I got my first interview in this new field with TV/COM, a company that made the equipment used by cable TV channels to get the TV signal they pick up via satellite antenna to your TV set. There were four different pieces of equipment that sent the signal down the line.

The company was also going through a transition from analog equipment to digital equipment. This was a big deal. The company was selling analog and putting all its earnings into digital research. This was very early in the analog/digital conversion and things were not going well.

​

My first job was to update all of the analog manuals for the SIGMA Control System. There were seven manuals. I worked with the engineers in the analog division to update these manuals. I got to know and like all the people in the analog division while they were looked down on by the others in the company because they were working with the “old” technology. They were even set aside in their own building away from everyone else.

But they were selling product and making the money that paid the salaries of the snobs in the digital group.

​

I was involved in only one digital product manual during my two year stay at TV/COM but it didn't go very far because there was nothing to put into it. The engineers I worked with on the manual could not give me any material to write about. They had no product.

I got a good look at the company when I decided that I would move to Marketing as the Director of Marketing Research, the only marketing position in the company. I was to get the facts on the digital market. But, alas, there was no digital market. There were other companies out there trying to sell digital products but they were having about as much success as TV/COM. I finally gave up and went back to the tech writing department. I did not like the people who were running the company and didn't understand how the company stayed in business.

​

Then I was told the secret. TV/COM was owned by Hyundai Group. Now you may think of Hyundai as a car manufacturing company but that is a very small part of the company.

Chung Ju-yung founded the company in 1947 and it is in to everything from engineering and heavy construction to department stores and securities. It seems that mister Ju-yung was very good to his immediate family. So he opened the American Electronics Division so a nephew would have a company to run. It was made up of a group of companies like TV/COM.

Well, TV/COM was not doing well trying to get into the digital side of the industry and the first layoff came and I was part of it. It wasn't a year until the American Electronics Division of Hyundai completely folded and shutdown.

​

An interest point. The general manager of the analog division bought the rights to those products and opened a company and continued to make money. This guy knew what he was doing because he had one great business education. His father's best friend was Jack Welch, CEO of GE for many years and probably the best CEO in modern history. Jack would come over to his house and George, (the general manager) would listen to him and his father talk about real business problems and come up with the solutions. What an education!

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​