Analyst-Author Ted Henderson Aspires to Inspire Other Dads

Ted Henderson, one of the most oft-quoted analysts in the cable space over the years, had dropped out of sight recently after stints at Janco Partners, and Stifel Nicolaus.

Turns out he was writing a book.

In a recent e-mail, Henderson said he quit his job in 2006 to write a memoir of his 25 years as a father. The result of his year-long writing journey — titled Dad's Top Ten Lectures — hasn't found a publisher yet but is chock full of anecdotes fathers of any age should enjoy.

His characteristic self-deprecating humor makes it all work, and there are a few surprises, even for those who've known him for years.

Such as: Henderson, a suburban Chicago high-school standout, received a four-year basketball scholarship to Auburn University in 1975. He hardly ever played, he writes, but the scholarship — which he parlayed into an accounting degree — helped him buy his first house and start a family, with his wife, Julie, that has grown to three adult children.

Henderson says the book — in addition to a love letter to his parents, his wife and his children — is a tribute to millions of fathers every day who simply make the effort.

“Every good Dad that I have ever met has two things in common: (1) they are wholly unprepared for the task at hand; and (2) they show up anyway,” Henderson writes.

He's now working in corporate development at Dish Network and his book is available on www.scribd.com.

Frank Batten Launched Never-Ending Forecast

Frank Batten Sr.'s death last week, at age 82, prompted The Wire to re-scan his book, The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon, written with Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (Harvard Business School Press, 2002). There's a hilarious behind-the-scenes account of the Landmark Communications channel's official launch on May 2, 1982, at the National Show in Las Vegas.

A man later known as “the leprechaun,” because no one was sure who he was or where he worked, played a key role in executing a complicated display that involved the main satellite signal from Atlanta and 12 different localized feeds.

After Landmark CEO Dubby Wynne announced the channel would launch with a then-record 4.2 million cable subscribers, Batten “made a few remarks, and then reached for a switch that would 'turn on' the service. 'Now I will throw a switch,' I intoned as dramatically as possible, 'to launch a weather forecast that will never end.' ”

And it hasn't.