Bob Magness had a plan: to build a new cable system in the isolated town of Memphis, Texas. It would have a tall antenna tower that would pull down the broadcast signals of three TV stations' in two nearby towns-Amarillo, about 80 miles away, and Lubbock, about 140 miles away. If he could raise the money to pull it off, Magness would be able to charge his neighbors a monthly fee for the television service-which he would get free of charge, basically pirating the programming from the TV stations themselves without paying them a cent. In cotton, business looked bleak because nylon and rayon were
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