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Ralph Baruch
Ralph Baruch
Ralph Baruch
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Rudolph Maximilian "Ralph" Baruch (August 5, 1923 – March 3, 2016) was a German-American CBS executive and the first president and chief executive of Viacom.

Key Information

Early life

[edit]

Baruch was born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923, but his family fled in the mid-1930s to Paris. His father returned to Germany, however, in 1938 to recruit spies for French counterintelligence services, and his name ended up on the Nazi most-wanted list. The Emergency Rescue Committee helped the family immigrate to New York City in 1940.[1]

Business career

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Baruch was hired in 1943 as an engineer at Empire Broadcasting, and later as an ad salesman at New York's DuMont Network affiliate and with the Los Angeles Times's Consolidated Television Film Sales in the eastern United States.[1]

In 1954, Baruch became an account executive for CBS Television Film Sales. He later became vice president of CBS and general manager of CBS Enterprises, the company's cable and television syndication division.[1]

Viacom

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Viacom was spun off from CBS in 1971 amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies.[2]

Under the Viacom brand, Baruch started cable networks including Showtime and Lifetime (originally known as The Cable Health Network). He took the title of chairman of Viacom in 1983, and later acquired Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which brought networks including MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel and VH1 into the portfolio.[1] He also was a co-founder of C-SPAN.[3]

Baruch played a leading role in getting Congress to pass the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, which deregulated the cable industry.[1]

In 1987, Sumner Redstone purchased Viacom and replaced Baruch as chairman, keeping him on only as a consultant.[1]

In 2006, Baruch was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame.[3]

Personal life

[edit]

Soon after coming to the United States, Baruch married 17-year-old Elizabeth "Lilo" Bachrach, who was also a refugee from Frankfurt. Bachrach died in 1959. Baruch later remarried to Jean Ursell de Mountford.[1]

Baruch was a former director and member of the executive committee of the National Cable Television Association; a founder of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; and a trustee of the Museum of Television and Radio and Lenox Hill Hospital. He was a co-founder, past chairman and chairman emeritus of the National Academy of Cable Programming, as well as past president of the International Radio and Television Society. He also served as vice chairman of Carnegie Hall from 1997 to 1999, and as a member of its executive committee.[3]

In addition to his Manhattan home, Baruch had a home in Bedford Hills, New York.[1]

In 2007, Baruch wrote a memoir entitled Television Tightrope: How I Escaped Hitler, Survived CBS and Fathered Viacom.[4][5]

References

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Ralph Baruch

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Ralph Baruch is an American media executive known for his leadership as the founding president and chief executive officer of Viacom, where he guided the company through its formative years and played a key role in expanding the cable television industry. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1923, Baruch fled Nazi persecution with his family in the mid-1930s, first to Paris, and immigrated to the United States in 1940, where he became a naturalized citizen. He began his career in broadcasting at CBS in the 1950s, eventually rising to vice president of CBS Enterprises, the division responsible for program syndication. When CBS spun off its syndication and cable operations to form Viacom in 1971, Baruch was appointed its first president and later CEO, positions he held until 1983. Under his tenure, Viacom grew from a modest syndication business into a major cable programming force, launching Showtime in 1976 and contributing to the development of cable television content and distribution. Baruch advocated for the industry through organizations like the Cable Television Administration and Marketing Society and received recognition for his contributions, including induction into the Cable Television Hall of Fame. After leaving Viacom, Baruch remained active as a consultant and industry advocate, later authoring the memoir "Television Tightrope: How I Escaped Hitler, Survived CBS and Fathered Viacom" reflecting on his experiences in media. He died in New York City on March 3, 2016, at the age of 92.

Early life

Childhood and family in Germany

Ralph Baruch was born Rudolph Maximilian Baruch on August 5, 1923, in Frankfurt, Germany, into a Jewish family during the height of the hyperinflation that plagued the Weimar Republic. His father, Bernard Baruch, was an internationally recognized attorney who specialized in international law and frequently appeared before the International Court in The Hague; he spoke nine languages in addition to Latin and Greek and had faced severe anti-Semitism before World War I, including fighting multiple saber and pistol duels over insults directed at Jewish students during his university years in Heidelberg. His mother, whose maiden name was Gunzenhauser, came from Munich, where her great-grandfather had risen from humble beginnings to own the Löwenbräu brewery. Baruch grew up in comfortable circumstances in Frankfurt, where the family employed a nanny and a cook, and he attended the Von Trapp School. He had an older brother born in 1920, who was regarded as the favored child, received more privileges such as educational trips, and demonstrated remarkable mathematical talent. The brother died in September 1936 at age 16 from complications following a bicycle accident earlier that year that fractured his femur. As a young child, Baruch contracted scarlet fever and nearly died from complications including temporary kidney failure. Rising anti-Semitism affected the family even before Hitler's full ascent to power. In 1932, at age nine, Baruch was attacked by eight or ten Hitler Youth members on his way home from school and sustained a knife wound below the knee that left a lasting scar. That same year, his father, a Social Democrat, struck a Nazi defendant who insulted him with anti-Semitic remarks in court, leading to charges; on April 1, 1933, amid the nationwide Jewish boycott, the father was tried for attempted murder, convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison but bribed his way out of jail that morning using judicial connections. Shortly after the Nazis took power in 1933, the Gestapo arrested Bernard Baruch in "protective custody" and severely beat him, knocking out teeth. Jewish students were expelled from regular schools, prompting Baruch and his brother to transfer to a Jewish school. The family fled Frankfurt in 1933.

