In the early ’90s, Ken Lowe, a hot-shot young radio and TV executive with the E.W. Scripps Company, looked around the television landscape and did not like what he saw.
“I became disenchanted with TV programming,” Lowe told a group of Knoxville leaders gathered recently at the Knoxville headquarters of Scripps Networks Interactive. “With shows like Morton Downey Jr. (who piloted the so-called trash TV movement), it seemed as if television programs were seeking the lowest common denominator. It was a race to the bottom.”
At the same time, Lowe saw an opportunity. “In the early ’90s, I had an idea for a cable network. I thought the Baby Boomers — including people my age — would be buying their first house and would be interested in a channel about ‘home.'”
So Lowe took his idea to his bosses at Scripps. “There was a board meeting in 1994,” he laughed. “At that meeting they said, ‘Here’s $25 million. Go launch HGTV.'”
Lowe didn’t waste any time. In April of that year, acting on that board directive, Lowe guided Scripps in its acquisition of Knoxville’s Cinetel Productions from Ross Bagwell. “If not for Ross Bagwell, Scripps wouldn’t be in Knoxville,” Lowe said.
After that acquisition, Lowe began to recruit employees. It was a hard sell at first, he said. “People thought Knoxville was like Mount Airy where Andy Griffith is set. Like Mayberry — but not that sophisticated!”
But Lowe persisted. “I knew this would be a great environment,” he said. “When we asked employees to move here from New York and Los Angeles, they thought, ‘What’s the deal? What drugs are these people on?’ But every individual I recruited in 1994 has stayed in Knoxville. Some have retired. But none have ever moved away.”
In December of 1994, HGTV went on the air — with staff members who had agreed to move to Knoxville. “Employees liked it,” Lowe said. “People could move here, buy a home and have a yard and garden. They could literally live the brand. It’s meant a lot.”
And Knoxville embraced the fledgling network, much as it had embraced another maverick media company, Whittle Communications, years earlier. Lowe said the News Sentinel, another Scripps property, provided great marketing support for its sister venture. (Scripps Networks Interactive has since been separated from the company’s newspaper operations.)
The new cable television enterprise flourished, even though the Wall Street Journal called it a “network about grass growing and paint drying.”
“We’ve come a long way from Carol Duvall’s craft show and Jane Nugent’s Garden Party. She actually talked to worms!” Lowe said. “And we had a show about Oriental rugs. That’s about as boring as you can get.”
But he said Scripps stayed focused on its original programming mission. “Our goal was to have no violence, no sexual innuendo. We wanted shows you could watch with young kids,” he said. “People made fun of us, but it’s been the hallmark of our success.” As Scripps Networks turns 20 next year, it boasts having “the number one and number two networks in serving upscale women,” he said. (That’s HGTV and Food Network, respectively.)
This has been accomplished by a series of shrewd acquisitions. In 1997, Scripps bought Food Network. “It was a steal,” Lowe said. “We traded a TV station in Texas and they gave us $75 million and the Food Network!” Today, he said, Food Network is worth $4 to $5 billion. And Scripps kept growing the networks. With acquisition of Travel Channel, Scripps Networks Interactive today is worth $10 billion, Lowe said. Altogether, Scripps now owns six cable networks: HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Travel Channel and Great American Country.
It employs 2,200 people worldwide. About 1,000 of them are in Knoxville. The second largest group is in New York City. Other offices are in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit, Nashville, Cincinnati and London, England.
The event at which Lowe spoke was part of Leadership Knoxville‘s “Behind the Scenes” series. Late last year, as part of that series, Kreis Beall, the founder of Blackberry Farm, spoke about East Tennessee’s swankiest food and lodging destination. (Click here for a story on that.) In March, Jim Clayton will take 100 people on a tour of a Clayton Homes manufacturing plant and reveal some of the “secrets of Clayton Sales School.” A few tickets still are available for that. (Click here.)
As part of the “Behind the Scenes” event, Lowe showed off the new Food Network Kitchen recently opened in the company’s west Knoxville headquarters. It features recipes that have been tested in the Food Network Kitchen in New York City, where chefs develop, test, shop for and prepare the dishes on the Food Network and Cooking Channel. At the end of last year, Scripps opened the first Food Network Kitchen in an airport — in Fort Lauderdale. By the end of this year, plans are to open one in the Atlanta airport (Yay!). The Food Network Kitchen restaurants are concentrating on locally produced ingredients, Lowe said.
A few other of Lowe’s remarks:
- “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Paula Deen on the air in Singapore. There might be voice overs, but ‘butta is still butta!'”
- What’s next? “Mobile and digital,” he said. “The iPad explosion is an opportunity for us.”
- The cost of success. “I’ve made rock stars out of chefs and now it’s hard for me to get a table in their restaurants!”
- Lowe said folks elsewhere don’t realize it, but Knoxville is a “powerhouse center” for television and television production.
It was a delicious, informative and fun night. What more could anyone ask?
Such a great story. I know several of those big city folks that have come to Knoxville and learned about good living. The secret is getting out and Knoxville is filling up with Damn Yankees:)
Ha! You are right, Tami, about the secret being getting out and about. You aren’t going to see how much fun it is unless you venture out. And my number one recommendation is, of course, downtown!
And don’t forget about all those Whittle-ites who were dragged to Knoxville kicking and screaming, but who have stuck around to enrich our “scruffy little city.”
Of course, thanks to you, Mox, I’m thinking of one in particular.
But wouldn’t it be cool if Scripps did something like WDVX’s Blue Plate Special? Set up in a space, downtown, and do a live lunch time cooking show.
Excellent point about the Whittle-ites. You couldn’t blast most of them out of here! And we (and hopefully, they) are better for it. I particularly like YOUR Whittle-ite!
Love the cooking idea! Maybe the Scripps folks will be reading this and will see it. Great suggestion.
Very fun event–and a fun committee to work with in planning these.
Yes, Gay. It was a fun committee. I forgot to mention that I was on it. Guess I should, in the name of full disclosure. But I would have loved this event even if I had not been on the committee.
Pingback:Blue Streak » What I learned at Clayton Sales School
Pingback:Blue Streak » Lions and tigers and leaders, oh my! Zoo safari reunites Leadership Knoxville graduates
About the Author
What You’re Saying
What’s Hot
My Favorite Blogs
Archives