Seaton Schroeder, 66, Comcast VP

Seaton "Sam" Schroeder, 66, of Wallingford, a Comcast vice president, died Sunday of complications from leukemia at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Mr. Schroeder, who began his television career as a cameraman for American Bandstand in Philadelphia, was in charge of programming and operations when Comcast SportsNet was launched in Philadelphia in 1997. Two years later, CSN was the number-one cable network in the Philadelphia market. In creating CSN, he told a newspaper reporter that year, he and his staff borrowed from newspapers and other existing media but were careful to develop a new personality.

"We're in the entertainment business," he said. "We're doing sports, not Meet the Press. We want our journalism to be impeccable and fair, but we want to make sure we're having fun, too."

In 2002, Mr. Schroeder was appointed vice president and general manager of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Since February, he had been senior vice president of special projects.

Prior to joining Comcast, he was president of CCI Communications, a Philadelphia-area production company.

Mr. Schroeder grew up in Center City and attended Episcopal Academy. He graduated from Admiral Farragut Academy in Toms River, N.J., and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

After American Bandstand moved to Los Angeles in 1964, he joined WHYY-TV (Channel 12) and worked as a cameraman, audio technician, editor and producer.

He then was a manager at Prism in Philadelphia, where he met Donna Rodier Schroeder. They married in 1982. "He had a talent for hiring good people and then letting them do their job," she said. "He didn't micromanage."

He often told people that she was a bigger sports fan than he was, she said. His favorite spectator sport, she said, was their son Matthew's ice hockey games when he played in high school and for Delaware County clubs.

Mr. Schroeder sailed on the Chesapeake since the 1970s and for 20 years flew a private plane he co-owned.

He was past president of the Philadelphia Regional Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He served on the boards of the Police Athletic League and the Children's Charities Foundation.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Schroeder is survived by a stepson, David Soyka, and a stepdaughter, Danielle Soyka.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. John Chrysostom Church, 617 S. Providence Rd., Wallingford. Friends may call from 6 to 9 p.m. today at Carr Funeral Home, 935 S. Providence Rd., Wallingford.