Radio and Broadcast Television^©

Today, radio and television are commonplace. We take them for granted as if they had been with us forever. In historic terms, they are relatively young. Radio did not arrive until the 1920s, and television, conceived shortly after radio, was not available to significant audiences until the late 1940s and early '50s. Before them, only the telephone (1870s) and telegraph (1840s) allowed instant communications over long distances, and both were "point to point," allowing only one person to be in touch with one other person.

It was the application of "voice" to Marconi's wireless invention that allowed simultaneous communications to anyone who "tuned in" within range of the "broadcast." With that, everything changed. As suggested by his biography (above), the man who saw this most clearly was David Sarnoff. He was foremost among a number of Jews who largely developed the technologies, products and organizations which made today's radio and television available to the public. In that sense, Jews were as disproportionately involved in radio and television as they were in motion pictures.

Two exhibits make this case. Exhibit 15a shows the inductees into the Radio Hall of Fame. Of its 108 members, at least nineteen (18 percent) are Jews. Representation is even higher in the Television Hall of Fame (Exhibit 15b)which includes thirty-nine Jews among its 108 members (36 percent.) In fact their importance in the early era of television is further demonstrated in the five Jews counted among the first seven inductees.

One way of looking at the growth of radio and television involves the creation of the major networks. They were the vehicle that made radio and television into national, and later international, mediums. Sarnoff realized that organizing local stations into a system of affiliates (a "network") allowed programming and advertising to benefit from economies of scale and the simultaneous transmission of programs to "coast to coast" audiences.

Over the first few years, there were only three significant networks: NBC Red, NBC Blue, and what we now call CBS. Later, in 1934, the Mutual Broadcasting System was created, followed by Dumont (1946) and the Liberty Broadcasting System (1946). In 1943, NBC was forced to sell NBC Blue and it became today's ABC. Of those six, three (Mutual, Dumont, and Liberty) soon died out. Only NBC, CBS and ABC remained until the 1980s when cable and satellite, facilitated the creation of CNN, Fox, Warner, and others. Of the three original networks, all three had Jewish roots.

National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC): As covered in the brief bio (above), NBC was David Sarnoff's creation. He was the first to see the benefits from establishing a national network. After the sale of NBC Blue, NBC (The "Red" designation disappeared), was a strong national radio network which carried its prominence over into television. For forty years, NBC was one of America's "big three" networks. And in one of those interesting ironies of Wall Street, NBC has recently returned to its roots. It is a subsidiary of GE, RCA's most important shareholder when RCA created NBC.

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS): Arthur Judson, a leading talent agent, was miffed that David Sarnoff had failed to include any of his stars among the NBC roster. In 1927, with help from the Levy brothers of Philadelphia, Judson founded the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System. Within a year of its first broadcast, the Company was nearly bankrupt with only sixteen affiliate radio stations. Judson sold out to Jerome Loucheim, Ike, and Leon Levy (who was engaged William Paley's sister.) Paley was the son of Ukranian Jewish immigrants and a second generation cigar maker.

Twenty seven years old, Paley discovered radio advertising helped him sell cigars and he was sufficiently well off that in January 1929, he bought majority control for $400,000 and renamed it the Columbia Broadcasting System. Through the '30s, Paley expanded CBS. He pioneered the offer of free programming to affiliate stations in exchange for an option to sell advertising, which he sold in huge chunks. He had an unerring eye for talent, signing up Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Lucille Ball, and Ed Sullivan. He also showed his survival skills by cutting a depression era deal with Abraham Zukor of Paramount. It helped keep Columbia afloat through the tough times.

From 1955 on, Paley's talent and instincts for popular programming such as "I Love Lucy," and "The Ed Sullivan Show" made CBS the ratings leader for twenty one years.

Paley also pioneered first rate news coverage encouraging the reporting of Edward R. Murrow and historian William Shire during World War II. They, in turn, fathered a generation of excellent successors including: Eric Sevaried, Howard K. Smith, and later, Walter Cronkite.

