A small granite marker behind the Astoria Column commemorates an invention that traces its roots to the Oregon coast: cable television.
In 1948 – four years before Portland got its first TV station –Astoria residents were already watching broadcast television, thanks to Leroy Edward “Ed” Parsons. Using a system of antennas, coaxial cable, repeaters and signal boosters, he captured broadcasts from Seattle — some 125 miles away, as the crow flies.
Ed’s son, Mark Parsons, was 8 years old when his father made his breakthrough. Mark lived with his mother in Portland after his parents divorced when he was 5, but he has early memories of his father driving around with an antenna mounted on his car, searching for television signals…