extend that service. I see a future where the only remaining viable tools are FTTH and fixed wireless for broadband delivery.

Q 9:

Mixed Signals: What are your thoughts about satellites, in general? 

Samual Curtis: I believe that LEO satellites are potentially a good last resort broadband solution; however, I do not see LEO satellites as a viable competitor to FTTH or fixed wireless. Physics and gravity and economics are simply working against them…and will win.

Q 10:

Mixed Signals: What are your thoughts about Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, like Starlink?

Samual Curtis: I love the innovation; however, I am concerned about the potential of polluting earth’s orbital planes with thousands of access points that only have a five-year workable life. I like the potential of using LEO satellites for disaster recovery, and redundancy for terrestrial services. If our tax dollars end up subsidizing terrestrial service, as well as satellite service, we are, in essence, competing with ourselves.

Q 11:

Mixed Signals: What about other, not-yet-ready-for-prime-time innovations?

Samual Curtis: I think the high frequency millimeter wave fixed wireless service is an interesting last mile solution, but the cost has to be significantly lower than FTTH to make it ready for prime time. I do not believe we are there today. I would imagine this technology would parallel free space optics.

Q 12:

Mixed Signals: How would you define the Sam Curtis vision of Middle America’s telecom future?

Samual Curtis: I see a future where companies like AtLink are able to sustain their business of boldly going where the larger carriers failed to serve. Middle America’s telecom future still belongs to the local small business. These small businesses have local ties to middle America and will ultimately respond to middle America’s needs with much more passion, relevance, precision, and attention than the large, multi-state carriers, that focus on shareholder needs.

Q 13:

Mixed Signals: Describe a typical day for Sam Curtis, CEO at AtLink Services.

Samual Curtis: I am fifty years old, so I am getting around with less urgency, but with more focus, than in my younger years. We live in an Information Age and we are all learning how to be more judicious in how we consume information. I have learned to not sweat the small stuff so much, as a I get older. So, I am able to rely more and more on my senior management, with the confidence that everything will work out if we focus on our customer needs and I listen to the needs of my people. I spend a lot of time and effort listening to the needs of my staff. I feel that it is my job to meet their needs and do what I can to help them succeed. So much of my day is consumed with staff meetings and Zoom calls.

Q 14:

Mixed Signals: How do you spend the majorities of your time?

Samual Curtis: As stated previously, since I see my role as meeting the needs of my staff, I spend the majority of my time meeting with staff. I try to meet with them on an individual basis as much as I can. YouTube has become my best friend, as I have found a tremendous library of technical curriculum, regulatory guidance, and industry-related news at my fingertips within YouTube. I really appreciate the Artificial Intelligence (AI) element of YouTube, as it learns my patterns and predicts what I need to learn. This is a wonderful tool. Of course, my retreat is my family, so I try to spend as much time as I can with them.

Q 15:

Mixed Signals: What, in terms of day-to-day activities, are your favorites?

Samual Curtis: Easy. Seeing my staff succeed.

Q 16:Q 17: 

Mixed Signals: What duties are not so pleasant?

Samual Curtis: Dismissing a staff member is the most unpleasant of my duties.

Q 17:

Mixed Signals: What duties are the most important?

Samual Curtis: After taking care of myself so I have what it takes for others, being a good husband and father first and foremost. Then listening to our customers. If we become mute to our customer needs, we are headed for failure.

Q 18:

Mixed Signals: What are the big controversies or issues ahead for you and AtLink? What trends?

Samual Curtis: Again, for emphasis, I am concerned with the results of the RDOF auction. I am of the opinion the support was underbid and the ripples of RDOF failure will propagate for years. I see trends in smaller providers combining or merging to meet the needs of tomorrow.

Q 19:

Mixed Signals: What has been the best event or occurrence in your professional life that has taught you or impressed a lesson on you? 

Samual Curtis: The best event of my professional life was winning the USDA RUS BIP ARRA loan grant in 2010. This event cemented AtLink as a utility. It ultimately taught me how to see a project through to its ultimate completion. As an engineer, I have been involved in multiple similar projects, but I had never had the opportunity to see every aspect of a project of that nature.

