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Tom Freston could easily fill a book with stories from the formative days of MTV and his celebrity encounters Bono would merit a few chapters on his own. Ultimately, though, Freston feels that his life has a more valuable lesson to offer. His memoir, Unplugged, shows by example that trying to follow a straight line to success is not the only path. Freston, 80, was at MTV from the start and became its leader, along with sister networks Comedy Central, VH1, and Nickelodeon, at their greatest periods of success. He rose to become CEO of parent corporation Viacom before chairman Sumner Redstone’s impatience led to his ouster in 2006. Since then, Freston has largely freelanced, advising the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Vice, before its implosion. He made a memorable return to business in Afghanistan, and has been chairman of the ONE Campaign, the anti-poverty organization devoted to Africa that Bono spearheaded, for nearly two decades. I was improvising, he said. It was like a bebop lifestyle, hitting notes instead of having a long, set classical structure. His wanderlust unsettled Freston’s suburban Connecticut parents when he took a gap year after earning an MBA at New York University. They had reason to believe he had gotten it out of his system when he took a job at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 1970s. Saying no to a life convincing people to squeeze the Charmin He soon faced a crossroads when he couldn’t muster enthusiasm for a role on his agency’s important Charmin account. An old girlfriend said to him: All those years of school, that fancy MBA degree, and you are selling toilet paper? You’re better than that. She had a point. It was January 1972, and the woman invited him to hitchhike through France and Spain, then eventually into the Sahara Desert. He left the agency behind. Thus began several years of travel, where he particularly fell in love with Afghanistan and India. Freston started a business importing clothing from Asia. The company, Hindu Kush, was successful for a time before restrictions on imports during the Carter administration killed it. Freston landed back in New York. He read an interview where an executive in the nascent cable television industry talked about starting a music network built on videos and reached out for an interview for a marketing job. He met with a 26-year-old Bob Pittman, who wondered about the appearance of Afghanistan on his resume. Pittman suspected Freston was a hashish smuggler, but that seemed to make him like me more, he wrote. Hey, it was rock n roll. Freston got the job. To encourage cable systems to carry the new network, Freston directed film crews that ambushed Pete Townshend on a London Street and David Bowie on a Swiss ski slope to record ads saying I want my MTV. Its rapid rise has been well documented, and by 1987, Freston was running MTV Networks. Music always played in Freston’s office, giving the young, creative employees the sense that it wasn’t a suit in charge. Former employees say he wasn’t afraid to take risks and empower people. It was almost a requirement particularly Once, MTV decided it needed to reinvent itself every few years to appeal to young people, rather than follow its original audience as it aged. His international experience helped him create MTVs for different countries all around the world. It was irreverent and edgy and nonhierarchical, a lot of creative people, he said. If you tried to run it in a classic MBA style, it would have been rejected. Looking in on a ghost network Several factors led to MTV’s demise, among them the rise of streaming that turned many once-popular cable destinations into ghost networks. Record companies wouldn’t grant MTV streaming rights to play music videos online, undermining chances for a digital transformation, he said. Now, when Freston lands on MTV, its like seeing your old high school burning down, he said. From his book, Freston is clearly still stung by his sudden ouster from Viacom. He makes it a point to tell of attempts to get him back. But in retrospect, the timing couldn’t have been better. It was a good thing, because I’m a loyal guy and I probably would have stayed longer, he said. In a way I got fired at the apex of the TV revolution. The digital guys were just starting to have an impact in a big way. So I really didn’t have to deal with those unpleasant facts and challenges. He was suddenly a free agent, but in demand. Most rewarding was a return to Afghanistan, and working with an entrepreneur, Saad Mohseni, on a television network for the people there. The Taliban put an end to that when they returned to power in 2021 but recently have let Mohseni produce educational programming for girls. Freston hasn’t been back since the takeover. I had a death sentence put on me by the Taliban, he said. They say we’re all friends now, but I don’t want to take the chance. