The broadcast is meant as a tribute to the late President and CEO of Rogers Communications, according to Head of Programming Rosemary Fusca, “Ted Rogers was a pioneer, an innovator and a great Canadian. The interview is very biographical, so viewers will find it as relevant today as it was five years ago, when it first aired. He was such an interesting man, and his openness and plain-spoken wisdom really convey the type of person and entrepreneur he truly was.”

The discussion traces and defines Rogers’ life, beginning with his childhood. His father Edward Rogers invented a vacuum tube that allowed radios to operate by being plugged into the wall. He founded Rogers Vacuum Tube Company and later created AM radio giant CFRB. The elder Rogers died at 38.

Ted Rogers admits during the ichannel interview that he always wanted to buy his father’s original station, but “in those days, if we had gotten CFRB, we would have had to sell either CHFI or 680 News.” Rogers chose to maintain ownership of those two properties, rather than “buy history”.

In 1960, buying CHFI for $85,000 was one of the first acquisitions in a multi-faceted media empire. Only 5% of homes and cars had FM, so the station was advertised as radio for “trendsetters and people who wanted something better. You got to make a benefit out of a liability”, says Rogers on the now top-rated radio juggernaut.

Rogers purchased a cable license for $25.00 in the mid-sixties, when cable was considered nothing more than a technical novelty. In the early 1980’s Rogers Communications developed their wireless business and in 1994 purchased the MacLean Hunter publishing / cable giant.

Rogers describes himself as “a builder: building FM, building cable, and building cellular. We’ve done it the old fashioned way, we worked at it”.

The program was originally produced in 2002, as part of the “i on media” series with Matthew Fraser. ichannel – Intelligent Television – is available by subscription from cable and satellite providers across Canada.