Chương 86: Book 3 - Chapter 14 A

Thanksgiving was great, if crowded. My aunt Joan and her three kids were there. I eagerly returned to my old room when the opportunity presented itself to work on my computers. The lab was long gone, dismantled and shipped to GA in San Diego. I couldn't even sneak away up there to hide because it was being renovated back to its original splendor as a dining and event space. It was too cold to hide out at the rooftop garden, so I was considering where else I could go when my Mom found me.

"Hey Mom, I wanted to ask your permission for something."

"I thought you were emancipated?" she asked.

"You're still my Mom. I got invited to spend Christmas in France."

"So you're asking permission to go to France instead of coming home?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"Yes, and no matter your answer, I'll be here until either Christmas or I have to leave for France."

"I'll think about it. I appreciate you asking, John."

"Great, now how about you give me a tour of your new music conservatory?" Despite being home, I still had work I could do.

"I want to start a TV station," I told Jennifer.

"I did not expect that. I'm not even sure how to do that."

"I've got the new wireless cable project so it needs programming."

"I understand the reason, but what kind of cable channel?"

"We're going to call it SyFy."

"Sci-Fi?" she asked. I spelled it: "S Y F Y, you can't trademark Sci-Fi."

"And you're going to do a science fiction cable station?"

"Science fiction and fantasy. It'll be great. I need it up and running on Star Wars Day."

"May fourth," she said with a nod, and then a shrug when she saw my grin.

"I watched you on The Tonight Show."

"Right. I've got Star Wars so I want to start the channel premiere with a Star Wars marathon."

"Okay. I'll find somebody to help you start a cable channel." I handed her a piece of paper, "This is the guy I want. Nick Elseworth."

"Okay, I'll find the guy you want."

"Great, I'll need to build a broadcast facility and it needs room for a few small film studios."

"Here in Tulsa?" she asked.

"Yes. There will be more stations in the future so the broadcast facility needs to be expandable."

"How do you expand a broadcast facility?" she asked, intrigued.

"You put up more satellite dishes."

"What do satellite dishes have to do with it?"

"That's how cable channels get distributed. They broadcast to a satellite, which sends the signal back down to the individual cable operators."

"So it should be out of town?"

"Yes, and have good line of sight to the south."

"The south?" she asked.

"Geostationary satellites rebroadcast the signal. They stay in the same spot in the sky, over the equator. That's to the south."

"All right, I did not know that," she said.

"So, try to get Nick here next week. Put him up at the Mayo."

"Got it, anything else?"

"Start leasing space in the Mid-Continent Tower. I'll headquarter the broadcast company there. Also, plan on buying the building in a couple years." If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"I'll tell Thomas," she said.

"Great I look forward to chatting with Nick soon." I sat down with Nick a few days later at the rooftop bar at The Mayo for a private lunch before it opened that afternoon.

"I'm very excited to learn what kind of cable channel you want to start," he told me after introductions.

"I want to create a sci-fi and fantasy exclusive channel."

"Interesting, I can see the appeal. Lots of cheap old sci-fi content out there to get us started." I appreciated his immediate buy-in to the project. He clearly wanted this job.

"We will start the station on May fourth with an exclusive broadcast of a Star Wars marathon in the original wide-screen format," I told him.

"That will get attention. It'll be a tight schedule to build out the broadcast network and shop it around to the cable operators in just five months."

"You'll do fine. American Wireless will take the channel."

"They already agreed?" he asked surprised.

"I own it," I told him.

"They will take it."

"Oh, I didn't know that. I have it in California. It's great."

"My new media company will be headquartered here, in Tulsa. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all. I'll sell my house in California, and buy a mansion here for the same price."

"Where is your house?" I asked him.

"It's just a little two-bedroom bungalow in north LA."

"Pacific Palisades?" I asked.

"Not quite that far north."

"Keep it," I suggested.

"California real estate will always appreciate faster than pretty much anywhere else. If you rent it out, it'll easily make your mortgage payment here. Probably your car payment too, but I'll give you a company car."

"Good," he said.

"Let's talk programming. What kind of shows do you want to air, and do you plan to produce any new shows?" he asked as he pulled a yellow tablet of paper and a pen from his briefcase.

"I want to divide up the week. Prime time will be a four-hour block starting at six pm. Monday we can do monster movies, Tuesday will be Star Trek, things like that. We can even have a classics night with Gilligan's Island and Mr Ed.

"I also just bought Marvel so I want to do superheroes all day long on Saturday. I've got the entire back library of cartoons to work with, but old live action series like Wonder Woman are good too.

"Sundays I want to specialize in movies. I want to alternate between old sci-fi and fantasy and more modern movies. One of each keeping to the same theme or genre. If it's been remade, then I want to show both together. We aren't going to just be sci-fi and fantasy, we'll curate an experience. We can find someone to do introductions explaining the history and interesting tidbits of each of the Sunday movies." I watched him eagerly write all of this down, a big grin on his face.

"I want to grab a specific audience each night. Based on the demographics we pull for each night, we will offer customized advertising."

"Good idea. This is going to be great. You really are going to honor the genre. What's the name of the company?" he asked.

"Heartland Media," I told him.

"And this will just be the first station we launch." Mom eventually agreed that I could go to Paris for Christmas, so a few days before, Matt and I took a charter to New York, and then the Concorde to Paris. Georges Besse was waiting for me at the airport. We drove to his house outside Paris, as he told me about all the interesting places we passed. His driver and new bodyguard were up front, and I was in the back with him and Matt.

"We are here," he said, as the car came to a stop in front of a very large mansion. It was a typical French style, multi story, painted off white, with a flat front broken only by windows, small balconies, and the front steps.

"Watch your step the snow may be slippery, it's been melting," we were warned. We were given an opportunity to freshen up, then joined the family for dinner. The following day was Christmas, so I carefully hid the presents I brought in my room. I had arrived early enough so that the family could have time to meet me and plan for my presence in their holiday traditions. They had a few presents for me, and I joked about it.

"I'm so glad you didn't see me before. I just had growth spurt!"

"How tall are you?" I was politely asked.

"Fifty seven inches!" They looked blankly, so I translated, "One hundred forty-four and three-quarter centimeters!" They laughed at my eager announcement, but I was proud. I passed out the presents I had brought and enjoyed their traditions. It could have been a much worse Christmas for their family if not for my bullet-proof vest. After Christmas Georges took me on a tour of the city, where we visited famous places and ate great food.

The entire family came, so I didn't have a chance to have a private chat with Georges for a few days.

"You're a fantastic businessman, Georges. You're turning Renault around, and AMC too. How long before the government decides it must sell AMC? No matter how long they own it, every success of the company is going to come with fear and panic over another loss year," I said.

"It's all I can do to keep it running. All that the Ministers see is that we own a dangerous foreign liability. That, and the debt that builds every year."

"Do you think that Renault will ever return to private ownership, or will it always remain a government owned company?"

"Despite Chirac's ambitions Renault will remain government-owned for decades," he predicted.

"It's a shame, with you in control I'd love to own a controlling interest in Renault. Any chance you'd sell me Renault's control of AMC so I can make it an American company again?" I asked him.

"That seems unlikely, but I'll consider it."

"What I would really love to see is you as head of AMC. With the new Jeeps coming out, it's going to be a powerhouse."

"Would you really hire me to run AMC?" he asked.

"AMC and Jeep. But yes, I'd happily put you in charge of any company I owned."

"There was word from the President that if he could sell AMC that he would be very happy," he said cautiously.

"Then perhaps I should make a cash offer to the President," I told him.