![\"(left)](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jack-Clifford-head-shotwebtop.jpg\")
<\/a>(Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cI originally saw the network as a way of teaching people how to cook,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed by the lack of those kinds of shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford sold the Food Network to Belo Corporation in Dallas in 1997 after expanding its reach to more than 100 million households. (It\u2019s now owned by Scripps Networks Interactive.) Decades before creating it, he started out as a sports announcer and disc jockey for an AM radio station in Kalamazoo, MI while completing his degree in communications from Western Michigan University.<\/p>\n
He would later excel in sales, as well as scriptwriting and directing live television shows for various affiliates of the three major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). His climb up the ladder took him to Arizona; California; and Atlanta, Georgia, where he befriended Ted Turner.<\/p>\n
\u201cTed would tell me that cable TV systems were becoming more important than network television,\u201d Clifford recalls, adding that his \u201cbig break\u201d came in 1977 at the Providence Journal Company in Rhode Island, where he developed 12 television stations serving millions of viewers in nine states.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was put in charge of their non-newspaper operations, and I became the senior vice president of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford retired from Providence in 1997 with the legacy of not only inventing the Food Network during his tenure, but for turning it into a hot channel among cable subscribers while sustaining the support of investors and big advertisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were plenty of sports and news and everything else on cable networks at the time \u2014 but not food. We really didn\u2019t have any competition,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
His book contains dozens of testimonies by industry veterans who worked with Clifford throughout his career, including a forward written by Robin Leach reminiscing about the \u201crodents that ran across the floor of the studio\u201d during a live Christmas Eve dinner Leach hosted on the Food Network\u2019s Manhattan set.<\/p>\n
The pages also highlight Clifford\u2019s academic struggles in high school, and how his sister, Rosejean Clifford Hinsdale, inspired him to enroll in college. The book, in fact, is dedicated to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came from a family of modest means, and I was academically and socially at the bottom rung during my high school years,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I was voted the least likely to succeed by my classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford credits numerous broadcasting and corporate mavens for his achievements, and speaks highly of the early talents that helped shape the Food Network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show that Leach did making holiday dinner with his famous friends was absolutely important to the success of the network,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe aired it every year for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viewers also took well to Emeril Lagasse, who Clifford says was \u201cfrightened by the cameras at first until we gave him a live audience to interact with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other notable hosts of the \u201990s included Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck and Debbi Fields of Mrs. Fields cookies, all of whom cooked the food for their shows in a kitchen adjacent to the New York studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey carried their prepared meals into our fake kitchen during commercial breaks to make them look like they were cooked on set. We did it that way because of New York City fire codes, which were later relaxed,\u201d he revealed before pointing out that \u201cwe offered Martha Stewart a show, but she turned it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he held any personal interest in culinary arts that may have fueled his ambition for the Food Network, he said, \u201cMy father was a chef before I was born and my mother was a homemaker who made wonderful German foods \u2013 but my true love was in broadcasting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford began visiting San Diego for vacations with his late first wife, Marguerite, several years after retiring. He has since remarried and manages to squeeze in book signings about three times a month in cities around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI overcame the liability of \u2018least likely to succeed,\u2019 and because of that I started a scholarship fund for senior-year students from my high school in Michigan to help them go to college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford\u2019s book can be purchased on major websites for $24.95, although it will be available in limited quantities for $20 at the upcoming book signing.<\/p>\n
\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr. puede ser contactado en fsabatini@san.rr.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":233524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Food Network founder coming to Mission Valley for book signing","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11557,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}