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for It’s hard to resist one Bono anecdote. The singer’s seduction of Freston to join the ONE Campaign’s board was sealed on a late night of partying in the Riviera. It was 5 a.m., closing time at a disco and Bono, a Dublin buddy, and Freston were the only ones left besides a few busboys and a waitress. On the way out, Bono spied a microphone connected to a karaoke machine. Pick a U2 song, Bono told the server. Any one! She chose I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and the famous frontman channeled Frank Sinatra as he sang his classic. The waitress was the only one left to clap. Who wouldn’t want to have this CEO’s life? Readers of Freston’s memoir probably won’t greet the dawn with rock stars. He hopes they appreciate the musical notes of his life and apply it to their own. Ideally, younger people would find some inspiration in the fact that you don’t have to graduate from college and start the next day at Goldman Sachs, and if you don’t you have a panic attack, he said. If you’re young, you should take some chances, he said. Take a risk. Go see the world. The world is the best classroom. Look at the United States from another person’s perspective. You’ll make yourself more interesting as a candidate for a job when you come back.” David Bauder, AP media writer
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Christmas at Pemberley Manor and Romance at Reindeer Lodge may never make it to Oscar night, but legions of fans still love these sweet-yet-predictable holiday moviesand this season, many are making pilgrimages to where their favorite scenes were filmed. That’s because Connecticutthe location for at least 22 holiday films by Hallmark, Lifetime, and othersis promoting tours of the quaint Christmas-card cities and towns featured in this booming movie market; places where a busy corporate lawyer can return home for the holidays and cross paths with a plaid shirt-clad former high school flame who now runs a Christmas tree farm. (Spoiler alert: they live happily ever after.) Its exciting just to know that something was in a movie and we actually get to see it visually, said Abby Rumfelt of Morganton, North Carolina, after stepping off a coach bus in Wethersfield, Connecticut, at one of the stops on the holiday movie tour. Rumfelt was among 53 people, mostly women, on a recent weeklong “Hallmark Movie Christmas Tour,” organized by Mayfield Tours from Spartanburg, South Carolina. On the bus, fans watched the matching movies as they rode from stop to stop. To plan the tour, co-owner Debbie Mayfield used the Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail map, which was launched by the wintry New England state last year to cash in on the growing Christmas-movie craze. Mayfield, who co-owns the company with her husband, Ken, said this was their first Christmas tour to holiday movie locations in Connecticut and other Northeastern states. It included hotel accommodations, some meals, tickets, and even a stop to see the Rockettes in New York City. It sold out in two weeks. With snow flurries in the air and Christmas songs piped from a speaker, the group stopped for lunch at Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre, where parts of the Hallmark films Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane” and Rediscovering Christmas” were filmed. Once home to Americas oldest seed company, the store is located in a historic district known for its stately 1700s and 1800s buildings. It’s an ideal setting for a holiday movie. Even the local country store has sold T-shirts featuring Hallmarks crown logo and the phrase I Live in a Christmas Movie. Wethersfield, CT 06109.” People just know about us now, said Julia Koulouris, who co-owns the market with her husband, Spiro, crediting the movie trail in part. And you see these things on Instagram and stuff where people are tagging it and posting it. Christmas movies are big businessand a big deal to fans The concept of holiday movies dates back to 1940s, when Hollywood produced classics like It’s A Wonderful Life,” Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas in Connecticut, which was actually shot at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. In 2006, five years after the launch of the Hallmark Channel on TV, Hallmark struck gold with the romance movie The Christmas card, said Joanna Wilson, author of the book Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made-for-TV Movies. Hallmark saw those high ratings and then started creating that format and that formula with the tropes and it now has become their dominant formula that they create for their Christmas TV romances, she said. The holiday movie industry, estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year, has expanded beyond Hallmark and Lifetime. Today, a mix of cable and broadcast networks, streaming platforms, and direct-to-video producers release roughly 100 new films annually, Wilson said. The genre has also diversified, with characters from a wider range of racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as LGBTQ+ storylines. The formula, however, remains the same. And fans still have an appetite for a G-rated love story. They want to see people coming together. They want to see these romances. Its a part of the hope of the season, she said. Who doesnt love love? And it always has a predictable, happy ending. Hazel Duncan, 83, of Forest City, North Carolina, said she and her husband of 65 years, Owen, like to watch the movies together year-round because they’re sweet and family-friendly. They