The NCTA Convention 1980 – CNN and My First Trade Show

“Visions of the ‘80s"

The news of Ted Turner’s passing triggered something that sent me to my archive to verify a memory I wasn’t sure I had quite right.

But there it was, plain as day.

The registration area of the National Cable Television Association Convention, May 1980.

And from there, I began reassembling the story from the photographs.

Back in 1980, Eric Palmer, a fellow Temple University student in the Radio-TV-Film program and I were just about to set off to London for the Summer Mass Media Seminar.

Early in May, we had gone into NYC so I could buy my very first proper film camera, a Nikon FM. We headed to 47th Street Photo, long before it became B&H, and navigated the chaos of the store to purchase the camera. I don’t remember how I came to decide on that model. It’s lost to time. We then headed to Washington Square, to hang out and shoot some Super 8 film.

Janet Greco and Eric Palmer in Washington Square, New York City, in May 1980, playing around with film ahead of our trip to London.

What I had forgotten was that just after this trip to New York, and before my trip to London, I had another formative adventure.

Peter Hasse, a cable television executive at the time, and an acquaintance made through Temple University, suggested I attend the National Cable Television Association Convention, 18 - 21 May 1980. It sounded like a good idea, so I went.

The NCTA Convention place at the Dallas Convention Center, just ahead of the launch of CNN on 1st June 1980. I wasn’t sure if I remembered it right, but indeed it was my very first business trip and trade show.

A shuttle bus at the NCTA Convention, Dallas Convention Center, May 1980. with the iconic Hyatt Regency Hotel in the background.

I had never been to a trade show before so I had no idea what to expect.

Satellite dishes stood outside the convention halls like cutting edge industrial sculptures. Communications infrastructure was large, visible, and unapologetically physical. You could literally see the machinery that carried television signals across the country.

Satellite dish display outside the NCTA Convention at the Dallas Convention Center, May 1980.

Today, media infrastructure is mostly invisible. Cloud platforms, distributed networks, edge delivery, AI-assisted workflows, abstraction layered upon abstraction.

Back then, the future announced itself in the form of enormous satellite dishes.

I distinctly remember a very crowded CNN stand on the exhibition floor, but no photos for some reason. I was probably super-intimidated.

At the time, the concept of a 24-hour news channel still sounded improbable to the industry. Cable television was expanding rapidly, and satellite distribution was just beginning to challenge the regulatory rules and reshape the economics of broadcasting.

I wasn’t invited to any CNN launch party though.

I knew no one. If I had any conversations at all, those memories are gone. I remember just wandering around, overwhelmed. Pretty much like anyone’s first trade show, I was simply taking it all in.

The trip was as much about documenting the city of Dallas, as it was for the NCTA event itself, mainly because Dallas was a hit TV show at the time. I have photographs from around the city, although I barely remember taking them.

Street scene in Dallas, Texas, May 1980.

The iconic Hyatt Regency, from the opening credits of Dallas, was the ultimate destination.  

No CNN launch party for me, but I somehow got invited to the rooftop jacuzzi and got a few shots of the iconic sphere, the Reunion Tower, while up there.

The Reunion Tower at the Hyatt Regency, Dallas, Texas. May 1980.

There’s also quite the photo of me in a bathing suit up there, but I’m not posting that one here. I remember the rooftop jacuzzi more clearly than the journey home.

The rooftop jacuzzi at the Hyatt Regency, Dallas, Texas. May 1980.

A lot of things come into perspective now because of that trip.

I went on to work in satellite television and remained part of the industry through all of its major evolutions ever since.

In 1980, I walked into my first trade show without realizing I was also walking into the rest of my career.

In retrospect, the photographs captured more than a convention. They captured the final weeks before I left the United States and the beginning of a career that would unfold largely in Europe.

I walked into the future before I knew what I was looking at.

A pioneer of the selfie? Janet Greco with her Nikon FM. May 1980.

All photographs © Janet Greco.