Cable Chief boosts ‘networking’
Boston Herald
March 20, 1988
“Communication is where it’s at, as far
as I’m concerned,” 31-year old David McCourt
says, leaning back in his chair. He’s not talking
about a long-distance chat with an old friend in Chicago
or reviving up his personal computer.
McCourt, a quick-thinking, fast-talking Boston cable
entrepreneur, is thinking about his new television
station in Grenada, a rapid by growing fiber-optics
network and the future of the “free” computer.
The president and chief executive officer of McCourt
Cable and Communications Inc., McCourt is best-known
locally for the physical design and installation of
Boston’s cable TV network.
His curly hair, balding forehead and philosophical
solutions invite and immediate comparison with U.S
Rep. Joseph Kennedy III.
But as much as he dabbles with political ideas, McCourt
sill has a hefty dose of the businessman in him.
Fascinated by the potential of fiber optics, he recently
decided to branch out from cable construction to international
private communications systems – electronic
networks that bypass telephone company services.
“The technology is moving very fast, so it’s
easy to get in and grow with your competition, because
everyone’s starting from base zero,” he
explains.
But not everyone owns a TV station based in the former
Cuban Embassy on the island of Grenada.
In McCourt’s world, that’s where the
politics start to mix with the business.
“Foreign affairs and policy is a hobby of mine,”
he says, starting to explain his interest in Grenada.
“One, I’m interested in it, but two, I’m
in a business that doesn’t have nay boundaries,”
he continues. “I’m thinking on a world
scope.”
To McCourt it made perfect sense for business and
personal reason to fly to Grenada in 1983, after what
he refers to as “the U.S. intervention,”
to see what was going on.
I was fascinated about how they’d drifted away
from democracy, he explains.
After meeting a man who planned to run for prime
minister of the tiny country and bring back democratic
rule, McCourt says he asked how the politician planned
to keep the people thinking about democracy.
“I have a bad habit of thinking I’m an
expert at everything,” he says with a smile.
“I thought, with education how could you have
anything but democracy? So I said why don’t
we build a TV station, and we can inform and educate
the people and also entertain them,” he adds.
Soon after moving into the bombed-out Cuban Embassy
and embarking on a new adventure with the TV station,
McCourt realized there were few televisions on the
island.
Undeterred, he came up with the idea of community
viewing areas to fit in with the Grenadians’
penchant for gathering on street corners after dinner
to socialize.
He also started local programming with an emphasis
on news and education.
“If you want good TV, it’s in Grenada,
just like Edward R. Murrow and God wanted it to be,”
McCourt says with a broad smile, referring to the
TV Newsman who reported from Europe during World War
II, putting his stamps on early broadcast news.
When he works out the bugs in the Grenada television
networks, McCourt plans to move to other countries,
perhaps in Africa or South America.
Back in this country, the budding communication mogul
works with several nonprofit groups when his business
day ends.
He serves on the board of the Washington basted Committee
for Food an Shelter and the Boston chapter of Boys
Hope, a national group that aims to provide stable
home and educational opportunities for young boys.
He is also the founder of the Discovery Foundation,
a non-profit organization that encourages business,
tourism and educational programs in Third World countries.
When he has the rare urge to relax, he goes to the
ballet or the theater, plays a few games of squash
or goes scuba diving or sailing if he’s somewhere
warm.
“Actually, I’m just learning how to relax
now,” he says, wrinkling his brow. “You
know, work makes me relax.”
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