No matter where you are, when you watch your favorite team on your regional sports network, you should think of Jim Corno.
Corno, the president of Comcast SportsNet Chicago who died Tuesday at the age of 66, was a true pioneer in local sports TV. When he joined SportsVision in Chicago in 1984, it was a struggling pay network that reached few homes. He transformed the station into a huge outlet that eventually became the template for regional sports networks throughout the country.
White Sox and Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf knew how much Corno meant to him. He summed up his impact on sports TV:
“How do you best remember someone like Jim Corno? The average fan may not immediately recognize Jim’s name, but I think perhaps no one else in this city has done more over the past four decades to impact the Chicago sports landscape.
“No matter the situation, Jim always thought about the sports fan first. Whether the game was baseball, basketball or hockey, Jim’s focus and obsession was always on how to improve the experience for the viewer sitting at home, watching and rooting for his or her favorite Chicago team. Jim thought that way because Jim was that Chicago fan, sitting on his own couch or in the television studio celebrating the key victories and mourning the tough losses.
“Jim was a tremendous businessman and partner, with his prescient understanding of sports television often guiding our decisions and direction over the years. Much more importantly, he was a proud Chicagoan, donating countless hours to important causes like the March of Dimes. Jim was a terrific father, grandfather and husband, a mentor to many in the industry, a father-figure to staff at Comcast SportsNet Chicago, and also a dear, close friend. This is a deep personal loss to me and for many in the Chicago sports world. We all will miss our friend.”
In an email, Blackhawks president John McDonough said, “Really sad day. He was the best consensus builder, unifier I’ve ever met….I loved the guy.”
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Jeff Nuich, Corno’s long-time PR man at CSN Chicago, wrote a moving tribute that assessed the totality of his career.
SportsVision started off as a pay-TV service featuring only live pro games featuring the White Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls and the now-defunct Sting, but Jim knew for his network to grow, he had to have it available to everyone on basic cable. Through tough negotiations with countless affiliates, he made it happen. Subscriber growth was small at the start – only 13,000 total, but it was his vision to make it grow. He wanted everyone who can possibly receive his network to be given the chance to watch it. Once he got them to watch it, he wanted to make sure they came back the next night.
With the massive popularity of local sports stars such as Michael Jordan, Denis Savard and Carlton Fisk airing on SportsVision throughout the year, it was Jim’s goal to begin programming his channel like a broadcast TV station. Again, he made that happen too. SportsVision became the first regional sports network in the country to go 24/7.
As SportsVision evolved into SportsChannel in the late 1980s, Jim also created another first for a regional sports network as “The SportsChannel Report” became the first all-local sports news show airing seven nights a week…not to mention he made a very smart move of bringing the ground-breaking “Sports Writers on TV” along for the ride as well.
Nuich also wrote about Corno’s personal side.
Here’s another anecdote about Jim’s character. Over the past few weeks, the Blackhawks were gracious enough to want to bring the Stanley Cup to Jim’s house so he can have the opportunity to not only see it one last time, but to share that special moment with his family.
Jim, however, had another idea.
Instead of having the Cup brought to his home, he and his family had the Cup brought to the Cancer Center at Edward Hospital in Naperville, where he had been receiving treatments for over the past year. He wanted to give the other cancer patients and caregivers on site that moment of happiness to their lives. That’s just one small example of the kind of man Jim Corno was to the very end.
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Indeed, Corno was a people person. Every year, he and Jeff made a point of going out to lunch with me. No agenda. Just to talk business and laugh at some old stories. I’m going to miss those lunches.
Corno had been ill for a while. Yet when I needed some assistance on a story during the summer, Nuich said, “Jim would be happy to talk to you.”
Jim’s voice was a bit thinner than I recalled, but you could sense the passion for the business still was there. As always, he was incredibly helpful in steering me in the right direction.
Like Reinsdorf said, Corno was a true friend to the sports fan in Chicago and beyond.
Thanks for everything, Jim.