ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Decades before common access to the internet, the concept of electronic shopping at home was born in the Tampa Bay area.
In 1977, WWQT radio station owner Lowell "Bud" Paxson received more than a hundred can openers from an appliance dealer who couldn't, or wouldn't, pay his advertising bill. Paxson told his staff to sell those can openers. That led to a daily show called the Suncoast Bargaineers' Club. Around 1982, the concept expanded to a local cable channel in Clearwater. In 1985, after real estate developer Roy Speer took a controlling stake, the Home Shopping Channel became the Home Shopping Network, taking orders nationwide.
The business spawned from that channel -- HSN -- became a publicly traded company through an IPO. At one time it was at one time one of Pinellas County's largest employers.
Those days are coming to an end.
Qurate Retail, which now owns HSN and onetime rival QVC, announced Wednesday that it's closing HSN's St. Petersburg campus and moving operations to Pennsylvania.
Bob Circosta was on the air August 28, 1977, when he got the order from Paxson to sell avocado green can openers, with a commission of one dollar apiece. He continued selling as the Bargaineers moved to TV and went nationwide. It changed his life trajectory. Circosta says the selling style of HSN -- looking into the camera, explaining the product, and connecting with customers who called in -- foreshadowed today's social media influencers.
"They talk about engagement with the viewer. We were doing that back in the Eighties. We were engaging, interacting with the viewer," Circosta said.
It's not clear how many employees are affected by the move. A search of Florida's WARN notice page reveals no mention of the change.
Listen to an interview with pioneering HSN host Bob Circosta below.
Photo: Canva