also take her back to their early years as a young couple, when life felt simpler. We hold hands sometimes, she said. It’s kind of sweet. We’ve got two recliners back in a bedroom that’s real small and we’ve got the TV there. And we close the doors off and it’s just our time together in the evening. Falling in love again… with a state Connecticut’s chief marketing officer, Anthony M. Anthony, said the Christmas Movie Trail is part of a multipronged rebranding effort launched in 2023 that promotes the state not just as a tourist destination, but also as a place to work and live. So what better way to highlight our communities as a place to call home than them being sets of movies? he said. However, there continues to be debate at the state Capitol over whether to eliminate or cap film industry tax credits which could threaten how many more of these movies will be made locally. Christina Nieves and her husband of 30 years, Raul, already live in Connecticut and have been tackling the trail little by little.” It’s been a chance, she said, to explore new places in the state, like the Bushnell Park Carousel in Hartford, where a scene from Ghost of Christmas Always was filmed. It also inspired Nieves to convince her husband not quite the movie fan she is to join her at a tree-lighting and Christmas parade in their hometown of Windsor Locks. I said, listen, let me just milk this Hallmark thing as long as I can, OK? she said. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the film title is Christmas at Pemberley Manor, not Christmas at Pemberly Manor,” and the co-owner of Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre is named Spiro Koulouris, not Spiros Koulouris. Susan Haigh, Associated Press
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In theory, AI should have transformed manufacturing by now. From predictive maintenance and fatigue detection to real-time quality control, the promise has always been smarter, faster, and safer operations. But in practice, the factory floor is still a place where AI ambitions often run into real-world limitations. Thats a huge problem, especially because the size and weight of this industry are hard to ignore. U.S. manufacturing alone contributes $2.9 trillion to the economy, accounting for over 10% of total output and supporting nearly 13 million workers, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. Globally, manufacturing represents 16% of world GDP and a total market value well over $16 trillion, per a new report from Cargoson. Now, as AI advances even further and policymakers push for reindustrialization in the U.S.aiming to restore domestic production capacity, regain supply chain control, and modernize strategic infrastructurethe spotlight is back on factories. Theres momentum and money behind the movement, but without restructuring the fragmented digital systems that dominate most production floors, that momentum may stall. An estimate by MarketsandMarkets projects the global AI in manufacturing market would grow to $155 billion by 2030, up from $34 billion in 2025 — but that growth will remain theoretical unless companies solve the bottlenecks slowing down adoption. Outdated infrastructure According to a 2025 survey of more than 500 manufacturing leaders, 92% say outdated infrastructure is holding back GenAI progress. Another report on the state of AI infrastructure by A10 Networks found that 74% of global IT decision-makers believe their current infrastructure is not fully prepared to support AI workloads. For all the talk of digital transformation, many factories are still running on architecture that predates smartphones, most of which cannot support new AI capabilities. The hype around AI in manufacturing is real, but so are the technical barriers, Shahid Ahmed, EVP of New Ventures and Innovation at NTT DATA, tells Fast Company. Modern connectivity is unlocking the next wave of AI-driven innovation in manufacturing. Private 5G and next-gen Wi-Fi give manufacturers the speed and reliability to finally turn AI into a productivity engine. However, better connectivity is just one part of the big problem with getting AI to produce optimal results on the factory floor. Whats really stopping AI from working on the ground isnt just weak networks but also a mismatch between how factories run and how AI systems think. At aiOla, a conversational AI company that works with Fortune 500 manufacturers, Assaf Asbag sees a common pattern: data silos, fragmented systems, and little end-to-end accountability. Even when manufacturers bring in advanced models and top-tier talent, the results rarely scale. Even with expensive AI talent, teams cant generate value if they dont have clean, connected data, explains Asbag, aiOlas Chief Technology & Product Officer. You need aligned data, integrated workflows, and clear accountabilityotherwise pilots never scale. Thats because many manufacturing systems were never built to support AI in the first place. Legacy enterprise systemslike outdated ERP (enterprise resource planning) tools, old-school CRMs (customer relationship management platforms), and manual data entrystill dominate much of the landscape. When critical insights are buried across disconnected platformsor worse, written down in logbooksit becomes nearly