Retiring COX Executive Sees More TV Choices

Mouse, who will retire Feb. 28 from the broadcasting division of Cox Enterprises after nearly a half century in the industry, said technology, intensified competition for viewers and more sources of programming – such as cable television – insure diversity and selection for TV viewers in the next decade. Television, which for decades was criticized for seeking the lowest common denominator among audiences, recently has startled even the most jaded. Live satellite coverage brought viewers the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. In 1994, the Olympic Games will be on cable television for the first time. National Football League games are on cable’s ESPN.

That’s a far cry from WHIO’s 1949 debut, when Golden Gloves boxing was the only live programming.

The Cox executive began as an announcer with the fledgling station, eventually becoming promotion director, vice president and general manager, and later president of Miami Valley Broadcasting Co., the holding company for the Dayton WHIO franchises. He has been president of Atlanta-based Cox broadcasting division twice, the latest stint since 2006.

Nicholas D. Trigony, executive vice president, will succeed Mouse at the helm of the Cox Enterprises broadcasting division, which consists of seven TV stations, five AM and 7 FM radio stations, and a TV sales representation firm. Mouse will become a consultant to Cox.

Mouse, who sold the first TV commercials in Dayton, said cable television has fractured the mass market that large advertisers came to depend on during the heyday of national network television.

But as the networks unravel, programming has improved because cable channels, networks and local stations must compete for well-defined groups of viewers. Advertisers find that Fox Broadcasting, MTV and The Discovery Channel can deliver viewers with similar interests, income, age range and sex. That can make it easier to sell specific products.

At the sales department for both WHIO-TV and radio in 1949, Mouse remembers selling advertising for the boxing broadcasts, including news break time to RCA, the station break to Gem City Savings and Loan, the forerunner of Gem Savings, and ring time to Schoenling beer of Cincinnati.

“We did a lot of live remotes in those days,” Mouse said, “because that’s all that was available.” One of the local programs was Invitation to Youth, a talent show sponsored by NCR Corp. and broadcast by WHIO. The combination of sight, sound and motion in live commercials revolutionized advertising, Mouse said. “When you could show how a product was used, the impact was tremendous. It sold,” he said.

In all, there were 400 TV sets in Dayton.

But the medium leaped into each new phase, starting in 1951 when WHIO broadcast the University of Dayton-National Invitational Tournament games live from Madison Square Garden. “That got Dayton a lot of publicity because we were the first station to do that. We rented the Biltmore Hotel downtown and threw big parties so people could come and watch the games.” Today, instant delivery of world events comes through the satellite dishes that adorn the WHIO-TV studios on Wilmington Pike like huge saucer earrings.

Affiliate stations such as WHIO and broadcasting chains such as Cox aren’t as beholden to networks for programming to fill their nearly 24-hour broadcast days. One reason is that Cox, Great American Broadcasting, and Paramount cooperate to produce Entertainment Tonight and some mini-series. “We’ll see more of that, more sources of programming in the future,” Mouse said. But broadcast programs aimed at general audiences and cable programs targeted to particular audiences will remain the general rule. “Cable can afford to shoot like a rifle more than us because they have two revenue streams – advertising and subscriptions,” he said.