Highest Point in Kentucky
Harlan County, Harlan County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Plaque honors William Risden (1914–1994), WWII vet and cable TV pioneer. He built Kentucky’s first cable system on Black Mountain, using its height to serve the town below. His Cumberland Cable Co. was among the first ten in the U.S.
Erected by Hands Acroos the Mountain
The Story
In the rugged coal country of Harlan County, atop Black Mountain — Kentucky's highest ground at over 4,100 feet — a local WWII veteran named William Risden turned elevation into innovation. In the early days of television, mountainous terrain blocked broadcast signals from reaching valley towns, so Risden mounted an antenna high on the peak and ran cable down to the community below, delivering reception no rooftop aerial could catch. His Cumberland Cable Company became one of the first ten cable television systems in the entire United States, part of the grassroots wave of 'community antenna television' that would eventually grow into a national industry.
Why it matters
Cable television was born not in big cities but in isolated mountain and valley towns like this one, where ordinary tinkerers solved the reception problem that corporate broadcasters ignored — making this quiet Appalachian peak an unlikely birthplace of a technology that reshaped American media.
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Related people
- · William Risden
Related events
- · Founding of Cumberland Cable Company
Themes & tags
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