Where high-tech meets highway 1: Robert Hager, manager of USA Media Group's Half Moon Bay system, has seen to it that his system meets the needs of a changing community - Meet The Operator

When OpenTV and its partners decided to show off the nation's first fully interactive television service, they didn't go to AT&T Broadband or AOL Time Warner or Charter Communications--they picked little USA Media Group and its Half Moon Bay, Calif., system.

At first blush, the tiny, 7,500-subscriber system nestled between mountains and the Pacific Ocean south of San Francisco would seem an odd choice.

But a major selling point was operations manager Robert Hager.

"If we had an employee of the year, it would be Robert," says Jim Faircloth, president of USA Media Group, which runs small cable systems scattered around the Western states. "For a system of 7,500 subscribers, it is just absolutely top-drawer, and it's a tribute to Robert."

Hager has overseen a rebuild and upgrade of the Half Moon Bay system that has turned it into USA Media Group's highest revenue generator and into a model of good customer service.

"Robert and USA Media have really done a good job," says Walt Callahan, utilities manager for San Mateo County, which has granted USA Media Group a franchise through 2010. "I don't recall a single complaint in the last few years."

Hager has a can-do attitude toward his job, and the OpenTV project was typical. When the ITV company approached Faircloth about the trial, he sent them to Hager, who wasted no time in endorsing the deal.

"OpenTV stopped by here one day and showed me a demo," Hager recalls. "I said as far as the technology goes, we're ready to go. Let's give it a shot."

New technology is Hager's strongpoint. He started as an installer for the old Half Moon Bay-area franchise Coastside Cable in 1984, after graduating from community college. Since then Hager has pushed technical upgrades to the forefront.

The population of Half Moon Bay, formerly a farming and quiet residential community, changed as nearby Silicon Valley exploded and high-tech workers settled there. "What I find is that [high-tech workers are] more open to the new technology, such as the high-speed data or the digital cable or the interactive TV because they're in the so-called high-tech world of Silicon Valley," Hager says.

The downside is that wealthier residents frown on unsightly cable equipment. When one homeowner's association balked at the old cable service boxes on its members' property, Hager had to paint them and put them on faux-rock pedestals to successfully appease the community.

Aside from a demanding population, running a system in a coastal town has other idiosyncrasies, Hager says.

"It's a very corrosive environment because of the salt spray, and you have more maintenance that has to be done," he says. "And there's nothing to stop the wind from hitting the trees when we get our Pacific storms, so there will be trees coming down."

Aside from dealing with design-conscious homeowners, Hager and USA Media Group have found time to reach out to the community.

"A few years ago we wired every school on the coast for cable," he says. "So every school in our operating area, every classroom has access to cable and at no cost to the school."

Smooth-running Half Moon Bay has proved too tempting a prize for AT&T Broadband, which runs systems all around Half Moon Bay and has successfully bid to take over the operation by the end of the year.

It's a tribute to Hager that the county utilities manager is less than thrilled over the proposition.

"We deal a lot with AT&T, and it's not the same," Callahan says. "If Robert doesn't stay on, we're going to miss him."

Hager has yet to decide whether he'll work for AT&T in Half Moon Bay. In the meantime, he's embarking on another project--rebuilding the USA Media Group system at the old Fort Ord facility on the Monterey Peninsula, which includes the new campus of California State University at Monterey Bay, where his wife, Jacqueline, is a student and part-time teacher. Though the system has only 2,000 subscribers now, it is expected to grow quickly as the campus expands and neighboring cities annex portions of the base to build housing. Hager clearly relishes the task of constructing an 860-MHz network.

Hager, whose three older children have left home, lives halfway between Half Moon Bay and Fort Ord, in Santa Cruz County, with his wife and his youngest daughter.

"I don't plan on going anywhere," Hager says. "I love it here on the coast. Between the Fort Ord system and the Half Moon Bay system, I really do enjoy it, or I wouldn't be here."

USA MEDIA GROUP

Half Moon Bay/Monterey-Fort Ord, California

OWNERSHIP: USA Media Group

HOMES PASSED: 8,500 in the Half Moon Bay system; Monterey-Fort Ord system is under construction.

SUBSCRIBERS: 7,500 (Half Moon Bay)

MILES OF PLANT: 130 (Half Moon Bay)

BASIC CABLE RATE: $18; expanded basic is $35

DIGITAL CABLE: Additional $13.95

HIGH-SPEED INTERNET RATE: $39.95 (@Home), including $10 for modem lease-purchase

AD SALES: Contracts with AT&T Media Insertion for local ad sales

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