I FIRST MET Bob Bennett in 1995 in Los Angeles, when a friend of mine suggested that I meet him. This friend went on to tell me that he felt strongly about getting the two of us together because, as he put it, “You and Bob speak the same language.” I did not know who Bob Bennett was at the time, nor did I know what language we had in common, but I took his telephone number and called to introduce myself. Bob agreed to meet me, and our first meeting was very congenial. We asked one another questions as to who we were, what we did, and what projects we were working on. I remember him telling me that he was financing three full-length films all at once out of his own pocket, and that he owned a film library. He spoke very little about his background in television, and he never really explained to me what his previous accomplishments were. I didn’t realize at the time that he was the man behind one of the most respected and honored television stations in the country, WCVB-TV Boston.
Even though I grew up in Boston, I had not heard of Bob Bennett. He came to Boston in 1971 to become General Manager of WCVB-TV, and it was not too long afterwards that I moved to New York City. Under the leadership of one man, WCVB-TV was about to offer some very new and exciting original local programming. The new WCVB-TV was to become a television station that responded to the needs of local viewers, yet showed such originality that other station managers across the country were forced to sit up and take notice, even if they didn’t want to. The person who was leading that charge was Bob Bennett. In many ways, Bob forever changed the face of local television and made it into something original, exciting, and very much tied in with the local community. As a previous WCVB-TV sales executive put it to me, “Local programming was in our DNA.”
If you really wanted to find out what was going on in Boston, and for that matter in New England, you turned your channel to WCVB-TV. Bob’s unique slant on original local programming struck a meaningful chord with viewers. He had already done similar things when he was General Manager in Washington, D.C., at WTTG-TV, and then in New York as General Manager of WNEW-TV, but it was in Boston where he perfected and set the stage for what local television was to become, and what he was to become—the pioneer of local broadcasting. He made a programming commitment to the community that garnered such devotion and loyalty from viewers that the station’s ratings were sky high over and over again.
In many ways, Bob Bennett was the man behind John Kluge, who helped build Metromedia into the powerhouse that it once was. John was in some ways low profile and almost invisible. Bob was the voice of Metromedia. It was his job to speak directly to Wall Street.
Today, Bob Bennett is not a household name, nor is he remembered to any great degree by the younger generation working in the broadcast world. In some ways he believes that his legacy is folded up somewhere in time and forgotten—that he was a product of another time and another generation. But he has vowed to stay current, and today he works with a group of innovative people on the launching of a global, live, Web-based, business-to-business video news network.
This is the book about a man who came from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and by sheer luck and hard work, carved out a career in the broadcast business as one of the most celebrated broadcasters ever. This is a book about the celebration of his accomplishments, his thoughts and reflections on his life, and the shared memories of his close friends and colleagues. Many remember him as a “lion” in the broadcast world. He thinks of himself as an enabler. “I like to give people a chance to do their jobs and to do them well,” he has said on many occasions. He is highly competitive and does not like to lose at anything. He loves the television business and has a great passion for it.
During his career, he had the foresight and the constant urge to try something different and to surround himself with the best possible people he could find. His career weaved in and out of three major television markets, and he has left behind an impressive list of accomplishments that people today are still trying to emulate. He is known for his warm personality and for his ability to get people to believe in themselves and to do the best possible job they can do. There is a certain sense of magic and popularity about him that inspires people to live up to his standards. In many ways, they want to succeed because of him.
In trying to gain a true understanding of people’s interpretations of Bob, I have usually started my interviews with one very basic question: “In your mind, what is it about Bob Bennett that has made him able to achieve such great success in his life?” The answer always came back the same: “Bob Bennett is the very rare individual who has the ability to make you feel that when he is talking to you, you are the only person in the world and that you are his equal.” Everyone I came in contact with told me he is the most likeable person they have ever met.
In many ways, the Bob Bennett who pioneered local programming back then could not exist in today’s corporate world where individual personalities mean very little, if anything at all. He was fortunate to have been around in a time that was truly the Golden Age of Television, and thankful to have had the opportunity to work with such people as John Kluge. In relation to WCVB-TV, he considers himself fortunate to have had a group of investors, board members, and owners who thought their major job was to bring quality television programming to their viewers, not just to make a lot of money. It was in this world that Bob Bennett lived and thrived.
He has been rewarded by the television industry in many ways and is the recipient of many coveted awards that include the following: Broadcasting Cable Hall of Fame, National Television Academy Management Hall of Fame, 1985 NAPTE President’s Award, MDA Paragon Award, New England Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Emmy Award for Outstanding Leadership and Innovation, ABC Leadership Award, NAPTE International President’s Award, Variety Club Heart and Charity Award, Peabody Award and the 2005 National Association of Broadcasters Pioneer Award, as well as Bryant College and Stone Hill College both having bestowed upon him honorary doctorate awards.
Bob Bennett is truly a remarkable and unique individual. The television world he was a part of was responsive first to the problems, needs, and interests of its viewers, and second to its profits. In many ways, that world does not exist anymore. The digital age is now upon us and he is making sure there is a role in it for him. He is a man with a great passion for television and we are all grateful recipients of his life’s work.
—Dennis Richard
Los Angeles, CA