Ted Rogers, Canada's media empire builder, dies

Every now and then I'll do a radio segment with Jim Richards on CFRB in Toronto. That station was started in 1927 by the Rogers Vacuum Tube Co., whose founder, Edward Rogers, would work himself to death when he was just 39. Later, his son Ted would say, "Though he died when I was only five years old, he is obviously the force behind my life-long interest in broadcasting and telecommunications," Ted Rogers said. (Not unlike what another Ted, named Turner, would say about his own father's early demise spurring him forward.) And so, in 1950, Ted Rogers began building his empire, which would one day become Canada's largest media company, including ownership of a major league baseball team.

On Tuesday Ted Rogers died at age 75. When his biography came out this fall, we were in Canada, and I recall the papers reporting that Ted seemed to be hedging in this book on whether or not to give the company to his son. But failing health would soon force him to step down -- and now the board will decide who succeeds the man who controlled everything up there from cable to iPhones.