Bluegrass Business Development Partnership

it’s all about the e’s

By Gina Greathouse and Dean Harvey

If you read those crawling news ticker updates that frequently run across the lower third of your television screen, chances are very good that the computerized technology that generates those messages — and even some of the message content itself — originated right here in Lexington. 

CGS Infographics Automation, Inc., the local firm responsible for much of that news ticker programming, began in May 1996 as a three-way partnership formed by Gene Hamm, Bryan Mullins and Chas Callaway. 

Ten years ago, both Hamm and Callaway were working at the local CBS affiliate station, WKYT-TV.

“Chas had this knack for writing custom ticker software for broadcast usage,” said Hamm, A UK business/marketing grad.  “Together we realized that placing a sponsor’s logo within the context of the ‘crawl’ would result in both a revenue generating tool for the station and a means by which more breaking news could be put on the air without interrupting the scheduled programming.” 

Research proved what the two suspected: there was a void in the broadcast industry for this niche application. They invited Hamm’s North Hardin High School friend, engineer Bryan Mullins, who had since earned mechanical engineering and MBA degrees from Vanderbilt, to help them form a start-up company. The resulting entrepreneurial venture was named CGS Automation. 

Intensive cold-calling on commercial TV stations across the country began and brought them their first substantial client, KCBS in Los Angeles, the second largest media market in the country. Today the CGS team has licensed its software systems nationwide, with its tickers reaching over 62 million households.

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