Vic Piano, along with his brother Claude, was the founder and the operator of the Mizlou Television Network

Mizlou Television Network

The Mizlou Television Network was an early syndicator of sports television in the United States. It was founded in 1961 by brothers Claude and Vic Piano. Its first telecast was of the 1968 Peach Bowl football game....

, a leading Independent TV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 Network that was started in 1968. The Network was founded by Piano to offer the Peach Bowl

Chick-fil-A Bowl

The Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly called the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, and before that simply called the Peach Bowl, is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. The first three Peach Bowls were played at Grant Field on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta....

 college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 game to Independent Stations. The success of that telecast on December 31, 1968 led to Mizlou becoming the leading independent TV network in the 1970s and 80's. College Bowl

College Bowl

College Bowl was a format of college-level quizbowl run and operated by College Bowl Company, Incorporated. It had a format similar to the current NAQT format. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953, and aired on US television from 1959 to 1970...

 games such as the Fiesta, Bluebonnet, Hall of Fame, Peach, Liberty, Freedom, Cherry, Garden State

Garden State

Garden State is the official nickname of the state of New Jersey in the United States.Other meanings include:* Garden State , a 2004 film written by, directed by, and starring Zach Braff** Garden State , the film's soundtrack...

, Tangerine, Holiday, California, All American

All-America

An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...

, Blue Gray, East West Shrine and Senior Bowls were all televised by Mizlou.

Piano also produced NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

, NIT Basketball, ABA Basketball, WCT TEnnis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, Pro Track, and Pro Bowling while at the Mizlou helm.

Piano began his TV career as a salesman and then executive with the PGW TV Advertising

Television advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

 Sales Representation organization, where he gained his advertising contacts for Mizlou. He then created a 'hard network' of TV cables connecting the USA via AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

. This gave Mizlou Television Network the capacity to not only feed their own shows on their network but others as well. For many years the Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...

Telethon was transmitted over the Mizlou configuration.

The advent of cable networks in the 1980s eroded the need for the Mizlou Network and by 1990 the physical network was disbanded, although Mizlou to this day produces programming under the helm of Vic Piano's son, Victor.

Vic Piano retired to his summer home in Georgia, where he lived until he died in 2006.