Frank Stanton Is Dead

Nope, I'd never heard of him either. But he's clearly a titan in the world of television and as responsible as William S. Paley for the dominance CBS enjoyed as the Tiffany Network for so many years. (Once upon a time, CBS was the network that always aired the highest quality shows. Then it was NBC. Now it's...HBO? FOX? No one?) Stanton pioneered audience measurements in radio and what would become a template for Nielsen in TV, expanded the evening news, fought with the government during 'Nam and the criticism of TV's role in covering that war and faltered when it came to the communist scare in the Fifties. A cool customer, I like that his final instructions were that absolutely no memorial service should be held and no donations in his name be made.