Visionary?

I turned on one of the ESPN channels the other night, and they were broadcasting a stone skipping competition.

I’m not making this up.

Guys were skipping stones competitively and ESPN was there with cameras and play by play announcers.

I hit the GUIDE button on my remote and apparently after the stone skipping was over, they were going to take us to the sign spinning competition.

Again, not making this up.

I flashed back to 1978.

I’m 20 years old, and standing next to the Associated Press wire machines at WILM NewsRadio in Wilmington, DE. I was a co-anchor during morning drive, and I was talking to Tom Mees, our sports director and morning drive sports anchor.

He leaned in to quietly tell me he was entertaining a job offer.

“No way!”, I said. “What station?”

“It’s a start-up sports network on cable television. They’re going to do sports 24/7.”

I think I may have laughed out loud.

“Tom, slow down. First, cable?! Nobody watches cable. And sports 24/7?! How the heck are they going to have enough programming to fill all that broadcast time? There’s not that much sports in the world!”

He kind of shook his head like he wasn’t sure and I think I probably told him he should stay in the safe confines of AM radio.

That is hilarious to write in 2025.

Thankfully, Tom didn’t listen to me. He was one of the first employees at the Entertainment and Sports Network - ESPN, which launched in September of 1979. He was lead anchor of SportsCenter from 1979 to 1985, later branching into NHL coverage, college sports, MLB, college football, and USFL coverage.

I think we can safely say that cable TV and ESPN caught on. ESPN now has 7 channels including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, and ESPN+, a subscription based streaming service. They had a collective 2.3 million viewers per minute in primetime during the first quarter of this year.

AM radio…well, never mind.

So much for being a visionary.

I felt somewhat vindicated, however, as I watched dudes skipping stones the other night, complete with statistics, analysis and slow-motion replays.

On the other hand, I did watch it until the sign spinning came on…so there’s that.

Footnote: My friend Tom was with ESPN for 17 years, until his untimely death in 1996. He never learned to swim, and accidentally drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool in Southington, CT.