Cablecast Community Media Bids Fond Farewell to Steve Israelsky

Steve sails into retirement following a colorful 45-year career capped with a seven-year leadership role that steered the Cablecast brand and community media into new territory

Tightrope Media Systems has built a reputation for remarkable consistency over its 27 years in business, anchored through a managerial structure and talented staff that rarely changes. That consistency is a rare distinction that clearly makes a positive and lasting impact to company operations.

Tightrope’s familiar managerial structure is now on the verge of change with the retirement of Steve Israelsky from Tightrope’s Cablecast Community Media division on December 31, bringing a memorable and successful 45-year career to a close. Tightrope CEO and Co-Founder JJ Parker steps into the role of President of Cablecast as 2025 begins, ensuring that Tightrope’s operations remain consistent while building a foundation to support exciting developments planned for the year ahead.Cablecast Community Media will also expand its executive team to support the division’s overall growth, with two C-Level appointments expected next month.

Steve’s professional career also followed a consistent pattern, beginning and ending in the cable industry he loves will little deviation along his path. He gained valuable experience working with regional cable system operators  and cable TV networks early in his career, taking on roles of increased responsibility over time. Those experiences soon led to leadership positions that forged new territory for both Steve and the businesses that trusted in his vision. Located in Northern Virginia, he became Arlington Community Television’s first Executive Director in the 1980s before moving into the cable network space through much of the 1990s.

Steve made his final career shift following six years at USA Networks and two years at Fox Family Channel in a Regional VP role, taking a sharp detour into the technology supplier space. It wasn’t long before Steve crossed paths with JJ, who recognized that Steve’s exceptional qualities as a business leader and on a human level were a natural fit for Tightrope’s culture. Steve also possessed the ideal skillset and industry knowledge he was seeking to help build the Cablecast business in ways that best served PEG TV stations at the time while developing the brand for future opportunities.

Steve exceeded those expectations over nearly 18 years at the company, working in varied VP level roles before JJ tapped him to lead the newly formed Cablecast Community Media division in 2017. His steady leadership over seven years in the role resulted in tremendous overall growth for a company that caters to what on the surface appears to be a niche inside the greater broadcast and AV industries.

“Steve has long recognized the value that community media brings to local populations, and the opportunity to build the business through relationships with municipal governments and local schools,” said Parker. “That gave us the knowledge, power and confidence to look beyond the traditional cable access market. Perhaps most importantly, his past experiences gave him a direct sightline to the dedication of those that work across all these community media segments. He understood the need to innovate new technology solutions that helped our business, our customers, and the larger community find new ways to grow.”

Steve heads into retirement with the confidence that Cablecast has established its reputation as a leader in the market. That belief is supported though technology innovations that took the reach of community media stations beyond the analog cable TV systems once commonly considered as their last stand. He’s particularly proud of how the Cablecast brand grew beyond the dedicated cable playout automation box to support live streaming, video-on-demand and content delivery to free Cablecast apps available on mobile/OTT devices.

Steve has also played an active development role for a new Cablecast solution he expects will open new doors for the brand upon its introduction next year, adding that the spirit behind its development represents Cablecast’s greatest company strength.

“The Cablecast team has always excelled at understanding the needs of our customers,” said Israelsky. “We actively listen and apply what we learn to product development and other initiatives. We maintain fair pricing to remain aligned with the reality of their budgets. These tenets were established in the early days of the company. I later carried them to the Cablecast business, where they have been faithfully adopted by others who has since joined this staff. The company culture is unlike any I’ve seen, and it has truly been a great place to work.”