Departing Prime Cable chief praises upgrade

Harris Bass has a grin that lights up his whole face when he tells the story that best exemplifies how misunderstood cable television can be.

He was general manager of a cable system in Marlboro, Mass., in the early 1980s and was out on sales calls.

He explained to an elderly woman how cable TV could bring a wider variety of entertainment into her home. After hearing the pitch, the woman was convinced -- she wanted cable.

"We made all the arrangements to bring the cable into her house, prepared the cable inside but when we were just about finished, we asked her where her television was," Bass said.

"She said, 'You said I was getting cable television, I thought I was getting a TV,' " Bass recalled. "From that point on, we made sure that people understood that if you're buying cable television you have to have a television."

Most consumers have gone beyond knowing they need a TV to enjoy most of cable's benefits.

But Bass knows the industry's coming innovations -- especially in the Las Vegas system he helped build -- may leave some consumers a little befuddled.

"There are so many great things ahead for local subscribers," said Bass, who will leave next month to head Prime Cable's new Washington, D.C., cable system, which serves about 300,000 customers in northern Virginia, southern Maryland and the nation's capital.

Bass has been in Las Vegas since 1990 after running cable systems in North Carolina, New Jersey and Massachusetts. It was a tough decision to uproot after building so many friendships and associations.

After declining offers from as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Bass decided to stick with Austin, Texas-based Prime Cable, which was a partner in the Las Vegas system with the Greenspun family before it was sold for $1.325 billion to Cox Communications Inc. of Atlanta. Members of the Greenspun family own the Las Vegas Sun.

Cox takes over the Las Vegas cable system next month and is bringing in one of its executives from Phoenix, Jill Campbell, to succeed Bass in running the system.

"I could not have handpicked a better operator than Cox for a group to take Las Vegas to the next level," Bass said. "They operate the same hybrid fiber-coaxial network in Orange County as here and they pride themselves in their commitment to customer service."

While Bass builds a system in Washington that has developed to where Prime was in Las Vegas nearly a decade ago, Cox will take over a Las Vegas system that is two-thirds through a massive fiber-optic upgrade.

"This is a system that can deploy digital television today," Bass said. "It's perfect pictures. It's the dish without the dish. They're also looking at telephony over the network, local and long distance."

What will Cox do for the system?

The upgrade will mean 100 analog channels and 200 digital channels. That means much more video on demand. Customers will be able to see movies at times that are convenient to them instead of having to check the schedule. The pictures will be better and there will be many more viewing choices.

Bass predicts Cox will bring on telephone options within two years.

And something that is here today in most neighborhoods served by Prime is high-speed Internet access. Moving data at 1.5 megabits per second takes the wait out of the Internet. That's what Bass is anxious to take to Washington -- the universe of information provided by the World Wide Web to one of the most important cities on the planet.

"When I used the Internet for the first time, it just blew me away," Bass said. "And most users haven't even scratched the surface."

Putting that interactive world at the fingertips of residents of Washington will be Bass' new challenge.

And he'll be sure they have a television or a computer before he puts in the cable.

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