YouSaid · the spoken record

John Hendricks

lines on the record: 119
first: 2022-01-17
most recent: 2022-01-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, it was because initially he was trying to raise money to support his television efforts, his broadcast efforts. So there was a guy, a fellow named Ed Bauman. And what he was trying to do was to help Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to understand one another. So he created a series called The Children of Abraham. And lo and behold, the ABC affiliate in Washington agreed to provide him the studio space at no charge and support him. And so these telecasts occurred on Sunday mornings, very, very thoughtful. So he asked me if I could help them in fundraising. But then they said, could we get this more widely distributed in the country? And so then that's when I started.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The era of truck chasers. People would see a cable truck come through the community and they would chase it to say, when can I get cable? But what they wanted was HBO. I mean, just the thought of having a different movie every night at 8 o'clock that you could watch was revolutionary.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I wasn't particularly studying the development of Cable. There was a day, though, in 1975. I'd been at the University of Maryland for a little few months, I think. And a headline above the fold was the Supreme Court decided that the FCC restrictions that prevented the creation of cable networks was not constitutional and the Supreme Court held that anybody who wanted to start a cable network was a First Amendment speaker. And so that was this ruling, and for me it connected again back when that question I asked that cable operator back when I was in college. And by that time, by the time the court hearing the ruling happened, HBL was up and it was just sweeping the country. The cable industry likes to call that era.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Walter Cronkite in particular was kind of, well, he was an idol of mine. I mean, you know, we were like many families. We got our news from CBS and Walter Cronkite every evening. But he went further. He loved science and technology in space. And so he did a number of series that I just relished every episode. He did You Are There, which was interesting. He pretended, what if you were there at the signing of the Declaration of Independence or you were there at certain historical moments? And for me, it was that same question why can't there be more of this? Okay, there are now starting to be some bright spots on broadcasting. And so my question is, you know, was, why can't there be more of this?”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was. I mean, I had big plans for what that could become. So I started down that path, but I also had these local Washington, D.C. area groups that I was meeting with. And then one in particular got me off thinking about television. I think if you ask any entrepreneur why they do something, it's typically because they become passionate about an idea or something at some point in their life that they can't let go. It turns into kind of a healthy obsession, as I like to call it. And I certainly. My focus on television, television course is important to all of us, but I think for me, you know, growing up, being able to connect to someone like a Walter Cronkite.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And so I said, so you work on submarines? And she said, yes, and she worked for the Office of Naval Research. And it was just fascinating.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. Which you thought was fascinating. Which was, yeah, which was, and I knew a little bit about that. I mean, that was kind of surprising. I don't even know what.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was a disco in Washington. It was called the apple tree. They serve food there. So, you know, when I called my mother, my religious mom and says, where did you meet her? I said, I met her at a restaurant.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know I'm sort of fast forward here for a little bit, John, because I know that that job, you did that for a brief stint, and then you essentially did the same thing at the University of Maryland because you were already in the area. And then that led you to start basically your own consulting gig business where you were helping other nonprofits and colleges write their own grant proposals, right?”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so the fact that the Tennessee Valley Authority published my research paper that I did that summer, I was a published author. I mean, I was registered in the Library of Congress, for example. And so it got the attention of the president of the university. And he wanted someone to go to Washington, write grant proposals and bring back money to the university.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Broadcast. Exactly. Yeah. It was a large community antenna. CATV and then from that community antenna they would string coaxial cable to people's households to their home.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And, you know, from that, I make two phone calls, one to a local broadcast station, and they were just definitely not interested. And there was cable was around. So this would have been probably around 1972 or 73. But cable was really a community antenna. There were a lot of places in America that couldn't receive a good broadcast signal either. They were down in the hollows or they were in urban areas where large buildings would block that. And so there were cable operators. And in Alabama, there was the teleprompter cable system. I think it was the general manager I actually talked to. And he says, this is a good idea, but you got to understand we can't by law, provide any content other than the retransmission of broadcast signals.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it did. I just became aware of all these documentaries from the BBC, from Encyclop ⁇ dia Britannica Films, Time Life Films, and many others. That made a big impression on me. And I just had the simple thought. So I must have been all of 21.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me, I mean, I just felt like you know, you're going to be in college for four years. Why not read about things you're interested in? And I was always interested in history, you know, by the time you're a senior, you need to, of course, pick your major. European ancient history. So mine was kind of a hybrid of American history and the history of science and technology.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A risk on him and his idea, an idea to build a cable network called Discovery. Today, the discovery channel is among the most watched cable networks. It reaches hundreds of millions of people around the world and is single handedly responsible for making sharks one of the biggest draws on television. But as you will hear, the road to getting there was a slog, and in 1986, discovery was literally days away from collapsing under the weight of mounting debt. But before any of that happened, John was growing up in Huntsville, Alabama in the nineteen fifties and sixties. His dad was a home builder, and his mom worked as an accountant. For college, John went to the University of Alabama, where he majored in history.”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The kinds of science documentaries he loved. Now trying to launch a cable channel today is daunting, but back in 1982 when John first had the idea, it seemed insurmountable unless you were well connected and had access to lots of capital. Just to get your signal onto a satellite cost upwards of three hundred fifty thousand dollars a month, and that's after the millions of dollars it would take to generate the content. But at the time, John had neither the connections nor the money. He had no background in the broadcast industry and had never produced any content in his life. And yet he set out over the next four years to convince investors, satellite companies, content providers, and cable distributors pretty much all at the same time, that they should take”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not to follow your passion, but to follow your curiosity, and that is precisely what our guest today, John Hendricks, did. He was and is an intensely curious person, the kind of person who would pour through volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica as a kid. He loved science documentaries that aired on public television, shows about the earth and outer space and history. In the early nineteen eighties, John was working as a consultant helping universities write grant proposals. It was around this time that cable television was just starting to take off. The early stations are ones we know today, CNN, MTV, HBO, ESPN, and John Hendrix, ever curious, started to wonder what about a station that was all about knowledge, a channel that could produce and distribute”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Remember, we had a meeting, you know, we told everyone, bring your ideas. And so we were just going around the room. It was the classic what if me? What if we did this? And this young programmer, Steve Cheskin, and he said, what if? He said, you know how independent TV stations have like Marilyn Monroe Week or John Wayne week? He says, or they have theme weeks. And he says, Blae, I said, what if we had Shark Week? And we kind of all said, yeah, they all kind of looked at me and I said, I think it's a great idea. The idea was as simple as that, but as profound as that, you know?”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, one of my favorite parts of traveling is getting a feel for a neighborhood, the way locals do. A few summers ago, I was in Rome and stayed in an apartment I booked on Airbnb. It was tucked in a quiet neighborhood just outside the Roman forum. Every morning I'd walk to the corner cafe, grab an espresso, and just watch the world go by outside. I even managed to chat with the owner about the neighborhood he lived in for nearly forty years. And he got me thinking about my own neighborhood. There are incredible hiking trails and great restaurants and, of course, the beach. And when I'm traveling this summer, listing my own place on Airbnb could be a really smart way to let someone else experience the area the way I do, like a local. Listing your home on Airbnb while you're traveling is a great way to make some extra money. You could put the money toward your next trip. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much”
2022-01-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Discovery Channel and Curiosity Stream: John Hendricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT