William Kobin

For these stations, GeoVideo represents a new source of revenue that can help cover the cost of switching to digital broadcasting, said William Kobin, president of the consortium, CSRG Digital Inc.The federal government has ordered all broadcasters to make the switch from analog to digital transmissions, a move that will cost each station millions of dollars.

Bill Kobin, President (818) 637-5208

"Public television stations have been in the vanguard of video technology for several decades, having been the first TV stations to broadcast closed captioning, stereo broadcast audio, and high-definition television," said William Kobin, president of CSRG Digital, L.L.C. "This is a unique opportunity for public television stations to continue the development of new video technologies for Internet applications and generate revenue for essential new technology and production of digital content."

Kobin and Dan Schmidt, chairman of CSRG and president and CEO of WTTW-TV, the Chicago public television station, will act as the primary representatives of the group.

It was really very difficult to get even a majority of those countries to agree on anything, says William Kobin, then the vice president for programming for National Educational Television (the precursor to today's Corporation for Public Broadcasting), which had joined the program after the three commercial U.S. networks had declined.Sent to Geneva, Kobin arrived jet-lagged and weary, but he left enthusiastic, in no small part due to Singer.It really was like--it was Aubrey Boutros Boutros-Ghali' Singer trying to get this thing to work, he says today.He was a big, scotch-drinking, cigar-wielding, loud, explosive, funny, emotional power--force, I would say..

Kobin assigned the project to executive producer Robert Squier, today a high-profile political consultant who will be handling President Clinton's re-election campaign.