Q 20:

Mixed Signals: What has been the worst event or occurrence in your professional life that has taught you of impressed a lesson on you? 

Samual Curtis: Post RDOF, AtLink was, in some cases, the incumbent provider and losing a customer to FTTH was, by far, the worst event. It taught me that you can never rest. We have to stay aware of our customer’s satisfaction and always provide for their needs.

Q 21:

Mixed Signals: Who in your background impressed you professionally?

Samual Curtis: I have multiple instances of this. My partner and our board chairman, Kenneth Doughty, has taught me patience and focus. I have learned a tremendous amount of business sense from him. My friend, COO, and attorney, Pat Castleberry, has taught me how to resolve conflict with honor. My industry colleagues, Nathan Stooke, Jacob Larson, Matt Larson, Jeff Kohler, Jason Guzzo, and many more have taught me how to share wisdom and experience.

Q 22:

Mixed Signals: What would be the best advice you could offer an existing fixed wireless and hybrid fiber fixed wireless operator today? 

Samual Curtis: Invest in a senior management team that works. Cultivate relationships with other leaders in your industry and share your successes and failures. Be mindful of the pace of your growth and cash flow. I have seen growth bankrupt a company. Do not let your political views or your personal beliefs impact your business decisions. 

And, in all seriousness: thoroughly read The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association’s new fixed wireless study from The Carmel Group. It was written with both beginners and the most-advanced in mind. Through the years, it has helped me quite a lot, especially with policy and financial matters.

Q 23:

Mixed Signals: What would be the best advice you could offer a would-be/wannabe fixed wireless and hybrid fiber fixed wireless operator today?

Samual Curtis: Spend time installing the service. You need to understand the most mundane and fundamental aspects of the business. This is more important than acronyms and raising money.

Q 24:

Mixed Signals: Any final comments, suggestions, recommendations or otherwise, Samual?

Samual Curtis: Plain and simple: Onward and upward!

A couple of decades ago, Multichannel News’ editor, Mark Robichaux, asked me to use a couple of words that would best describe the overall message and mission of my new column. I said straight away, “Mixed Signals.” That’s because I sensed from my earliest days of closely observing TV, back in the 1970s, that it was a business where consumers did not care if the content arrived via satellite, wire, or wireless. Rather, they just wanted a sound and video product that offered value and quality. Indeed, my conviction then was that supplementing a core delivery method with another was THE future. In short, a combination of those delivery methods would work…and/or would eventually be preferred.

To use just one distribution method seemed to be amazingly short-sighted. Yet, even today, that’s what most providers of broadband, broadcast, and pay TV content do.

Nonetheless, as they always tend to, things are changing.

HughesNet’s Gaske

Paul Gaske and I first ran together along a Tennessee river back in the mid 1990s. I will never forget two things: how badly he outran me, and how sweaty it was that day before our first satellite conference together at Opryland.

Recently, Gaske, as the decades-long general manager and executive VP at EchoStar and Germantown, MD-based HughesNet, conducted a video interview, conducted by Light Reading’s Nicole Ferraro. HughesNet champions its moniker as the “largest provider of satellite broadband services in the world.” The interview/podcast is about a new $600 million HughesNet orbiter, capable of delivery speeds of 100 Megabits/second. Near the end of the 14:28-minute query, Gaske concluded that as far as he saw it, the future of HughesNet’s geostationary Earth orbiting (GEO)-delivery of ones and zeros was together with fixed wireless. “Keeping up requires that flexibility of systems,” meaning, clearly, that yet another telecom deliverer had determined its strategy based upon the concept of “Mixed Signals.” In HughesNet’s world, eventually low Earth orbiting (LEOs) satellites are expected to blend into that mix, as well. Fiber already serves to access towers and satellite uplink/downlink gateways, he explains.

To drive home his emphasis, Gaske adds, “Business Enterprise is a perfect example. More and more they cannot, ever, afford to be down.” That means these businesses can easily justify spending on a huge full-time pipe that may include 24/7/365 access to wire, satellite, and wireless, all at the same time. “A well-performing back-up is essential,” he adds.

