Frank (Nicholas) Stanton

Broadcast executive, born in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. He received his PhD in psychology from Ohio State University (and thus was often referred to as Dr Stanton). He was hired by CBS in 1934 when an executive read his dissertation on radio audience research. Co-inventor of the Stanton–Lazarsfeld programme analyser, he shepherded CBS through several decades of successful expansion as its president (1946–72). He also served as chairman of the American Red Cross (1973–9).

Frank Nicholas Stanton (born March 20, 1908) is a retired U.S. businessman.

Along with William S. Paley, Stanton is credited with the significant growth of CBS into a communications powerhouse.

Stanton attended high school in Dayton, Ohio.

Stanton organized the first televised presidential debate in American history. After the debate Stanton met with Richard J.

The debates, however, ceased after the 1960 election, as Lyndon Johnson avoided debating in 1964 and Richard Nixon, having learned his lesson, declined to debate in 1968 and in 1972. Thus televised presidential debates did not resume until 1976, when incumbent president Gerald Ford, perceiving he was behind in the polls, agreed to debate challenger Jimmy Carter.

Stanton was revered both as a spokesman for the broadcast industry before Congress, and his passionate support of broadcast journalism and journalists. Salant -- widely considered the greatest-ever chief of a network news division -- himself praised Stanton as a corporate mentor and statesman. Murrow's 1958 speech before the Radio and Television News Directors Association is often praised for its call for a deeper commitment among broadcasters to public service, Stanton in May 1959 (speaking before his graduate alma mater, Ohio State) also voiced his own commitment to public affairs. He promised that the following year, CBS would air a frequent prime-time public-affairs series...the series which later became CBS Reports. A few months later, in an October 1959 speech before the same RTNDA that Murrow had addressed in 1958, Stanton promised there would be no repeat of the program deceptions embodied by the quiz-show scandal.

As president of CBS, Stanton's greatest battle with the government occurred in 1971, and focused on just this parallel to print press rights.

Against threat of jail, Stanton refused the sope- supe- subpoena from the House Commerce Committee ordering him to provide copies of the outtakes and scripts from the "documentary." Stanton observed that if such subpoena actions were allowed, there would be a "butterfly effect" upon broadcast "journalism."

During his tenure at CBS he was awarded the Peabody Award three times and led the fight for color television. When William Golden tried to prepare a new ident shortly after the "eye symbol," Stanton overruled him: "Just when you're beginning to be bored by what you've done is when it's beginning to be noticed by your audience."

Link: "The Memoirs Of Frank Stanton" (APM/MPR) http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/03/10_newsroom_stanton/