Colorado

"This was especially important for TCI, which was starved for cash at the time and was trailing our rivals in upgrading systems for fiber optics and two-way switching gear. TCI was planning to spend $2 billion to upgrade its cable systems with seven thousand miles of fiber-optic lines. This made it all the more important that we deploy digital sooner rather than later, to unlock more channels and rake in more subscription revenue to help pay the bills. TCI committed another $100 million to build the National Digital Television Center in Littleton, Colorado, with massive satellite dishes capable of receiving and sending compressed digital signals to TCI and other cable operators."

"In December 1984, he and Jenny took the family to Mexico, where they had many adventures in an old van driven by a hairy old local the girls dubbed ‘Catweasel’. He also rediscovered the joys of skiing. Warren and Sally Paine were frequent partners in mountain excursions. A typical adventure, in Paine’s memory, started with an exclamation from a wrung-out Gibbs: ‘For heaven’s sake, Jenny, let’s have some fun.’ She’d arrange a ski trip to Aspen in Colorado or Courchevel in France with the Paines and the Reynolds. Gibbs found his release through competition. ‘There was only one speed with Alan,’ says Paine, ‘flat out. Being in front of him was like being in front of a freight train, he was always trying to pass, arms and legs were flying and he was yelling and cursing; it was great fun.’ As it was with business, so it was with entertainment: Gibbs threw himself into whatever he was doing as if the fate of the world hinged on the result and by the end of the day he was spent."