Despite the failure of the innovative CBS approach to color television, the same CBS inventor, Peter Goldmark, next created the long playing 33 rpm record. It helped make CBS Records America's leading record company.

Until non-Jew Ted Turner arrived on the scene in 1986 and threatened a takeover, CBS was Paley's fiefdom. Responding to Turner's takeover attempt, Paley turned over control to Lawrence Tisch who had purchased 25 percent of CBS's stock. Tisch ran CBS until 1995 when Westinghouse bought it. A few years later, in a deal that brought Paramount and CBS back together as siblings, Sumner Redstone's Viacom, took over CBS. For a time, Viacom's Mel Karmazin served as President. As such, CBS has remained under Jewish management in one form or another for nearly its entire existence.

American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): As noted in the discussion of NBC, FCC pressure led to the $8 million sale of NBC-Blue to the non-Jew, Edward J. Noble in 1943. He bought it with money earned from his Lifesavers Candy Company. Noble changed the name to American Broadcasting Systems, and later American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

Though ABC's radio network was profitable, by 1951 the costs of developing television were nearly bankrupting it. ABC had only forty of the country's 300 television stations as part of its network and NBC and CBS were dominant as Dumont slid out of existence. Noble sold ABC to Leonard Goldenson and his United Paramount theater chain for $25 million.

In 1954, Goldenson struck a deal that foreshadowed, in reverse, the Disney/ABC merger of 1996. In 1954, it was Walt Disney who approached ABC with his proposal for ABC to provide him with the financing he needed to complete the construction of Disneyland. From those negotiations arose a partnership in which, Goldenson/ABC sold its movie theaters and lent Disney $15 million for 35% of Disneyland. ABC also paid $35 million in license fees for "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "The Wonderful World of Disney" TV series. "Mickey Mouse Club" became the daytime hit with children and "Wonderful World" did the same for children and adults at night.

In 1960, Goldenson brought in non-Jew, Roone Arledge and by 1961, "ABC's Wide World of Sports" began to transform sports programming into popular fare with ABC as its leading producer. Arledge followed "Wide World" up with "Monday Night Football" and superb coverage of major sporting events such as the Olympics.

Goldenson also brought in very popular Warner Brothers shows such as "Maverick" and "77 Sunset Strip," and in 1975, he recruited Fred Silverman from CBS where he had been a great success. Silverman developed such popular shows as "Starsky and Hutch," "Rich Man Poor Man," and "Charlie's Angels." They took ABC on top and Silverman to the cover of Time Magazine. By the mid 70s, ABC was consistently the Number 1 or Number 2 network.

The advent of cable and later satellite broadcasting began to hit ABC's rankings (and profits) and by 1986, the eighty year old Goldenson was ready to end his 35 year reign. He accepted an offer to merge ABC into Capital Cities in a deal that valued ABC at $3.5 billion. Ten years later, in 1996, Michael Eisner (a successful ABC executive from 1966 to 1976), reunited ABC with Disney in, what was, to its time, the second largest merger in American History. The difference this time was that this time it was Disney, not ABC, that ended up in control.

Newer Broadcast, Cable, Satellite and Internet Networks

Fox Broadcasting Company: Fox is the creation of non-Jew, Rupert Murdoch, who acquired seven big city, "Metromedia" stations from another non-Jew, John Kluge. But it was Barry Diller, as Fox Broadcasting's CEO, who launched the infant fourth television network in 1987. In 1969, when he was only 27, Diller helped revive ABC's ratings by launching the hit "ABC's Movie of the Week" program. Within four years, he was ABC's Vice President of Prime Time TV. At age 32, he left ABC to become Chairman of Paramount Pictures. He led it for ten years until he joined Murdoch in 1985.

Diller's task for Murdoch was to create a fourth network which he did by purchasing Metromedia Television from Kluge and building on that base. Diller began with only two nights of prime time broadcasting each week, but his success with low budget shows like "America's Most Wanted," "Married--with Children," and "The Simpsons," made Fox into a significant force and that, plus programming directed at younger audiences, led to today's Fox network. Diller left Fox in 1992 and now leads IAC/Interactive Corp, a major Internet company covered in a later chapter.