impossible to feed AI models the context they need. Ahmed points to a recent deployment with materials manufacturer Celanese, where private 5G and edge AI were introduced to improve worker safety and equipment monitoring. They were able to identify fatigue risk factors and detect hazards in real time, he claims. It was only possible because the infrastructure was there to support that intelligence. For him, the key to successful AI deployments in manufacturing isnt just having data but also having the right data, in the right place, and at the right time. Without that, he warns, factories will keep seeing failed pilots, no matter how powerful the model. Not all use cases are built the same While the buzz often centers on predictive maintenance and visual inspection, those arent plug-and-play features. They require reliable data flow, ultra-low latency, and hardware compatibility that many plants simply dont have. In remote or offline environments, traditional cloud-based systems cant keep up. Use cases that demand real-time decision-makinglike voice-enabled workflows or autonomous quality checksare especially sensitive to network and system performance, Asbag notes. Thats why edge computing matters. It allows speech recognition or LLM-driven tasks to happen on-site, without depending on cloud access. Picture a factory line that shuts down every time it loses Wi-Fi. Without local processingmeaning the ability to run AI tasks on devices in the factory instead of sending them to the cloudeven a short loss of connectivity can stop production and make AI tools more of a problem than a help. For factories operating with limited or unreliable connectivity, edge AI offers a way forward. By processing data locally, companies can cut lag time, protect sensitive data, and reduce downtime. But again, these benefits only materialize if the surrounding infrastructurefrom sensors to routersis up to the task. Think of it like trying to run a modern electric vehicle on outdated roads, Ahmed says. No matter how powerful the engine, if the path is broken, youre not going anywhere fast. Getting real ROI One of the biggest traps in AI adoption is mistaking model accuracy for business success. Just because a model performs well during testing doesnt mean it will drive positive outcomes on the floor. The most successful AI initiatives begin with a clear visionimproving quality, boosting efficiency, or unlocking insights, says Ahmed. From there, quick wins build momentum. Asbag agrees with him. ROI in AI is not about proving that the modelworks or that accuracy improves on a benchmark. Those are technology goals, not business goals, he notes. Companies should avoid fluff by defining ROI in clear, specific business termsfaster processes, better decisions, or measurable savings. That means tracking metrics like how many more inspections a worker can perform with a voice assistant or how predictive maintenance reduced unexpected machine downtime. When AI is tied to concrete, operational KPIs, it becomes a tool for transformationnot just a tech experiment. And thats the big difference between the hype-induced claims of faster operations in the AI space and real measurable impact. Its one thing to say your model is 96% accurate in a test environment. Its another to show that it actually helped to cut defect rates by 12% in real production. While the first might get a nod from the technical team, the second gets leadership to sign off on a bigger rollout. The path forward Getting AI to work in manufacturing isnt about chasing the most advanced model. Its really about understanding the problem, cleaning up the data, modernizing the systems, and making sure every deployment serves a real business need. Too many companies fall into endless discussions, pilots, and meetings without ever delivering value, says Asbag. Success with AI comes from being precise about the problem, aligning with the business outcome, and giving teams the autonomy to execute. Ahmed puts it even more directly: AI without infrastructure is like trying to build a smart city with no roads. You need the foundation in place before you scale. Sateesh Seetharamiah, CEO of Edgeverve, also agrees. Without a defined set of use cases and outcomes, manufacturers will be stuck without a clear strategy to prioritize the right emerging tech capabilities for business success, he says. Conversations about building AI infrastructure in manufacturing often stall because leaders assume it means ripping everything out and starting from scratch. But meaningful progress rarely requires a full overhaul. Some of the biggest wins come from small, targeted changeslike installing local edge devices to reduce lag, connecting isolated systems, or clarifying who owns what data so teams can move faster. Manufacturing may be one of the toughest environments for AI, but its also one of the most rewarding. The factories that get it right wont just optimize how work gets done. Theyll also lead a new era of industrial work, while the ones that hesitate may fall behind. This isnt the time to sit on the fence, says Seetharamiah. Manufacturers who delay risk missing out on enormous opportunities to create digital experiences for their customers.
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