Rogers Communication Case Study

One of the Largest and Most Diverse Canadian Companies

Ted  Rogers, who died in 2008  was the visionary behind Rogers  Communications Inc.. He was considered a communications industry pioneer and a titan in Canadian business.  

Mr. Rogers, known for his relentless drive, built Rogers Communications into a Canadian leader in wireless telecommunications, cable television, broadcasting, and publishing. Rogers Communications Inc. owns Canada's largest wireless telecommunications company, the country's largest cable company, the Toronto Blue Jays and Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome), 52 radio stations, several television properties including five CityTV outlets, five OMNI multicultural stations, Rogers Sportsnet, the Shopping Channel and more than 70 consumer and trade magazines.

In naming him Man of the Year in 2000, Toronto Life magazine dubbed Ted Rogers "Mr. Toronto". In only a matter of months, Ted Rogers had stepped up to the plate and saved the city's beleaguered major league baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, and, along with wife Loretta, donated $25 million to the University of Toronto (the school's largest-ever personal donation) and $10 million to Ryerson University. In May 2007, he gave another $15 million to Ryerson.

"Education can remake a country, a city, can make it ... a different place in only one generation" Mr. Rogers told Toronto Life.

In the Beginning:

Mr. Rogers, Sr.

Any history of the Rogers group of companies today must begin with a salute to Edward S. Rogers, Sr. Every time a radio is turned on in Canada, the dream of Edward S Rogers, Sr. continues to be realized. He envisioned radio as an electric pipeline, reaching into people’s homes to entertain, inform and educate.

In 1925, Mr. Rogers, Sr. invented the world’s first alternating current (AC) radio tube, which enabled radios to be powered by ordinary household current. This was a dramatic breakthrough in technology and it became the key factor in popularizing radio reception. After this invention radios became far more commonplace.

In 1931, Mr. Rogers, Sr. was awarded an experimental TV licence. He was working on radar when on May 6, 1939 he died at the young age of 38. He left a widow, Velma, and a 5 year old son, Edward. His business interests were sold. However, his son Edward (Ted Rogers) was determined to carry on the important legacy.

From Father to Son:

Ted Rogers

Ted Rogers earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1956. He was awarded an LL.B. in 1961 from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bar of Ontario on April 13, 1962.

In business, Mr. Rogers has always emphasized customer service and pioneering engineering and has been involved at the start-up stage with a number of ventures in broadcasting, cable television and communications. Mr. Rogers specializes in identifying technologies that he can develop and popularize through technological innovation and marketing techniques.

While Mr. Rogers was an articling student with Tory, Tory, DesLauriers & Binnington, he started Rogers Radio Broadcasting Limited, which acquired the nation’s pioneer FM station, CHFI-FM. In 1962 he pioneered stereo broadcasting in FM with CHFI and also founded CFTR-AM in Toronto.

By making available FM radios to boost FM penetration (then at 3%), Mr. Rogers was able to make more people aware of FM transmitters. CHFI-FM quickly became one of Canada’s most listened to FM radio stations, becoming the most popular and profitable FM radio station in Canada. Mr. Rogers’ interests in radio led him to cable television. In the mid-1960’s Mr. Rogers wanted Canada’s fledgling cable operators to carry CHFI on a spare cable channel. The more he studied cable, the more he became attracted to the potential for programming choices on cable, and decided to enter the cable business. In 1967 he was awarded licenses for areas in and around Toronto, Brampton and Leamington.

In the early years in addition to CHFI, Rogers Communications, along with the Eaton and Bassett families, had a piece of CFTO-TV, Canada's first privately-owned television station. As his broadcasting business grew, a new technology caught his eye. In 1967, Rogers entered the cable television business and the rest, as they say, is history.

Source: Rogers