Fox is part of Murdoch's huge News Corporation and through it, is affiliated with sibling Fox News (broadcast via Cable and Satellite). In 2005, Fox won the ratings race against NBC, ABC and CBS. Fox News has matched it, leading ratings in the 24 hour news format, consistently beating out CNN, MSNBC and CNBC. Among other parts of the News Corporation family are 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Fox Sports, DirecTV, and Harper Collins publishers. Serving as Murdoch's Number 2 is Peter Chernin. He is President and COO of News Corporation and Fox Entertainment and he also serves as Chairman and CEO of Fox Group (News Corporation's North American Operations.)

Viacom: This is a company so diverse it could be included as a broadcast television and radio enterprise, movie production company, movie theater operator, book publisher, music publisher, video distributor, entertainment park operator, or outdoor advertising firm. Because of its strong presence in broadcast and cable TV, (ownership of CBS, Viacom Television Group, and cable channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, and others), its principle coverage is here.

Sumner Redstone, born Summer Murray Rothstein, was first in his class from prep school. He graduated from Harvard in three years and was hand picked to work in the World War II intelligence unit that cracked the Japanese code. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1947, and several years in private practice, he began to work in his family's drive-in movie theater business.

He built the company from 12 theaters to 855. Already in his 60s, he then launched a major effort to expand and diversify through acquisitions. He bought control of Viacom and that gave him the base from which he has further expanded to include:

• CBS Television (discussed above)
• Viacom Television Stations Group
• Cable TV channels including: MTV, Nickelodeon BET, Nick at Nite, VH1, Spike TV, Noggin, CMT, Comedy Central, Showtime, Flix, The Movie Channel, Sundance Channel, TV Land and Noggin.
• Infinity Broadcasting, one of the largest radio operators in the United States
• UPN (United Paramount Network)
• Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television and Paramount Home Entertainment
• Blockbuster
• Viacom Outdoor, in outdoor advertising
• Paramount Parks
• Famous Players Theaters
• Simon & Schuster
• And a host of Internet sites

Viacom has become a major American force in "media" and with that, Redstone is among the country's most powerful business figures.

Redstone is also benefactor of numerous charitable causes including the Massachusetts General Hospital Burn Center, the Dana Farber Cancer Center, Children's Cancer Research, the American Cancer Crusade, and he actively supports The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.

Comcast: Ralph J. Roberts, Julian A. Brodsky and Daniel Aaron founded Comcast in 1963 to buy a tiny, 1,200 subscriber, Tupelo, Mississippi cable system. Ralph, the trio's leader, had prior success as the entrepreneur in a men's belt and jewelry business. With his two partners, he built the business, gave it a new name (Comcast) and, in 1972, took it public.

In 1986 Comcast began a series of purchases, sales and joint ventures that ultimately made it the Nation's largest cable operator. Along the way, in 1986, Comcast became a founding shareholder in QVC, the shopping channel. After expanding that stake and effectively running the business, they sold it to Liberty Media in 2003, netting $7.9 billion. For a time, they were in the cellular (wireless) telephone business. It was a venture they sold to SBC Communications for $1.7 billion. In addition, they acquired the NHL Philadelphia Flyers and NBA Philadelphia 76s; bought controlling interest in E!, Style, the Golf Channel, Outdoor Life and G4 (a gamer's channel), and accepted $1 billion from Microsoft for what is now Microsoft's 7.4 percent stake in Comcast Class A shares. In addition, Comcast bought AT&T's cable TV properties.

Comcast is now twice the size of its nearest rival, Time Warner Cable, and it owns 21 percent of Time Warner Cable. It is also the largest U.S. provider of high-speed Internet access.

