When Steve Fry went home to his alma mater a few years ago to give the commencement address, he didn't talk much about his own successes. An old school friend, Tom Davis — now the superintendent and girls high school basketball coach in the district they both attended — remembers Fry's speech as a challenge to the graduating seniors at East Canton High School to work hard and take advantage of opportunities. The magnitude of Fry's business success didn't hit Davis until last spring, when Fry offered him tickets to sit in the Time Warner-ESPN loge for the NCAA women's basketball finals in Cleveland. A loge? With Time Warner and ESPN? ''He just said it matter-of-factly. I kind of realized he was up there in the stratosphere a little bit,'' Davis said recently. Fry hails from a humble beginning: Son of a school janitor, who thought cable television was a fad. Fry himself climbed the ladder, quite literally, skipping a college education to join the local company as a cable installer. Today, he is president of Time Warner Cable of Northeast Ohio, the third-largest cable unit controlled by the huge media company that also includes CNN, America Online, HBO, Warner Brothers Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting. Only the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan cable operations are larger than the Northeast Ohio division. Fry's division, headquartered in the former B.F. Goodrich complex on South Main Street in Akron, employs 2,400 and works with 800 to 1,000 independent contractors. And during the 37 years that Fry has been with the company, it has become more than a cable television operation. Time Warner Northeast Ohio extends from Huron County west of Cleveland into western Pennsylvania and south of Please see Cable, A12

New Philadelphia, providing television signals to 1 million subscribers, in addition to nearly 400,000 Internet connections, e-mail delivery, digital phone service to more than 70,000 and now cellular phone service.

Cable companies at one time enjoyed exclusivity in their market areas, but that is changing. Time Warner is in a fight with communications giant AT&T, the company that has grown out of mergers and acquisitions involving SBC Communications, BellSouth and Cingular mobile phone service.

New technology that allows AT&T to provide television signals over phone lines has put the two companies in a head-to-head fight for the same high-density communities.

And if that isn't enough, satellite-dish companies, which owned 18 percent of the local market earlier this year, used Time Warner's refusal to pay for programming from the newly created Big Ten sports network as an opportunity to bring attention to themselves as an alternative.

Simple code

For Fry, 56, the answer to the looming challenge is hard work.

He grew up the son of a stay-at-home mother and a high school custodian, the late Gladys and Harold Fry.

His late father took the custodial job at East Canton Middle/High School when Fry — the second youngest of six children — was a freshman. Harold Fry worked off and on in the factories of Republic Steel and Timken while his children were growing, but knew taking the job as a custodian would allow him to provide for his family.

''It drives into you the importance of work,'' Fry said of his cigar-smoking father.

Fry remembers vividly a talk with his dad when he graduated from high school.

''Dad walked me outside and put his arms on my shoulder. He said, 'I don't care what you do, whether you go to work at Timken, go to school or into the service, but whatever you do, get off your ass and do it every day.'''

The majority of Fry's siblings went on to blue-collar jobs: Two retired from Timken, and his younger brother is a driver for Frito Lay. His sister stayed at home and raised a family, and another brother was an air-traffic controller.

''We're still heavy blue collar,'' he said.

Fry intended to go to Kent State in the fall of 1970, but a newspaper advertisement for a summer job as a cable installer for Lamb Communications — which would eventually become Warner Cable — changed his mind.

''It was my summer job and it became my life,'' said Fry, who never enrolled at Kent State.

He chose a path different from many friends and family who were taking high-paying factory jobs. Fry said he saw many who seemed unhappy.

At the time, cable TV was in its infancy, providing reception for those too far from transmitters to receive a good signal.

''If you had 12 channels, you had a lot,'' he said.

In 1973, Fry began a seven-year stint with the Time Warner Columbus operation, where he helped build a 30-channel cable network.

''We didn't have a clue what we were going to do with 30 channels,'' he said.

Then Ted Turner came up with the 24-hour news channel idea, and others followed: 24-hour weather and ESPN among them.

''Every time one of them was announced, I was thinking, 'Really?''' Fry said.

His father remained a skeptic, even in 1981, when Fry returned to Akron to take a job as general manager.

He asked, ''When are you going to give up that fad and go work for Timken?'' Fry recalled.

Fry was named president of Time Warner Northeast Ohio in 1990, the same year his father passed away. By then, his father understood the impact of cable television and was proud, he said.

Carol Caruso, senior vice president of government relations for the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said she marvels at Fry's success. She first worked with Fry during her years as executive vice president of the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association. Fry was the president for several terms, and now he serves on the Greater Cleveland Partnership board.

''He climbed poles,'' Caruso said. ''It's just a great American success story.''

Listening to customers

Caruso said she finds it interesting that the cable executive doesn't watch a lot of television.

What the customers are saying is more important, she said.

''It matters what his customers think. That's the lens he looks at his business through,'' Caruso said.

Fry acknowledges that Time Warner has customer-service issues.

He sometimes listens to CDs of Time Warner customer-service calls while traveling by car.