Escape from Nazi persecution and immigration to the United States

Ralph Baruch's family fled Nazi Germany in 1933 following his father's arrest and severe beating by the Gestapo, arriving in Paris in June of that year after traveling through Saarbrücken and Strasbourg. In Paris, Baruch attended the Lycée Jean Baptiste de la Salle in Passy, where he learned French and adjusted to life as a refugee amid modest living conditions and limited resources. With German forces invading France in May 1940 and approaching Paris, Baruch—then 16 years old—organized the family's escape around June 6–7, 1940, days before the Germans entered the city. They left using a pushcart carrying suitcases, silver, jewelry, cash, and his 82-year-old grandmother seated atop it, with Baruch pulling the cart and his father pushing while his mother walked alongside. The group traveled south via the extended Paris subway, then joined massive refugee columns on foot, sleeping in barns and facing bombings, including an attack at Dourdan where Baruch hid his grandmother under a truck. They boarded a cattle car with Belgian refugees, rode until abandoned south of Tours, then hitched rides on French military trucks transporting airplane engines to Orléans, purchased a bus to reach Bordeaux amid heavy bombing, and continued by train and other means through the Pyrenees village of Accous—where Baruch recovered from dysentery—and other stops before arriving in Marseilles in late September 1940 after nearly three months of arduous travel. In Marseilles, the family obtained U.S. visitor visas through Baruch's aunt in New York and assistance from the Emergency Rescue Committee. Lacking French exit visas, they hired a guide and crossed the Pyrenees at night, with Baruch carrying his grandmother over the mountains; upon entering Spain near Figueras, they were briefly arrested for lacking Spanish visas but released after his father bribed officials. They then took trains from Figueras through Barcelona and Madrid to Lisbon, where they stayed with relatives before securing passage on the overcrowded Portuguese ship Nyassa—which carried 458 passengers despite its normal capacity of 200–300. The voyage lasted 10.5 days, docking in Hoboken, New York, in December 1940, where relatives met them.

Early career

Entry into broadcasting and initial positions

After immigrating to the United States in late 1940, Ralph Baruch took a series of entry-level jobs to support his family while his father recovered from illness. He first worked as a shipping clerk in shoe factories, earning 35 cents per hour, and also ushered on weekends at the Apollo Theater on 42nd Street, making $2.67 for two days of work. He later moved to another shoe factory in Brooklyn. Baruch entered the broadcasting and recording field in the mid-1940s as a recording engineer at Bost Records on West 57th Street in New York, where he taught himself the skills from a technical book provided by an NBC acquaintance. He subsequently joined Empire Broadcasting in a similar capacity, where he helped organize Local 1212 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and frequently handled studio mixing due to his strong ear for audio balance. During this time, he recorded pianist Jan August's "Bob-A-Loo" and "Mis-A-Loo," which became a major hit on Diamond Records, though August received only union scale pay. In late 1947, Baruch joined ASCAP to sell its transcription library to radio stations and act as a troubleshooter for stations resisting licensing agreements. He successfully negotiated a license deal with Westinghouse Broadcasting stations and attended the 1949 or 1950 NAB convention in Chicago before embarking on an extensive seven-week road trip to sign stations. He resigned after confronting management over working conditions. Baruch became a U.S. citizen in the late 1940s after a brief trip to Montreal arranged by the government to convert his visitor status to immigrant status, a process accelerated by his marriage to American citizen Elizabeth Bachrach shortly after his arrival. In approximately 1950, Baruch joined the DuMont Television Network as a local spot salesman for its New York affiliate WABD (Channel 5), earning a base salary of $75 per week plus 1% commission on sales. He sold sponsorships for programs including the Sunday Matinee movie series to Benton & Bowles on behalf of Best Foods and General Foods products. A major achievement was securing a large ten-second spot campaign for Carling Beer ("Hey Mabel, Black Label"), initially proposed as 70 spots per week for 52 weeks but finalized at 50 spots per week for 39 weeks firm, marking one of the largest such campaigns in New York at the time; he improvised visuals using red cellophane overlays due to equipment limitations. He remained in this role for four years under sales managers Theodore Bergman and Jack Bashan. In late 1953, Baruch moved to Consolidated Television Film Sales, the syndication arm associated with the Los Angeles Times' KTTV, where he worked in New York on acquiring and selling television programming rights for about eight months. When the company was sold, he declined full-time employment under the new owner and instead arranged part-time consulting, including half-time work distributing the English series Fabian of Scotland Yard. This consulting phase ended in April 1954 when he joined CBS.