Running all this is Brian Roberts, Ralph's son, a shy, mid 40s CEO who has headed the Company since being named its president in 1990 when he was 30. He began his career at the Company in 1981, fresh out of Wharton, by climbing poles and hanging cable. Though he was a founder's son, his father insisted he begin at the bottom and he did.

With 2004 revenues of $20.3 billion and a market value north of $70 billion, Comcast is the biggest and strongest Company in cable (8.7 million households) and high-speed Internet (7.0 million subscribers), and in 2003, Institutional Investor magazine named Roberts one of America's best CEOs.

Suburban Cable: H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest was already a successful lawyer and executive with Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications (he was running Seventeen Magazine) when he decided to buy Suburban Cable in 1974. He borrowed $2.3 million and took over a 7,600 subscriber system serving Lebanon, Pennsylvania. When he finally sold it to Comcast in 2000, it served 1.2 million people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Lenfest and his wife, Marguerite, made $1.2 billion which they are now in the process of giving away. They rejected a perpetual trust and intend for all the money to be donated to worthy causes within twenty years of their death. Mercersburg Academy, where Lenfest went to school, has already received $33 million. The Philadelphia Museum of art, $17 million, the Barnes Foundation, $15 million, with lesser amounts going to such beneficiaries as Columbia University Law School, Temple University and Washington and Lee.

Time Warner: Like Viacom, Time operates in so many different businesses, it could rightly be covered in several chapters. It is a leading publisher, movie maker, cable network, Internet service provider and a whole lot more. Because of the roles of Steven J. Ross and Gerald Levin, in moving Time into cable and satellite television, its principal coverage is here.

Time Magazine was created in 1923 by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden (both non-Jews). Hadden died six years later leaving Luce in sole charge of the Company for more nearly forty years. Luce launched Fortune, Life Magazine, and the March of Time newsreels in the 1930s. Sports Illustrated and House and Home came later (in the 50s) when Time also made its first television investment (KOB TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico). Before Luce died in 1967, he had also taken Time into book publishing.

In 1979, Warner-Seven Arts was taken over by Kinney National, which had earlier combined the parking lot business of Ceasar Kinney with the funeral home operations of Steven J. Ross. Ross became the head of Warner. Despite a resume bereft of media experience, Ross restructured and diversified Warner. In his early years, he added computers (Atari), perfumes, cosmetics, and professional baseball and soccer. He later reversed course, refocusing Warner on the production and distribution of films, video and television, recorded music and publishing.

In 1972, Time purchased Home Box Office (HBO) and Gerald Levin joined that Division. By 1975, he was HBO's chairman and in that post, he pioneered satellite distribution of premium cable channels and programming. His success with that decision revolutionized the business and led to a huge increase in the number of cable channels delivered to consumers via satellite. It also contributed to his becoming Time's Vice Chairman by 1988.

That same year, Time merged with Warner Communications and Steven J. Ross was soon Time Warner's CEO with Levin as his Number 2. Ross immediately went after opportunities where Warner or Time properties could benefit from their new siblings. When Ross died unexpectedly in 1992, Levin became CEO.

In 1994, as Levin was expanding through acquisitions including Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, Edgar Bronfman Jr's Seagram Company bought 14.5 percent of Time Warner. Levin ran Time Warner until 2000, when he merged it with AOL and with that, non-Jew Steven Case, became Chairman. Difficulties arising from the AOL merger ultimately caused Levin to step down as CEO in May 2002.

The combined Time Warner Business he left behind includes:

• Time Warner Cable
• Home Box Office
• Turner Broadcasting producing and distributing more than 30 leading cable channels such as CNN, Turner Classic Movies, and Cartoon Network. Turner also owns the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks
• Warner Brothers Entertainment, encompassing: Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Castle Rock Entertainment, DC Comics, Warner Home Video and other film and television production companies.
• New Line Cinema
• Time Warner Book Group which includes Little Brown, Warner Books, Bullfinch Press, and other publishing operations.
• Time Inc. publisher of more than 130 magazines
• AOL

Broadcast.com and HDNet: Mark Cuban grew up poor. He was the son of Russian Jewish emigrants in blue collar Pittsburgh, but he had a native talent for salesmanship (selling garbage bags, greeting cards and magazines, door-to-door, from the time he was 12.) He was also a bright student. At the University of Indiana, he started a chain letter and gave disco dancing lessons to pay for school. In 1983, after graduating, despite neither owning nor knowing much about computers, he started a computer consulting firm, MicroSolutions.

