HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “Relentless: Bill Daniels and the Triumph of Cable TV.”

Author: Stephen Singular.

Publisher: The Bill Daniels Estate.

Price: $24.95.

Billionaire Bill Daniels, generally regarded as the father of cable television, also was the father of local sports television in Los Angeles. In 1985, he and Jerry Buss created Prime Ticket, the predecessor to Fox Sports Net.

Daniels, who died March 7, 2000, at 79, also was the owner of the Los Angeles Stars of the ABA, who moved to Utah in 1971 and won a league championship under coach Bill Sharman. The team declared bankruptcy in 1975. Years later, when Daniels had the resources, he paid off season-ticket holders and creditors.

Daniels’ life, generosity and integrity set him apart. He led quite a life, and it is chronicled in this recently released, 320-page book.

In the early 1950s, Daniels, after serving as a fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War, returned home to Hobbs, N.M., where he could have joined the family insurance business. But he set out on his own and headed for Casper, Wyo.

He stopped for lunch at a tavern in Denver, watched a fight on television, then later came up with the idea of running a cable from Denver to Casper. That enabled people in Casper to get Denver stations.

And, essentially, that was the start of cable television. It also marked the start of a career that made Daniels a rich man, enabling him to give millions to charity and share his wealth with his employees.

Former President Bush, in the book’s foreword, says, “Winston Churchill once said, ‘You make a living by what you earn, you make a life by what you give.’ By Churchill’s standard, Bill made quite a life.’ ”

-- Larry Stewart