Behind the wheel at Howard Cable: although sometimes he's tempted to sell his 1,200-subscriber system, Howard Lock loves to get in his truck and keep the family business going

Cable World, Nov 26, 2001 by Will Lee

Call Howard Lock and ask him how he's doing: You'll unequivocally get the same answer.

"Darn near 7.5," says the proprietor of Howard Cable, a 1,200-subscriber operation, from his office in Peshtigo, Wis. It's a state of being--on a scale of 1 to 10--that describes the 62-year-old Lock's view on his life's work with darn near accuracy. Though needled over the years by the concerns of any small-business owner--in his case, concerns over big-box retailers, government regulations or, more recently, satellite providers--Lock is loathe to complain too vociferously.

"Oh, he does love his work. He gets out there every day in the truck, does what he's got to do," says Mary Lock, his high school steady and wife of 42 years.

For 50 years, Lock has been providing television service to the citizens of Northern Wisconsin's Marinette County, the self-proclaimed "waterfall capital" of its state. At the age of 12, he started working for his father, an electrician who serviced TVs at the dawn of their entry into American homes.

By the time he was in high school, Lock and his father were equal partners and, after graduating, the junior Lock bought him out and started selling and repairing televisions. He eventually began selling satellite dishes and burglar alarms in Marinette. That business, Lock TV (the other half of the Lock mini-empire) hangs on, although Lock himself has doubts about it.

"The wife just refuses to let that thing go," says Lock, estimating sales of RCA sets at about 300 to 400 per year. "I can go get a TV at Best Buy for cheaper than I pay for it from my supplier."

Lock made the transition from selling televisions to sending signals to them in the early '80s, when he became a small partner in a company called Northern Cable Company and ran several rural systems for the operator. After selling part of his stake in Northern in 1992 for what he says was "a decent sum" and swapping a couple of systems, Lock was left with a small band of customers--many of whom visit the area only in the summer to enjoy the region's lakes.

Having seasonal and far-flung customers creates certain problems for Lock. For one thing, just turning their service on or off means a lengthy drive to the countryside, anywhere from 30 to 40 miles depending on the location; Lock does not have an addressable system that would allow him to do the switching from his office.

Moreover, just getting the wire out to those homes is troublesome, involving either tedious negotiations with the local utilities or strenuous digging, which Lock, who employs no engineers, has to do himself.

Then there are the programming costs, which Lock often finds prohibitive because his mere 1,200 subscribers--a fair percentage of whom pay only for three or four months of service every year--don't generate the revenue needed to pay for a broad array of networks. His limited lineup--55 basic channels and three premium networks--has tempted a fair number of residents to opt for direct broadcast satellite, which Lock calls "the small dish."

Given the unceasing pressures from larger cable operators, Lock has in recent years contemplated unloading his little system. His three children, all grown and living outside the community in which they were raised, decided against working in the family business, even though their rather would gladly nave passed it down. In fact, the Locks' youngest son moved just a few months ago to Tennessee and out of cable altogether, after having worked for his dad for 12 years.

Lock says that his son "got tired of people coming up to him on the golf course and bothering him about their cable service."

Still, Lock finds it hard to let his cable business go. He took up gardening a few years ago and seems to have been invigorated by moving his home and his business about five years ago from the quiet outskirts of Marinette to the relative bustle of Peshtigo, population 3,300.

The mayor of Peshtigo, for one, is glad he moved. "Even though his customers are 20, 30 miles out of the city, he's always been quite deeply involved in the community," says Peshtigo mayor Dale Berman. "He's not a bashful-type person; a real son of a gun, I'll tell you that. He used to steal from my father's garden as a kid." (Berman, it should be noted, is the uncle of Lock's wife.)

But even his gardening, which Mayor Berman praises highly, would get "tiresome" very quickly without his business to run, says Lock.

"We had this thing sold about four years ago for a pretty good price, and I backed out," says Lock. "I did not know what I was going to do. I've never worked for anybody in my life. I thought, `What in the hell am I going to do for the next 20 years?' It really and truly scared me. But I think it really comes down to the fact that I've always loved doing this."

HOWARD CABLE Peshtigo, WI

OWNERSHIP: Howard Cable/Lock TV

HOMES PASSED: 2,500

SUBSCRIBERS: 1,200

MILES OF PLANT: 50 miles underground (Marinette County and beyond).

BASIC CABLE RATE: $22; $29.95 for expanded basic

DIGITAL CABLE: Not yet offered, although plans are underway to provide it "soon."