Radio: At the End of the Rainbow

• Share

(5 of 7)

Two Strikes. By the time World War II began, Stanton was an administrative vice president in charge of research, sales, building construction, pressagentry, maintenance and operations. On the side, he supervised CBS-owned radio stations in Washington, Boston, New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, St. Louis and Los Angeles. Without apparent loss of either energy or effectiveness he also commuted several days a week to Washington as a wartime consultant to the Secretary of War and the Office of War Information.

Stanton's speedy rise at CBS was made with two strikes against him: 1) his academic background; 2) his training in research. In the brittle, fast-talking world of radio, college teachers are supposed to be unfit in business and, before Stanton, few research men had wandered from their charts and graphs to become policymakers. Pollster Elmo Roper thinks the explanation lies in Stanton's passion to make facts do something: "Frank knew that research was a doomed duck unless it was used to produce action."

CBS has long been noted for tireless activity and long hours, but the indefatigable Stanton produced so much action that, by contrast, the rest of the throbbing beehive seemed to be standing still. When President William Paley returned from the war, he was stunned to hear other vice presidents nominate Stanton to seniority at their own expense. Stanton became General Manager of CBS. In 1946, when Paley withdrew to the chairmanship of the board, Stanton stepped into the presidency.

Living with It. His biggest job as president has been the long color fight with RCA. Stanton's fight started with FCC hearings in 1946 when CBS petitioned for color TV in the ultra high frequencies. Stanton says of that time: "I was as naive as I was at college. I thought the FCC just had to see our color and it was all over." But the FCC rejected CBS's petition. Two years later, when the FCC ordered its freeze on the construction of new black & white stations, CBS was still scrambling to build its black & white TV network. As a result, there are still no CBS-owned stations in the big markets of the Midwest. In TV coverage, NBC is out in front.

Stanton was extremely effective in the 1949 hearings. Young (37), bush-haired Dick Salant, the lawyer who carried the legal ball for CBS during most of the hearings, particularly admires Stanton's composure under crossexamination. "Sarnoff made a terrific witness—he's an actor who knows exactly how to handle his audience," says Salant. "Stanton was entirely different. You don't have to prepare him. He never loses a fact once he's had it."

By living so constantly with color TV and CBS, Stanton has little time left over for living with himself. Occasionally, he gets away for weekend motor trips with his wife. He likes to drive at high speeds and to photograph the countryside (with a Zeiss Super Ikonta B). To avoid the traffic delays into and out of Manhattan, Stanton leaves one of his cars* in a city easily accessible by airlines, flies to and from it.