Chapter Four of Seven

 Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

CHAPTER FOUR

With the attention to our accomplishments came a steady increase in the number of companies that wanted to schedule a visit to Glasgow, or they wanted to schedule me to come to their meeting to tell the Glasgow story. I testified before House and Senate Committees relative to proposed legislation to reign in the cable television, telephone, and programming companies, and that notoriety attracted even more interest in Glasgow EPB. One of the companies who repeatedly visited us was a group from MCI. They were a powerhouse telecommunications firm back then. After several visits from MCI executives in the early 90s, I got a call from a very important MCI executive named Vinton Cerf. I did not know it at the time, but Vinton Cerf co-developed the language of the internet, TCP/IP. Cerf wanted me to fly to his office just outside Washington, DC, for lunch and a chat. I accepted that invitation and was quite surprised to learn that Glasgow’s work was being deeply studied by his team at MCI, and he wanted to know if we would be interested in becoming the MCI test site for delivering high-speed internet access via broadband and a yet-to-be-manufactured device called the cable modem. At the time, I had never even seen the internet, nor had anyone on the EPB team, but it seemed like a great opportunity to partner with a very big company with a lot of resources. We accepted the offer, and it became one of the pivotal events in my career, and in the life of Glasgow and Glasgow EPB.

Within a few weeks, MCI had provisioned high speed links to Glasgow, and we connected them to our broadband network. We found about ten friendly customers who already had a PC in their home, and who were willing to allow us to crack that PC open and install an experimental card in the bus, which would interface with our coaxial cable network. The results, even from the beginning, were phenomenal. We knew this was going to be a very big product, yet we were clueless as to what people would pay for it, we also didn’t know what our expense of providing the service would be, and we certainly didn’t know that so many homes and businesses would want the service. As we began to carefully offer the service in 1995, we soon realized that we were holding a tiger by the tail. It also became the firm foundation upon which we stood to see a sustainable future for Glasgow, and the world outside it.

Totally documenting the struggles and the amazing growth of the internet business, after its 1995 inception, would take too many pages. Suffice to say that Glasgow EPB’s involvement in the internet access business via its broadband network became far bigger than Vinton Cerf first suggested at the fateful lunch. Glasgow became famous again, as it was proclaimed the most wired city in America, by several publications. The business changed the EPB team, as our hunger for even more bright young people intensified, but it also changed virtually every home and business in Glasgow. High speed internet became available, and high-expertise support from EPB made the availability usable for everyone, as we continued the democratization of technology. 

The rates we set for the internet products began, and remain, far below what peers charge for similar products. In 25 years, the net income from the booming internet business began to exceed the net income produced by the contracting electric power business. That seems impossible, but such growth and opportunities came to pass from having the right Mayors, appointing the right Board members, who supported EPB management in finding and retaining the right team. All those elements existed, and they combined to produce the greatest results imaginable for the Glasgow citizens. Since the beginning of the cable television and internet services, the low rates offered by EPB have saved the citizens of Glasgow over $70 million and that amount continues to grow.

It is impossible to know just how Glasgow’s early availability of high-speed internet impacted hundreds of other businesses in Glasgow, but we know it did and it enhanced their ability to compete. The availability of high-speed LAN/WAN connectivity also enabled us to create BITS, the community GIS mapping consortium that also gave birth to our Enhanced 911 system. That too came from a now old-fashioned spirit of cooperation between EPB, FRECC, Glasgow Water Company, Barren County Schools, City of Glasgow and Barren County Fiscal Court. No other community had, nor do they have today, anything like it. We have leaders like Jackie Browning, Doc Nichols, Woody Gardner, Charlie Campbell, and Charlie Honeycutt to thank for having this system.  

Chapter Three of Seven

Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

CHAPTER THREE

A bit later in the 80s, after we had given up on the hydroelectric projects, continued dislike of the cable television company brought us back around to that broadband concept that was included in the hydroelectric plant vision. Telescripps Cable was not winning friends in Glasgow when they provided antiquated technology, normally stuff that was retired from their larger systems in Knoxville and Chattanooga. Eventually, Jeff Herbert and I opened discussion of the idea of Glasgow EPB building its own broadband network for Glasgow’s future. The Board really had only one question about this idea. They wanted to know if the network could be used to offer modern cable television products to Glasgow, in direct competition with Telescripps. My answer was yes…even though I was secretly not actually sure how it might work. That was the answer that the Board wanted. That discussion at an EPB meeting in 1987 turned out to be a very big deal.

A consultant was hired to advise us on whether our vision of implementing cable television, meter reading, telemetry, and LAN/WAN on one consolidated network, was even possible. Of course, we also asked them to make financial projections as well. After a few months, we got the results, and the report said that everything we envisioned was possible. However, the report went on to advise the Board not to embark on such a project. The reason? Well, the consultant apparently was partially owned by a cable television company, so it was no surprise when the Board was advised against building a new competitive network. Those five brave community leaders: William Bryant, Robert Lessenberry, Jack Goodman, Norma Redford, and Don Doty, wasted no time in ignoring that advice and directing me to go forward with the design and construction of the first municipally-owned broadband network in the United States. 

