CHAPTER 20: A HELPING HAND?
by John B. Babcock
Park Broadcasting in the late 1970s was a thriving, highly profitable
cash cow, more profitable than those listed broadcast groups that
publicized financial results. Park credited much of our stellar performance
to my drive as chief operating officer. Our relationship had never been
closer. He had my full support and complete trust.
In June 1977, my youngest daughter Jeannie was graduated from Ithaca
High school with a record fully as solid as was turned in by her sisters
Susan, who was finishing a tough curriculum at Smith College, and
Nancy, who was headed for a fine arts degree at Cornell. Both degrees
were being paid out of my own pocket. But Jeannie had lived through
enough of our cold winters in the Northeast and passed up acceptance at
an Ivy League school, preferring to head south, preferably to University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That choice had my enthusiastic support.
My associate, Roy Park, Jr., was a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.
He had high praise for the solid preparation at Chapel Hill that fortified
him with the basic learning tools to go on and earn his MBA at Cornell’s
Johnson Graduate School of Management.