Self-taught from having to learn how to perform on the promises he made to customers, Cuban built MicroSolutions into a $30 million a year company before selling it to Compuserve. With that sale, he was set for life and no longer needed to work. He kicked back for a few years, but returned, in 1995, with partner Todd R. Wagner (not known to be Jewish) to create a new business using the Internet as a broadcasting medium.

As the story goes, Cuban wanted a way to listen to Indiana basketball anywhere he traveled. He came up with a way to put a Dallas, Texas broadcast onto the Internet so anyone with an Internet connection could "tune in." His service was not the first. Internet radio had begun with Carl Malamud's 1993 "Talk Radio" and several other stations appeared in 1995. But it was Cuban and Wagner's effort (later named Broadcast.com) that caught on with its streaming audio and video. With that, today's Internet broadcasting was born.

Three years later, they took Broadcast.com public. It was a roaring success during those halcyon days for anything with a .com in its name. A year later, Yahoo! bought it for $5.7 billion. Cuban and Wagner were billionaires. Today, Yahoo offers parts of the former Broadcast.com service as Yahoo! Plus and other parts as SBC Yahoo! DSL.

At first, Cuban focused his attention on his Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He is a brash, avid, courtside presence whose outbursts and antics have cost him an estimated $1 million in fines. At the same time, his savvy marketing and recruiting of top talent has converted the Mavericks from a perennial loser into a contender. He is still the charismatic leader of that team.

But ever at the forefront, Cuban has also launched two new media ventures. One, with Wagner, involves the purchase of Landmark Theaters, a large American chain of "art-house" movie theaters. The second, HDNet, is today's foremost independent provider of high definition television programming. Its digital programs are transmitted to HD ready television sets via cable, satellite and conventional "over the air" broadcasts. To provide programming, Cuban has contracted with six major studios to convert selected movies from film to digital format so he can show them in Landmark Theaters or on HDNet, HDNet also produces its own high definition programs.

Even as traditional networks and providers expand into the digital age, it is clear that Cuban has now positioned himself as a leader in the new era digital high definition. And with that, we "round the circle" from Sarnoff to Cuban. Jews continue to be leaders in the development of radio and television.

Content

This chapter has told the story of Jewish leadership in radio and television from the perspective of the ways they are distributed to consumers via broadcast networks, cable, satellite, and now, in digital form, over those media and the Internet. That perspective misses the equally compelling story of their role in creating content. And while significant parts of those efforts overlap with the creation of content for movies and performing arts, it would be unfortunate to not at least identify some of the more prominent Jews among the leading writers, producers, and directors of radio and television fare.

Gertrude Berg, was the quintessential "Jewish mother." She began in 1929 with a six day a week radio series which she wrote, produced directed and starred in. Five thousand radio and television episodes later, the series ended in 1954. She also wrote and appeared in movies and on the Broadway stage.

Herb Brodkin produced twenty-four television series, mini-series and movies over his forty years in television. His Playhouse 90 and Studio One are classics of television's "Golden Age."

Himan Brown, produced such radio fare as Dick Tracy, Bulldog Drummond, Nero Wolfe, Grand Central Station, Inner Sanctum, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and the Adventures of the Thin Man.

Paddy Chayefsky began writing short stories and scripts for radio in the 1940s. He transitioned to television during its "golden age," when he created four TV series and twelve TV plays. One of them, Marty, later won an Academy Award as a film. Marty was only one of the twelve movies for which he wrote or co-wrote the screenplay

Norman Corwin, wrote hundreds of radio programs. He was the writer called when FDR wanted a special program to celebrate the Bill of Rights immediately after Pearl Harbor. We Hold These Truths was broadcast live on all four major radio networks on December 15, 1941.

