ATELLITE TV kiff ADVENTURES IN THE CLARKE BELT Ken Reitz, KC4GQA

TVRO Shopping via Satellite

Aitirst it seems like Even his close associa- a perfect idea. The 104% Satisfaction tion with Bob Cooper, early best way to sell skyrisiutl Guor moo TVRO pioneer and one of satellite TV equipment is the first to break the on satellite TV. It's a ready - ier íJ VideoCipher encryption made market. Of course, system, failed to tarnish his the big problem is that in reputation. Still, there order to buy such gear you wasn't enough response to have to have a satellite TV the "Sky Store" and it left system to see it. A second the Clarke Belt in late 1991. problem is location: where Dehnert's United Satellite in the Clarke Belt, out of the Systems continues with its hundreds of possible tran- commercial operation to- sponders, should you lo- day. cate? And further, how will you get viewers to tune in? N New Generation For these and other reasons Hucksters success has eluded many ga- lactic entrepreneurs. 1994 was the best year in Still, there have been suc- for satellite television cess stories. Probably the nearly ten years. During the One of four regular satellite TV shopping channels, Skyvision hawks its wares past year C -band satellite most successful of these is on Telstar 302 chan 21. "Shop At Home." For at TV systems were being set least six or seven years this Knoxville, TN, up in American yards at the His antics kept him in constant legal battles based company has garnered a loyal and rate of more than 55,000 per month. This with industry powers. Some viewers publicly expanding viewership which has seen the means that with each passing month another complained about his business practices; oth- channel prosper. From humble beginnings in 55,000 potential viewers will tune into a chan- ers rallied around him. His untimely death a small, failing shopping center in rural nel featuring satellite TV gear. No wonder resulting from a fall from the roof of his home Kingsport, TN, the company now maintains "Shop At Home" is doing so well! during repairs put an end to the legend. two full -time and one part-time transponder, Several new TVRO- oriented shopping Against Shawn Kenney's used -car sales- selling everything from collectible sports shows have shown up in the last few years and man image was Doug Dehnert, whose soft - cards to computers and software. They still they're different from the earlier ones. Unfor- spoken, common -sense lectures on satellite feature several hours per week of satellite TV tunately, none of them sell used equipment. technology made regulars out of many view- gear -everything from receivers to actuator Throughout this country there are thousands ers. Even if you had no interest in buying any motors. of working, good- condition receivers, LNBs, of his TVRO gear it was an educational oppor- actuator arms, and peripheral gear -more than tunity. stock a good sized warehouse Into the Past enough to - Dehnen was a boot strap engineer. While and it's going unsold. The new shows sell the The real heyday of the TVRO channels building and racing snowmobiles in the deso- high -end gear. They sell program packages; was in the mid to late '80s with Shawn late northwest corner of Minnesota, Dehnert some are even selling the new DSS systems Kenney' s "Greensheet" and Doug Dehnert' s was quick to see the potential of satellite tele- for DirecTV and USSB. "Sky Store." On "Greensheet," viewers were vision. It wasn't long before he was building Smartly dressed young men and women treated to a steady parade of new, used, old, his own satellite systems complete with his pitch these wares the same as they would CD disabled, and junk satellite TV equipment. own fiberglass dishes and quality receivers. players or cosmetics. There's no politics, no There's not been a show like it since. While most of his business was commer- education, no harangue! Well, almost none. In between sales pitches, Kenney would cial, he tapped into the residential market with The folks at Satellite City are about as obnox- harangue viewers about the pending specter his weekly program "Sky Store." Here he sold ious as salesmen can get, but it must be of scrambling, the need for a grass -roots his receivers under the Maspro brand and his to fight the monster dishes under the United Satellite Systems brand. TVRO organization TVRO Shopping Programs which was General Instrument Corp. He He sold New Old Stock (NOS) equipment launched a steady campaign against the dawn- cheaply-good used equipment which had been Satellite City 1302,2,3,71301,2 G3,20 ing of the VideoCypher era with his program checked by his technicians and in general added Satellite Market U.S.A. G3,9 At Home G3,17 S3,18, G1,14 segment called "Yellow Rain" in which he a touch of honesty to an industry plagued by Shop Skyvision T2,21, F2.8 flirted with the growing VCII "hacker" un- bad reputations. derground.

86 MONITORING TIMES May 1995 www.americanradiohistory.com