Davis continues to deliver TV, Internet

The ash from Mount Saint Helens and Tom Davis's effort to bring cable television to the West Plains area arrived just about the same time.

Residents in Cheney, Medical Lake, Four Lakes and places in between are probably happy the former has - for the most part - vanished and Davis was not scared off.

On the 36th anniversary of the Northwest's dust up with one of its most famous mountains, Davis told the story of his arrival in Cheney to begin the job DCI (Davis Communications, Inc. ) Cable and Communications took on connecting the city to television beyond channels 2, 4, 6 and 7.

Davis had been living in temporary quarters in a trailer, but was traveling when the mountain spewed ash across much of Eastern Washington. Including the gritty powder that found its way inside his trailer when Davis left the windows open in order to allow fresh air inside.

"That took a little bit forever getting that talcum powder out of there," Davis said.

From those uncertain beginnings, Davis Communications has grown to serve the area, bringing both cable TV and Internet to about 1,700 households. Davis is one of very few independent providers in the nation.

Davis grew up in the cable television business as his father was something of an early pioneer in its growth, primarily in the Puget Sound region, but also extending into Alaska.

If one thought the "Last Frontier" just described the 49th state's immense remoteness in a geographic sense, so too was the case for cable.

"Before satellite dishes, we had to videotape all our programming in Seattle, ship it north and personally deliver to providers in many far-flung locations - sometimes using bicycles to get the programs to their destination," Davis said.

Davis remembers Jello calling and asking how Alaskans were getting that "chocolate on top" message and wanting product. "We are only marketing that in the Seattle area and we're getting calls from Alaska," they told him.

They were unable to easily remove the ads in the programming. But also somewhat difficult was getting the tapes delivered to many towns and villages, Davis said.

All of which made staking out new territory in Cheney a breeze by comparison. But finding his new market took some hunting - literally.

"My father said 'you ought to go take a look at Cheney,'" Davis said. "I happened to be pheasant hunting near Moses Lake and I drove in here."

Cheney was the perfect place for Davis to establish roots. Bigger companies like Cox Cable TV, which was the first provider in Spokane simply "had bigger fish to fry," Davis said.

He visited City Hall, spoke with the city administrator and the groundwork was laid to take Cheney and the surrounding area from a day when one could count snowy television channels on one hand to today where there are too many to imagine.

Under a short deadline window of Dec. 31, 1980, the company began the job of stringing cable on poles, many owned at the time by Washington Water Power, now Avista Utilities, where they are charged a rental fee per pole. Davis currently has just short of 80 miles of cable strung in the city of Cheney.

Originally the televisions were limited to 12 channels. Then came converter boxes, the first of which had an old-fashioned analog dial that actually required someone to get off the couch or La-Z-Boy to change. Remotes came along in the mid-1980s.

A collection of those old-fashioned boxes sit high on a shelf in the company's new headquarters at 1920 Fourth St. in Cheney.

The focus of the company changed in 1998, longtime employee and system engineer, Tim Gainer, said. That's when Davis began offering Internet.

"It's been a slow, costly climb," Davis said. He recently paid off a big bill for equipment he knows will soon be outdated. But it delivers the product with the speed and efficiency found with the mega-operators - and with very little downtime, Davis said.

The advent of satellite television has cut into Davis's business to some extent. But after customers evaluate the service and are not saddled with lengthy contracts, some come back.

Among the vanishing breed of independent cable operators, Davis holds strong to offers by companies like Comcast to purchase the business.

He loves the idea that, "You call here you won't get Mumbai, India. You get a human being and they'll walk you through (a problem), or you can bring your stuff in here and they'll fix it or make an appointment to come out."

"It's small town stuff," Davis said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.