Gaske further and more broadly summarizes HughesNet’s strategies, rather aptly noting, “The technology at both ends of that fiber has to change constantly for you to be future-proofed. And that’s the next proposition.” 

I find it satisfying that Gaske, like me, also has changed: today he, too, has added regular bicycling to his exercise mix.

AtLink’s Access

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based AtLink is a broadband provider with more than 11,000 subscribers. With a current base of 90 employees, it has been focused on subscribers in the lower-middle part of the country for 16 years, since 2005. 

In a recent text exchange, CEO Samual Curtis and I discussed the future of broadband delivery strategies, based upon my sending him a message about the future of LEO-based content distribution. LEOs are a particular interest for Curtis and AtLink.

Curtis: I’m curious of what your take is on this [linked] article about Musk’s Starlink…

Schaeffler: As to your question: smart guys like you will reach out to Musk and Company early. You’ll figure out how to mold your business toward the greater realm of things: as a broadband provider with many pipes, fixed wireless being just one of those (i.e., along with sat, cable, and fiber, and …?). Because at the end of every day, the end customer doesn’t care about how they get the signal or content, they just want the signal and the content! (emphasis supplied).

In a more recent discussion, Curtis reiterated the same goal, but tweaked the aspects of implementation. He explained that AtLink is indeed currently working toward incrementally adding fiber, but is doing so in a most cautious and prudent manner. Some of that has to do with fiber’s far slower return on investment (See, page 19, Figure 8, “Comparative Economics of U.S. Internet Access Solutions,” from The Carmel Group’s 2021 report, the homepage and log-in are found at www.carmelgroup.com). It also, however, has to do with several of the essential positives attributed to fixed wireless, which represents the lion’s share of AtLink’s current broadband distribution system. Fixed wireless’ efficiency of installation and maintenance, plus the industry’s relatively rapid innovation cycle, were highlighted.

Midco’s Match

Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based cable operator Midco purchased 4,000 fixed wireless subscribers and the business of Grand Forks, North Dakota-based InvisiMax in early 2018, which today represents approximately one percent of the joined company’s total 460,000 subscriber base. Fiber-to-the-Household (FTTH) makes up another 5,000 customers. 

Jon Pederson, Midco’s chief technology innovation officer, describes a future growth strategy built around what he calls a “multiaccess fiber network.” At the ends are either fiber, wireless, or coaxial cable. Which gets placed in which locations depends on the geography, the demographics, and the economics. Thus, for Midco, fixed wireless works well in rural areas; fiber or coax are typically used in urban areas. Another factor is whether the subscriber represents a new build or an upgrade. 

“Our choices today are like a Swiss Army knife: I don’t often use the screwdriver, but it’s nice to have it there,” he compares. 

Midco’s current footprint is focused on states ending in OTA, which would mean North and South Dakota, as well as Minnesota, as well as Kansas and Wisconsin. 

Also tweaking his message and strategic philosophy, Pederson supplements, “We have what we call an ‘Edge Out’ strategy. We ask not just if [it] makes sense to put up a tower for a given area. We want to know not just does it work here alone, but is this location on the way to somewhere else? That’s part of a ‘Message of Ubiquity.’”

So the Future Is?

Because the collective and individual demand – and eventually the need – for broadband will continue to grow so very exponentially, not any one delivery form will be capable of single-handedly delivering that value and quality nearly all actual and potential consumers demand. For example, for a fiber network in a given geographical area, often the presence of geographical features and the cost of laying fiber takes that player out of the mix for remote customers in that part of the country. Yet, add an alliance with a low Earth satellite or a tower-to-home-and/or-business fixed wireless alliance, and suddenly that fiber player is back in the mix for that town limited area, broader county area, or more. 

In addition, although many advocates in Washington, DC and elsewhere are arguing that laying fiber is the only future-proof solution, that singular solution is flawed. That is because, as noted above, fiber can be a far from practical delivery form in many parts of a landmass. 

