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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