Things happened in rapid succession after that. Telescripps filed a couple of lawsuits against us, attempting to make us stop building the new network. The lawsuits eventually failed and Telescripps settled them. We started hiring more smart people and getting our existing team trained to build and operate a broadband network. Construction went on, nearly around the clock, until finally, in late 1988, we had the right team, we had finished the installation of the head-end electronics in the newly expanded EPB building, and we began connecting customers to the network. It was an exciting, frightening, and gratifying time. My team said they could handle this project, and as usual, they were right. This project moved us toward the aforementioned window to a new world of possibilities.

Building the broadband network was easy compared to operating one and achieving financial success. While I was anxious to get into the more exotic telemetry and meter reading via broadband network, it was the early 90s and Glasgow only wanted its MTv. So, the broadband project mainly consisted of competitive cable television for the first few years. Telescripps made that competition very tough. They gave up in the courtroom, but they declared all-out war on the streets of Glasgow. They lowered their rate for basic cable to only $5.95 per month, street by street, as we completed our network on those streets. So, my group of smart and innovative people got deep into competition mode. They invented ways to customize our installations to meet the needs of a variety of home television setups. They discovered the gold in locally originated programming. We began to videotape and replay every sort of sporting event that took place involving the children of our customers. We even struck a deal with District Judge Bennie Dickinson, to videotape sessions of Small Claim Court, and replayed those mercilessly! The whole concept of locally originated programming began to work for us, and very slowly, throughout the rest of the 90s, our cable subscriber numbers grew. They grew so much that by 2000, after Comcast had acquired the Telescripps properties, they struck a deal with us to sell out their remaining customers, and their network, to us. 

Even though most of the EPB team was committed to the cable television battle, early in the 90s we found some time to dabble in computer networking over the broadband network.  We used that capacity, initially, to connect our substations to a system that allows remote monitoring and control of the equipment at the substations. This capability began to show immediate improvements to the reliability of Glasgow’s electric grid, and we still use it, and improve it, bit-by-bit today. We also began to do little Local Area Network/Wide Area Network projects wherein we learned how to do things like read an encyclopedia off a CD-ROM drive at one of the schools by using a simple PC at one of our homes. Though these were not giant technological leaps, we were quite proud of this capacity and we began to understand just how big this idea of local area networking directly into all homes and businesses might become. In those days we hosted many other utilities and technology companies that had read about our network. You see, the dirty tricks that Telescripps pulled in their attempts to stop our progress, made us famous. There were big feature articles about us on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, as well as dozens of other publications. CNN even ran a feature story about us, and all of that publicity attracted the attention of some companies and individuals who also became a part of my story.

Chapter Two of Seven

                                                                   Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

CHAPTER TWO

Only a few months after walking into Glasgow EPB for the first time, my daughter, Lauren was born, and for the next 18 years, my family enjoyed the rare pleasure of raising kids and attending hundreds of events at Glasgow Independent Schools with them. I would not trade those years for anything, and the success of Bradley and Lauren is testament to the fine school systems we have in Glasgow. At work, I arrived to find a small team of 22 folks, working hard to grow Glasgow’s power grid, using practically no technology, even though Glasgow’s commercial and industrial customers were growing like topsy. It was a much smaller operation than what I was accustomed to in Bowling Green, but it was friendly and peaceful -- qualities that kept me in Glasgow for many ensuing decades.

The excitement of those hydro projects quickly turned into something far more daunting than I anticipated. TVA didn’t really want Glasgow to build those projects and make its own power. Army Corps of Engineers had a very dim view of Glasgow monkeying around with its lakes and dams. For a young fellow, totally inexperienced with taking on two giant federal entities, it was clear that a friend would be needed -- one with more experience with moving mountains, and willing to tutor and support said young fellow. I found that person in the EPB’s experienced counsel – Jeff Herbert. Jeff became my friend, advisor, instructor, and partner in more than one big idea that became a reality for Glasgow. But it all started with those hydro power licenses that those five board members, those giants of Glasgow’s glory days, pursued and captured. 

Even though the hydro power projects never became a reality (the opposition from TVA and ACOE was just more than we could overcome), those licenses became an essential element of the last 40 years at Glasgow EPB – here is what I mean. If Glasgow EPB was going to find a way to economically build and operate hydroelectric facilities at distant dams, it became clear that finding a way to operate them remotely, would be required. How would EPB receive complex telemetry, video, and other data necessary to satisfy the ACOE, at distant sites? It turned out there was a way, one that might also provide a lot of other functionality for EPB and for the people of Glasgow…a broadband network. Although the hydro projects failed to materialize, that broadband system became something I wanted to learn more about, and that did come to pass. 

