Dr. Frank Stanton

I joined CBS in 1968, as Director, International Sales, CBS Enterprises. I had been a Vice President at Screen Gems International located a couple of blocks north, and one block east of the CBS headquarters in "Blackrock," yet it was like moving from 12th Avenue to Park Avenue to work for this class company.

In 1970, Nixon's FCC had forced CBS to relinquish its syndication unit (Enterprises) which was to be spun out into Viacom. Paranoids like me were and are convinced that the FCC's rulings were purely political, and contained a message to all broadcasters, but to CBS in particular that they should not oppose the war in Vietnam. It is now over 35 tears later, and the networks are owned by GE, News Corp, Viacom, and The Walt Disney Company, and they will not say very much if anything that might be construed as critical about our current war.

I was involved in the selling the CBS News and documentary programs overseas, an interesting and exciting activity.

I was called one morning by a very senior officer at our company and instructed to be in Dr. Stanton's office at 3pm that afternoon to discuss "domestic news sales" which I knew nothing about. When I complained, the executive told me that everyone else was out of town and "I was it!"

To make a silly metaphor of the situation, it was like the President of the Unites States wanting to speak about something regarding the Pentagon, and the only person available at the time was a junior civil servant from the Department of Agriculture...

At 3pm I was waiting outside of Dr. Stanton's office, overwhelmed with the idea of meeting him in order to discuss something I knew nothing about. I was ushered into his magnificent office by his secretary who introduced me to him by saying: "Dr. Stanton, this is Mr. Horowitz," and he walked out from behind his desk to shake my hand and say, "Mr. Horowitz, I am so pleased to meet you, please have a seat. We sat across a glass coffee table from one another, and he asked me what my thoughts were regarding CBS News Distribution. I replied that I had no knowledge of domestic distribution, and that I was only involved in international distribution. He smiled and said, "Mr. Horowitz, that is exactly what I wanted to speak to you about, but he understood what happens to requests of this sort when they are passed along through the chain of command of a big company. I told him that had I known what he wanted I would have been better prepared.

In order to put me at ease he related a story of when he worked in research, and people were always asking him questions about the population of various cities in America. He went on to tell me that for $1 he bought a World Almanac, and became known as the smartest person on his floor. He said that memorizing information did not matter at all, and what mattered was to know where to find it and know what to do with it when you did. It was a great comment.

I was pleased to hear him ask me what I thought about how CBS News and Documentary output was received throughout the world. We spent the next couple of hours discussing the subject, and while he was certainly was concerned about the economic impact of the change, he was more interested in the worldwide availability of CBS News.

I suggested to him that while we sold this content for money, it was more important to us then selling another re-run of I Love Lucy. We represented CBS News, and they were the best at doing what they did in the news and documentary area.

We spoke about the FCC Financial Interest and Syndication rulings, and he was genuinely interested in what I had to say, and that was very nice for me, and a departure from most of my other meetings with senior people at CBS.

As I was leaving his office, he thanked me for me insights and my time and suggested if I had ant further thoughts on the matter to call him directly and not go through "the chain of command."

This meeting took place about 36 years ago, and I have always remembered his charm and grace, and the other interesting things we discussed in my only one on one meeting with him.

I can only think of the "good old days" when a network like CBS, and executives like Bill Paley and Frank Stanton could stand up to the congress and the president from time to time in order to continue to report to America just what they thought was going on.

Frank Stanton will be missed, not because he died, but because he "stood for something important," during his life and only let the feds push him around some of the time.

Norman Horowitz
CBS 1968-1970