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Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for August 16, 2019
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
August 16, 2019: Forty-one years ago today, on August 16, 1977, Scott Rasmussen and his father Bill had an argument that led to the creation of ESPN.
They had learned of a then-new technology of satellite broadcasting that dramatically reduced the cost of delivering a broadcast signal around the country. They had kicked around a number of ideas to capitalize on this innovation, but none were quite right.
On that August day, they drove from Connecticut to Ocean Grove, New Jersey, to celebrate the 16th birthday of Scott’s sister, Lynn. Stuck in traffic on I-84 near Waterbury, the programming frustrations led to heated words until Scott said “I don’t care what you do with it, show football all weekend.” Rather than yelling back, Bill said “That’s it, not football but sports, all weekend long.”
It took another hour or so before they realized the answer was not just sports all weekend long, but all sports all day every day.
Over the next twelve-and-a-half months, they secured funding from Getty Oil, programming from the NCAA, and an anchor sponsorship from Anheuser-Busch to launch the network on September 7, 1979.
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- August 15, 2019 – 50 years ago today the Woodstock Music Festival began
- August 14, 2019 – 53 percent of voters believe our country is doing okay but the political system is in crisis
- August 13, 2019 – 77.9 billion dollars of U.S. residential real estate bought by foreign buyers
- August 12, 2019 – 28 percent of voters want a presidential candidate with mainstream political views
- August 9, 2019 – 500,000 people will be hired to conduct census 2020
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
The Number of the Day is broadcast on local stations across the country. An archive of these broadcasts can be found here.
Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
Ballotpedia is the nonprofit, nonpartisan Encyclopedia of American Politics.
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