Clay Whitehead Nixon's Telecom Advisor Dies

Clay T. “Tom" Whitehead, who helped the cable TV industry flourish by bringing competition to the domestic satellite market in the early 1970s, died of prostate cancer July 23 at Georgetown University Hospital. He was 69.

During the Nixon administration, Whitehead became the country's first telecommunications policy advisor and championed free markets in the satellite business. He later revolutionized communications satellite holdings by selling them outright to cable providers instead of leasing them. Starting in the mid-1980s, he challenged Europe's state- owned television systems by spearheading the first private pan- European TV satellite system, Luxembourg-based SES Astra. It became one of the continent's most popular and profitable private satellite systems.

Whitehead had degrees in engineering and management but little knowledge of communications when he was appointed the first director of the old White House Office of Telecommunications Policy in 1970. Considered bright and capable, Whitehead said his chief concern was trying to get the federal government to become “more anticipatory" in addressing rapid technological changes.

During his four years overseeing the office, he sought to demolish the monopoly model that had given tremendous power to large international corporations such as Comsat and Intelsat. He set in motion policies that allowed domestic satellite competitors to succeed, and far more cheaply.

His work had an enormous effect on the cable TV industry, and because of his efforts, domestic companies could deliver their own channels via satellites to a national audience. Previously, such reach was possible only if a cable channel leased land lines from AT&T, then a monopoly provider. HBO, the Turner cable networks and C-SPAN were among the key beneficiaries of Whitehead's decisions.