The Carmel Group recently completed its second global report for the U.S. fixed wireless industry trade group, WISPA, referred to above. In that, we championed a form of “Mixed Signals.” That is because we termed and wrote about what we called the “2021 fixed wireless and hybrid fiber-wireless report” (See, the homepage and log-in at www.carmelgroup.com). 

What is important to note, finally, is that in our strong and measured opinion, most future successful content delivery products and services will be based upon a variation of this “Mixed Signals” strategy. For many, fiber will be the trunk service, and wireless will deliver more granularly to the last mile. For others, satellite will be the trunk service, accompanied by both or either fixed wireless and/or cable. In another variation, a cable and fiber base will share access to customers with fixed wireless and LEO satellites. 

Whatever the mix, more flexibility and more revenues will come to those who can successfully (i.e., that value and quality thing) reach the most customers in a given area. That “area” typically includes signal delivery to urban, suburban, and many shades of rural.

Figure out how to get to them all -- or most of them -- and you are ready for the future.

P.S. - What is also fascinatingly strategic is to see where data gleaned by satellites globally will eventually (or even soon) be available to ALL content providers, so that they can better and more readily figure how to use that data to better serve their customers (See, https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/07/20/a-machine-learning-breakthrough-using-satellite-images-to-improve-human-lives/). For example, if you can use that data to determine where to lay roads, you can use it to determine where to string (or lay) fiber or cable. Or where to place towers to reach more subscribers.

Jimmy Schaeffler is chairman and CSO of west-coast-based The Carmel Group, a streaming/broadband, broadcast, and pay TV/video consultancy. He writes about telecommunications, entertainment, and media.

Kansas City, Mo. -- A growing number of small and independent cable operators are preparing to get rid of the very product that once drew customers to their business: TV programming.

With the wholesale price of programming increasing at a rate far higher than the retail cost, many operators attending The Independent Show here are generally ready to get out of the programming business and instead allow customers to pick and choose programming services with an IP, or over-the-top system.

At a panel titled “IP is the Future – Are you On Board?” at the annual convention of the American Cable Association and the National Cable Television Cooperative, operators focused on an option of making broadband the core product and allowing customers to deal directly with programmers.  Steve Weed, CEO of Wave Division Holdings, said smaller cable operators are focused on building -- and maintaining --  a gateway to the home that allows over the top players such as Netflix to be delivered to cable customers. Wave Broadband currently uses the Tivo platform, which features Netflix.

For its part, Cable ONE said it has inked a deal that will enable its customers to access Netflix directly through TiVo-powered HD-DVRs that it leases to subscribers.

“We don’t make any money on video,” said Weed, noting the 14% of gross margin on subscription video business, essentially passing along content to customers at cost. “We have a big incentive to get out of that.”

With the current wave of consolidation evident in several announced deals -- Comcast/Time Warner Cable; AT&T/DirecTV: 21st Century's offer to Time Warner -- panelists agreed that big mergers will accelerate the likelihood that basic-cable packages could go over-the-top.

“You’ve got this huge force of traditional media players,” said Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of the Carmel  Group.  “They are getting more and more control and squeezing your margins harder and harder. They’re making it tougher and tougher to hang on to that video that you have…..”

Because programming rate increases, said Weed, are the No.1 complaint from customers, smaller cable operators would do better getting rid of their traditional TV video product and instead focusing on providing a gateway to the home that connects all the services – phone service, home automation, security – and helps “manage the complexity” for customers.

Regardless, broadband is expected to play an increasingly larger role as a product offering.  Schaeffler predicted a big part of small ops’ future is the Internet of things.  He reminded the audience that Mediacom Communications is working with John Deere to investigate the extension of high-speed broadband in rural Iowa to provide connectivity for automated farm machinery. Mediacom wants to improve agricultural efficiency by connecting commercial farming operations (and John Deere equipment) with wireless broadband services. 

“The Internet of things will proliferate and many of you will be in the middle of it rural America” said Schaeffler.  Younger users will continue their craving for more broadband in time, he said. “You have a pipe they will scream for, “ he said.