ST CATHARINES – Robert C. (Bob) Short, the founding president of the Canadian Cable Television Association, died last weekend. He was 82.
After years in the electrical equipment supply industry, rising to president of Edwards Company, Short was hired as the first full-time president of the CCTA in 1970. Later, he also served as vice-president of Canada Wire and Cable, the first president of Cancom and deputy chairman of CUC Broadcasting (which many will recall as Trillium Cable).
Short fought some of cable’s first battles during his five-year stint heading the association, such as helping win the rights to attach cable wires to utility and telephone poles and to lobby government to make sure U.S. television signals could continue to be carried into Canada. At the time, Canadian broadcasters believed cable companies were going to kill Canadian television by delivering American broadcast stations.
“The challenge in 1970 was to achieve recognition for cable television as an equal partner to both the telephone industry and the broadcasters,” wrote cable pioneer Stan Thomas in his book “Cable… Vision of the Pioneers” in a passage about Short.
“In 1973 Bob was a fairly new president of the Canadian Cable Television Association when he hired me as the first director of engineering of the CCTA,” Ken Hancock told Cartt.ca this week. “Bob was a dynamic president, keen on making the fledgling cable industry a force to be reckoned with against the strong competition of the traditional carriers, particularly Bell, and the broadcasters represented by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB).
“He was successful in making the CCTA a lobby group of equal importance with the Canadian Telecommunications Carriers Association (CTCA) and the CAB,” Hancock recalled.
“Bob took a number of other initiatives to advance the struggling cable industry, with considerable success. One might say that Bob was, in his way, one of the pioneers of the cable industry who, by his lobbying activities with both the CRTC and the DOC, helped pave the way for the success of the industry owners and leaders such as the Jarmains, Pierre Morrisette, Ted Rogers etc. etc.”
Added John Thomas, former president of Delta Cable: “Bob… was always very much a gentleman and had a very easy going way about him. He was quite deliberate in everything he said and there was never a mistake about what it was he had to say. I can remember telling Michael Hind-Smith in 1975 when he took over as president (of the CCTA) that he would have a challenge in filling Bob’s shoes.”
Short is survived by wife Ruth, children Douglas Short and his wife Patricia, Jane Koustas and her husband Zisimos, David Short and his wife Mary Jean and seven grandchildren.
– Greg O’Brien