''It gives me a flavor for how we're doing,'' he said.

''I'm pushing very hard on accountability on the front lines,'' Fry said. ''Are we perfect? Not at all.''

Fry said the cable company has increased the use of feedback cards sent to customers after a service call, which often include a name and photo of the installer.

''You've got to hear from them. You want to hear from them. Silence is deafening,'' he said.

The company's call centers are trying to reduce wait times on the phone by investing in call-back technology, which kicks in during high-volume times and returns calls when it's their turn to speak to an agent.

But Fry said challenges exist, and part of the problem is one Time Warner created for itself with its free customer service.

''The majority by far and away of our phone calls and our truck rolls (sending a service person to a house, at a cost of $60 per trip) are consumer equipment and education,'' Fry said. ''We don't want to say, 'Go somewhere else,' or, 'Pay me to service the product,' but we've made it so easy to come out to my house to do very, very simple things.''

Some customers have problems and need return visits, but some are very low maintenance.

''We have homes we haven't been inside for 20 years,'' he said.

So the company is looking for ways to reduce those costly return trips.

''That's one of the things we measure and put a great deal of importance on,'' he said.

Technology advances

Over the years, Time Warner has expanded the capabilities of cable.

Roadrunner broadband and Time Warner Digital Phone became direct competitors with the phone companies.

More recently, Time Warner Cable introduced Pivot, a wireless phone with a mobile TV and commercial digital phone service — products that compete directly with AT&T.

In addition, Time Warner expanded its cable TV footprint with the acquisition of territory formerly served by Adelphia, a cable company that went bankrupt.

The Northeast Ohio Division now is aligning the channel lineups of its various areas — including the former Adelphia territory — and categorizing channels by genre.

With about 68 percent of the households in the Akron-Canton-Cleveland region hooked to cable, Time Warner dominates the market, according to information from The Nielsen Co.

Satellite companies, with about 293,000 households or about 18 percent of the market, are the next largest segment.

No market-share numbers are available yet for AT&T, which is taking aim at Time Warner and other cable providers with U-Verse service, its brand of cable television that is carried over upgraded telephone networks. AT&T already is in 39 communities in Ohio, including Stow, Munroe Falls, Cuyahoga Falls, Kent, Silver Lake and, recently, parts of Akron.

The company does not provide regional numbers, but said it plans an aggressive expansion in Ohio and other AT&T states, increasing its U-Verse customers from 126,000 to 17 million by the end of 2008.

That is dramatic growth. In a little more than a year, AT&T would need to add 135 new customers for every one it has now.

Fry said he's worried about any competitor, ''but it keeps you sharp. We have a better phone product and Internet.

''But it's another competitor slicing the pie,'' he said.

Sense of history

The local Time Warner chief is proud of his history with the company and has set deep roots in the community.

His climbing gear for installing cable was framed and mounted above his office desk to celebrate his 35th anniversary with the company.

Fry jokes that the employees who created the artwork worried that he'd put on his gear during an emergency and try to go to work.

When Fry was named division president in 1990, he was able to choose where the division would be headquartered. He chose Akron. It's an hour in every direction for his territory.

And with this as his base, he has become active in the community, supporting Leadership Akron and the American Heart Association.

''Steve's very passionate about the American Heart Association's cause,'' said Alice Luse, executive director of the Akron chapter. ''He leads by example because he's always had his company sponsor the Heart Association before he goes out and asks other people to sponsor.''

He attempts to find free time to garden with his wife of 10 years, Nancy, in the backyard of their Stow home.

He's selective with his TV viewing.

''I'm too busy,'' he said with a laugh.

Fry said he and his wife like to watch some shows using the ''On Demand'' program option, including the Showtime program The Tudors, about the English monarchy in the 1500s.

When he retires, Fry said he'd like to finish his college degree.

''I think you have to go, not only to get an education, but you have to convince yourself that you can learn,'' he said. ''The business world we're all in today, you're constantly learning and have to know how to go about that.''

Yet, Fry also understands that college is not for everyone; maybe a trade school or other training is better suited for some.

But no matter which route an individual takes, ''It's incumbent on all of us, when we see talent, to pull that person up,'' he said.

He and Nancy plan to establish a scholarship at East Canton High School to help those students — students like he was.

''I think everyone knows there's a youngster that may have a little more ability but doesn't have the grades. I want to be able to reach in and pull them out and give them a boost,'' he said.

Fry said he is conscious of people's careers and their families. He attributes that to growing up in a working-class setting.

His dad once told him to '''Remember it's more than the person you're looking at that's counting on you.' That has been part of my fabric. I take that very seriously,'' Fry said.

His father also taught him that there can be loyalty in a job, even in this era when workers don't necessarily work for one company for their whole career.

''I want to provide a place where people can grow together,'' he said.

Tom Davis, Fry's high school friend, said he suspects Fry runs a tight ship, ''but I imagine his people have the ability to express themselves and be creative.''

''I think he's worn his success very well,'' Davis said. ''He's the same old Steve Fry I knew when we were growing up.''