October 12, 2010

Rogers founder joins Wireless Hall of Fame

Ted Rogers honoured posthumously

Rogers Communications Inc. founder Edward S. "Ted" Rogers, has been inducted into the international Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame.

Mr. Rogers , who passed away in   December 2008  at age 75, founded what became Rogers Communications in 1960 when he borrowed   $85,000  to purchase fledgling FM radio station CHFI in Toronto. Today, RCI is an investment grade,   $12 billion  a year company supplying millions of Canadians with wireless phone and data service, cable-TV, high-speed Internet, home phone service, and media content through magazines, radio and television programming.

Mr. Rogers ' posthumous induction took place at the gala dinner of the Wireless History Foundation at the Palace Hotel in   San Francisco  on   October 5. Melinda M. Rogers, who is RCI's Senior Vice   President Strategy  and Development, accepted the award on behalf of the family and company.

"Until his death two years ago, dad was often dubbed a 'media mogul' and a 'cable czar'," Ms Rogers said. "But arguably his greatest success came in wireless telecommunications."

Today, Rogers is the largest wireless telecommunications company in   Canada  with 56 per cent of its revenue and 70 per cent of its profit coming from wireless. But in 1983 when   Ted Rogers  went to his board of directors asking for   $500,000  to invest in the new technology, he was voted down because the company carried too much debt. Ted then invested his own money and was a founding partner in Cantel, Canada's first national cellular phone company that later became wholly-owned by Rogers.

"He was a driving force, a visionary, a pioneer and a titan across the wide spectrum of communications," said   Melinda Rogers. "Honouring his legacy by the Wireless History Foundation is truly appreciated by the Rogers family and I know dad would be delighted, too."

The Wireless History Foundation was created in 2008 "…to educate and inspire future generations about the significance and growth of the wireless communications industry." Rogers was inducted along with wireless industry pioneers LeRoy T. "Roy" Carlson, founder of Telephone and Data Systems (TDS) Inc.; Stanley T. Sigman, former CEO of AT&T Mobility; and Raymond C. Trott, founder of Trott Communications Group.