John Frankenheimer directed such television series, mini-series and made for television movies as You Are There, Playhouse 90 and Studio One, in addition to his twenty five films including Manchurian Candidate and Birdman of Alcatraz.

Fred Friendly began as a radio producer during the depression. Starting with Edward R. Murrow, he became one of televisions foremost news and documentary producers which led to his 1960's role as President of CBS News

Larry Gelbart wrote, or wrote and produced, radio shows for Fanny Brice, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope, and others before moving on to television where he created MAS*H, The Red Buttons Show, and eleven films.

Mark Goodson and partner Bill Todman, produced some of televisions most popular game shows including I've Got a Secret, What's My Line? To Tell the Truth, Concentration, Password, and The New Price is Right.

Karl Haas's, program, Adventures in Good Music, won two Peabody awards for radio broadcasting

Don Hewitt produced the first televised Presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. He went on the produce CBS news for fourteen years before creating, and for more than thirty years heading up, 60 Minutes.

Norman Lear created All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, One Day at a Time, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and numerous movies.

Sheldon Leonard was a writer, producer, director, and actor. Among the television series he produced were I Spy, Gomer Pyle, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Andy Griffith and sixteen more. He acted in twenty-seven films.

Richard Levinson and William Link teamed up to write and produce sixteen television series, twenty six made for TV movies, two films and two stage plays. Among them, Colombo, Mannix, The Fugitive, Murder She Wrote, and Hard Copy.

Shari Lewis earned twelve Emmys and a Peabody for her children's programs featuring such hand puppet characters as Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse.

Lorne Michaels is best known for Saturday Night Live which he created in 1975 and has produced for twenty four of its thirty seasons. In addition, he has written or produced eleven other television series and fifteen movies.

Haim Saban created the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Marvel Comics characters as animated television fare. His early success led to a combination with Fox, which ultimately became the Fox Family Channel, which was seen in 81 million homes. The Walt Disney Company acquired the Fox Family Channel in 2002.

Rod Serling is best known for The Twilight Zone which earned him one of his six Emmys. It was only one of the sixteen television plays and eight films that he wrote.

Fred Silverman was Executive Producer of such major 1980's series as Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, and the Perry Mason movies. He was also a major executive at CBS and ABC.

Aaron Spelling has created television programming for more than forty years. Among his major hits were Johnny Ringo, The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy island, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, and Melrose Place.

David Susskind produced fifteen major television programs between 1947 and 1970, nine television movies and eight films. From them, he earned a Peabody and forty-seven Emmys.

Brandon Tartikoff was President of NBC Entertainment for twelve years, conceived of The Cosby Show and shepherded Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice an others before leaving to head up Paramount Pictures.

Ed Weinberger wrote or produced such hit shows as Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Betty White Show, The Cosby Show and nine more

Tom Werner has been Executive Producer or Producer for twenty-five television series such as The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Cybil, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show, That '80s Show, Whoppi, and others.

Ethel Winant became television's first female executive when she was named a CBS Vice President in 1973. She began in casting for Studio One and Playhouse 90, but was soon developing such shows as Hawaii Five-O, Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes and Lost in Space. Such efforts won her two Emmys and a Peabody.

David Wolper was one of televisions most successful and prolific producers. His eighteen television series and miniseries, sixty three television specials and nineteen films made between 1958 and 1996 won him five Peabodys and forty Emmys.

Bud Yorkin produced or directed such hits as Maude, Sanford and Son and All in the Family

On Air Talent

As important as the writers, producers, and managers is the talent. Some of those shown on the following list have also appeared in films or in live performances. Moreover, many of them wrote their own material and produced their own shows. Were there space, each has a tale to tell. But by listing just some of the thousands of entertainers whose careers were mostly on radio or television, hopefully the material provides some sense of the significant Jewish contribution as "on-air" talent.