Pride Really Means Something in Toledo

Cable World, Feb 24, 2003

Which makes sense for a company headed by executives willing to provide personal service 24/7.

BUCKEYE CABLESYSTEM

TOLEDO

THE BASICS

EMPLOYEES: 340

MILES OF PLANT: 2,214 fiber; 2,721 coax

HOMES PASSED: 217,489

PERCENT UPGRADED: 96.4%

BANDWIDTH CAPACITY: 870 MHz

BASIC SUBS: 132,507

BASIC RATE: $36.99

DIGITAL CUSTOMERS: 27,736

DIGITAL RATES: $43.94

HSD CUSTOMERS: 22,754

HSD RATES: $44.99 ($54.99 for noncable customers)

PREMIUM CUSTOMERS: 26,697

HDTV: Scheduled to launch first half of 2003.

TELEPHONY: 1,500 commercial customers.

AD INSERTIONS: 32 channels

SOURCE: BUCKEYE

MEET THE OPERATOR

Allan Block Chairman

A native of Toledo, Block is also managing director of Block Communications and a member of the executive committee, and holds numerous other positions within the company. His cable industry board memberships include the National Cable Television Cooperative, the American Cable Association and C-SPAN. He has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

David G. Huey Director

Huey started at Buckeye in 1985 as EVP and in 1990 was promoted to president and GM. He became president of Block Communications in 2001. The Ashtabula native joined what was then Ernst & Ernst after graduating with a bachelor of business administration from the University of Toledo in 1970. A CPA, he was controller and later VP of administration for Nicholson Industries Corp. before joining Buckeye.

Walter H. "Chip" Carstensen President and GM

Toledo native Carstensen is also president of sister company Erie County Cablevision Inc. He also heads Metro Fiber and Cable Construction, a subsidiary of Buckeye, making him responsible for all cable ops and construction. He joined Buckeye in 1990 as senior manager, technical operations. He managed the construction portion of Buckeye's $130-million investment in fiber-optic-based telecom. Carstensen holds a bachelors in mechanical engineering and a masters in industrial engineering from the University of Toledo.

Joseph D. Jensen CTO

Jensen, who also serves as president of Buckeye TeleSystem, joined Buckeye in 1996. Previously he was director of data, access and transport systems for Ameritech, where he was involved in technology planning and product development. Earlier he was manager of systems engineering for the network systems division of Rockwell International and worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories. His B.S. from Brigham Young and M.S. from Purdue are both in electrical engineering.

Steve Piller VP of advertising sales

Piller joined Buckeye in 1981 to launch the ad sales efforts and turned a one-person sales and trafficking operation into what is now a 27-person sales and production department. The local staff also handles ad sales for Erie County Cablevision Inc., in Sandusky, another sister company of Buckeye. A native of Cleveland, Piller is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Toledo.

Buckeye CableSystem Scarborough Research Profile

Comparison of Buckeye CableSystem subscribers in Toledo to the top 75 market average.