Phylis Eagle-Oldson: She Walked Into Cable in 1971. Now Her Students Are on the News Every Night.

Connect with Phylis Eagle-Oldson:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phylis-eagle-oldson-5868914/

Emma L. Bowen Foundation: https://www.emmabowenfoundation.org/

Phylis Eagle-Oldson walked into the cable industry in 1971 at age 22. She did not know what cable was. She answered a Sunday ad in the Washington Post, met Marty Malarkey, the first president of the National Cable Television Association, and was hired on the spot. That moment opened a 35-year career across the entire arc of modern American media.

She spent nineteen years at NCTA, then became President and CEO of the Emma L. Bowen Foundation in 1999. In sixteen years she doubled corporate partners, drove a 400% increase in paid internship opportunities, and raised more than $6 million in grants. Nearly 80% of her fellows are now working in the industry. She watches ABC News most nights because four of her Bowen kids are on it almost every night.

In this episode of The Cynthia Manion Show, Phylis takes Cynthia inside the boardroom when Ted Turner pitched CNN, the renovation she ran floor by floor at NCTA, the cable entrepreneur Bill Bresnan and the fruit basket he sent to her father's hotel room in Sault Ste. Marie, the woman behind the Foundation, and what is still left to do.

When asked what she wants her legacy to be, her answer was simple:

"I have a box of every single note any one of my Emma Bowen students sent me, all in alphabetical order. That's my legacy right there. You talk about you're having a bad day. All you have to do is open that box and you're in good shape."

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