A recurring theme throughout this recounting is that we were able to attract phenomenally talented people to join the EPB team. Those people came, nearly exclusively, from our local area, and nearly all of them graduated from Glasgow or Barren County schools. This area has always had a robust vein of talent within it, and that same early Board I mentioned, did something that allowed us to find, recruit, and retain that talent. They considered, deliberated, and ultimately approved a pay plan that is the foundation for EPB’s success over the last several decades. With the rich resource of talent, a Board made up of thoughtful and supportive business folks, and a deep vein of ethics that believed that when these team members earned our respect, we are required to give them that respect, we developed a team of super-heroes.

Approving that pay plan was no small feat, and it likely could not happen in today’s polarized political environment. But in 1985, Don Doty, a certified expert on human resource management, proposed a merit-based pay plan to me, and he and Dan Moody spent countless hours explaining the concept to me. With Don’s backing, I proposed the plan to the Board (remember, that Board included Robert Lessenberry and William Bryant, and they were extreme fiscal conservatives). Instead of going to war with each other, they came together, listened to Don Doty and respected his expertise. They did not cling to their preconceived notions. Instead, they listened to each other and deliberated while fully respecting differing viewpoints. Eventually the plan was approved, unanimously, and it has been reviewed and re-approved for 35 consecutive years, by many different configurations of the Board, since its initial approval. While seldom mentioned, this event is one of the most important in the last 40 years of EPB progress.

Chapter One

 

Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

 

It was certainly not hard to see that my time at Glasgow EPB might come to a halt suddenly, and now the time appears to be at hand. I agreed to a settlement with the EPB that will have me stepping down from my role as Superintendent, and assuming a temporary role of Advisor/Consultant, effective March 1. I will retire completely from Glasgow EPB by the end of summer 2021.

Since I’ve outlasted nearly everyone that has memories of the last 40 years of the 60-year history of Glasgow EPB, it strikes me that, “Who tells your story?” is a legitimate concern, so I’m going to record it for posterity. But there is more to what happened in my life than just a series of events and people. The culmination of the people and events of my career produced a glimpse into what is possible. This autobiographical essay is published in the hope that others can grasp what we glimpsed, and, hopefully, use it as a basis to carry on the voyage of discovery.

One might say that I have been in the electric utility business since my birth in 1954. My Dad worked for Farmers RECC when I was born, and I studied him intently, so I could someday drive a car with a two-way radio in it, with a big whip antenna. Although I studied my Dad in my youth, my real experience in the utility business started on May 12, 1975. That was the day I walked into Bowling Green Electric Plant Board (it became BGMU a few years later) to take a job as Draftsman, while I was still attending WKU and majoring in Civil Engineering. That was over 45 years ago.

The combination of the classes I was taking at WKU, and the opportunities to constantly pester experienced staff at BGMU for answers, really worked well for my understanding of how the electric grid works. While I continued to progress slowly at WKU, my real education in the mid-70’s came from my mentors: Gene Laughlin, Jim Hoagland, Gary Stallons, and B.H. Kissler. I only hope they knew how much their teaching meant to me, because it meant everything to my career. To this day, whether it is in the throes of a big power outage, a daunting personnel decision, or some other big problem that I need help with, I mentally call out to them.

Things were going great for me and BGMU back then. Mary and I had a son, Bradley, in 1978, shortly after we bought our first home. But then things at BGMU went sour. Lest you think that the rise of devious and misinformed politicians is something invented in Glasgow, let me assure you that, for me, it was first seen in Bowling Green. In 1982 a group of newly elected locals, and a particularly hate-filled Mayor, formed a junta that became determined to destroy BGMU – beginning with the firing of the CEO, Henry Carlisle. As the months rolled by after the junta took power, Henry Carlisle was fired, and each of the brilliant instructors mentioned above, one-by-one, left BGMU for retirement or better jobs, which did not include working for ham-fisted hacks appointed by confused politicians, bereft of ethics. That left me, at 27 years old, effectively in charge of designing and operating Bowling Green’s power grid. 

Meanwhile, back in Glasgow, titans of the community held office, and populated the boards of essential services, like Glasgow EPB. William Bryant, Robert A. Lessenberry, Norma Redford, Don Doty, and Jack Goodman, oblivious to the insanity gripping BGMU, were making plans to acquire licenses to convert Corps of Engineers dams in the region, to provide clean and efficient hydroelectric power for Glasgow. Into that vast void between the destructive thinking in Bowling Green, and the thoughtful wisdom which existed in Glasgow politics, serendipity began to flourish. For me, that manifested itself in my seeing an advertisement for a new Superintendent at Glasgow EPB. In Bowling Green, it seemed clear that everyone who knew anything about the grid, was departing -- taking their expertise with them and leaving a bleak future for BGMU. In Glasgow, I saw my parents, my in-laws, and the wonderful community that Mary and I both still called “home.” By November 1983, I became that new Superintendent, the one who got to pick up those hydroelectric power licenses and try to make viable projects out of them. I also got to leave the divisive politics of Bowling Green behind. Everything about this move was a win!