Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [49]
CHET SIMMONS:
I quickly realized that Stu and Bill were spending a lot of time together, and I think they were forming a relationship that worked to both of their benefits. Bill was one of the few guys that could stand Stu and work with him for his own benefit.
BILL GRIMES:
The first time I went to L.A. for a meeting with Stu, it was at the Getty Oil Building on Wilshire. Stu said, “Be over tomorrow morning at 11:00,” and when I got there, we chatted for a while, then got into the elevator to go upstairs. I asked him who we were going to meet with, but it turned out the company bar was upstairs, and it opened at 11:30. As soon as we sat down, a waiter came over and poured Stu three fingers of vodka straight up into a tumbler. Stu would have his periods where he’d lose his train of thought, but most of the time in a business setting he could function pretty effectively.
As for Chet, he had been involved in television programming; I came up through radio and sales. I was from CBS; he was from NBC. Chet had populated ESPN with lots of NBC people, and it was kind of uncomfortable for me. And in meetings with Chet, Scotty Connal, and Bob Gutkowski—and I forget the affiliate guy at the time that I later fired—I always felt like a bit of an outsider, and I think the resentment built a little bit.
ROGER WERNER:
I spent a couple months riding the commuter train with Bill. We used to ride home at the end of the day and have a couple drinks in the bar car and go over the issues and numbers and where we thought the business could go. He and I became friends, and he asked me around January, February of ’82, could I come on board and become COO and take on some other operating responsibilities, and I agreed. In March of ’82, I left McKinsey and came on board full-time. By that point, I had fallen in love with the company, so it was not a difficult thing for me to say, hell, yes, I’ll leave McKinsey and join up and be the COO at ESPN. It was something I was wedded to at that point emotionally and psychologically.
BILL GRIMES:
In my opinion, it was the best thing that happened to ESPN during my tenure.
ROGER WERNER:
The company’s biggest challenge was top-line revenue, selling advertising and fixing our distribution deals. Bill and I created an executive office in New York, but we worked in Bristol those early years one to two days a week when we weren’t on the road calling on customers.
When it came to revenue, ESPN was wide open to opportunities—even if there wasn’t a ball, bat, or racquet in sight.
DENISE AUSTIN, Fitness Instructor:
I went to the guys up at ESPN and said, “I can give you a trim-and-travel TV show,” and they told me I needed to find a sponsor who would pay for production and pay me, and then they’d air it. It was like a barter situation.
Since I was kind of like the first spokesperson for Reebok, I went to [Reebok chairman] Paul Fireman himself and said, “Paul, I have a great opportunity to do a travel exercise show. It will broaden the base of people who might want to watch aerobics because they’ll also want to see beautiful locations.” He said, “Oh, my gosh, this is great, sure.” ESPN was really impressed that I had found my own funding, and we went on the air. They aired it twice every morning, 5:30 and 11:30, and every week I would come from a different resort. I wound up going all over the Caribbean. We had this amazing following; over a million people watching every week. Some would follow along, some would tune in to check out the place where we were coming from, and some just wanted to see what I was wearing.
One of the coolest things that happened to me as a woman in this business was when I found out I was pregnant. I went up to ESPN to tell them and was really nervous about