Career at CBS

Joining CBS and syndication roles

Ralph Baruch joined CBS in April 1954 as an account executive at CBS Television Film Sales, the company's syndication division later known as CBS Films, where he sold programming to television stations primarily in eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New England. He worked with a modest lineup of syndicated series that included the Gene Autry show, Annie Oakley, The Range Rider, and Art Linkletter programs such as “Art Linkletter and the Kids.” His sales efforts proved effective despite initial skepticism about certain markets, and he built success by revisiting underserved stations and closing deals where predecessors had failed. Baruch continued to drive domestic syndication sales through the late 1950s, placing Whirlybirds—a series that began as a Desilu pilot intended for the CBS network but redirected to syndication—with Continental Oil for sponsorship across sixty to eighty markets on an alternate-week basis. He also handled The Gray Ghost, an adventure series focused on the Civil War era that achieved respectable placement among stations. These placements reflected his growing expertise in matching programs to advertiser and station needs amid the competitive early syndication landscape. His performance led to promotion as Eastern Sales Supervisor, a role he shared with Jim Victory, before advancing further within CBS Films. In 1967, after Sam Diggs departed for CBS Radio, Baruch was appointed Vice President and General Manager of CBS Enterprises, the restructured unit encompassing domestic syndication, cable television interests, merchandising and licensing activities, and the Terrytoons animation division. In this capacity, he oversaw broader operational challenges at the division amid evolving network priorities. In the late 1960s, Baruch cautioned CBS leadership about mounting FCC pressures that threatened network involvement in syndication and cable ownership, noting early rumblings in the mid-1960s and more serious regulatory actions by 1969 that ultimately prohibited such cross-ownership. He advocated internally for strategic concessions, such as relinquishing certain profit participations in programs to align with anticipated rules, though his arguments met resistance from network executives and counsel. In 1968, CBS President Frank Stanton sought his input on contingency plans should the company be forced to divest syndication operations. His role also expanded to include oversight of international sales growth during this period.

International sales and executive leadership

In 1959, Ralph Baruch was appointed head of CBS International, the company's international sales arm. He rebuilt the organization through extensive personal travel and by establishing direct representation and offices in major markets including Australia, Japan, Europe, and Latin America, shifting away from earlier reliance on intermediaries. In Europe, for example, CBS International set up its own representation funneled through Zurich, Switzerland, to facilitate independent operations. A notable effort during this period involved a 1959 trip to Australia, where Baruch visited station owners Frank Packer and Rupert Murdoch to challenge the existing cartel that controlled program acquisitions among the three major participants. This engagement laid the foundation for breaking the Packer-inspired buying pool, which he achieved by 1963 without detection by the cartel's observers, enabling CBS to hire local representatives and sell programs directly into key markets. By 1967, Baruch advanced to Vice President and General Manager of CBS Enterprises, overseeing both domestic and international syndication activities. In this executive leadership position, he became central to planning the eventual spin-off of CBS's syndication and cable operations, driven by the FCC's Financial Interest and Syndication Rules that restricted networks from owning or controlling syndicated programming beyond initial broadcast. This preparation addressed regulatory pressures that would force divestiture of those divisions.

Founding and leadership of Viacom

Spin-off from CBS and appointment as president

In response to Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting television networks from owning domestic program syndication companies and cable television systems, CBS spun off its syndication and cable operations into a separate publicly traded company named Viacom in 1971. The spin-off involved CBS Enterprises merging into Viacom, with Viacom stock distributed to CBS shareholders, and the transaction received specific FCC approval. The process faced delays and legal hurdles, including objections from cable partner Gene Iacopi that led to an FCC block on December 31, 1970, and adjustments such as placing CBS executives' shares in trust and adding independent board members. The spin-off was finalized on June 4, 1971, after rapid coordination to file documents and transfer licenses upon FCC approval; an injunction from a San Francisco court arrived approximately twenty minutes after shares were mailed, rendering it moot. Ralph Baruch was appointed president and chief executive officer of Viacom in early 1971. Initially, Clark George had been designated for the role, but he resigned on February 28, 1971, amid operational and budgetary conflicts. On or about March 1, 1971, CBS president Frank Stanton appointed Baruch to lead the new company. Viacom began with limited capitalization consisting of a $6 million loan from CBS. Baruch confronted immediate challenges, including signing an unfavorable distribution agreement with CBS that he viewed as disadvantageous and lacking tax credits, managing an unfamiliar board, addressing inherited team issues, and navigating an expensive lawsuit that had threatened to derail the spin-off.

Expansion through cable networks and acquisitions

Under Baruch's leadership, Viacom strengthened its syndication operations as a core profit engine while aggressively investing in cable television systems and stations. He initiated Showtime as a premium pay-TV service in 1976, initially distributing programming via cassette tapes to cable affiliates because satellite technology was not yet viable for widespread delivery; Baruch also championed pay-TV development by advocating against restrictive FCC regulations, contributing to efforts that ultimately eased limitations on such services. Viacom launched the Cable Health Network in 1982, a service focused on health and wellness programming that later evolved into Lifetime through a merger with Hearst/ABC's Daytime. Baruch played a key role in industry advocacy as well, serving as a leader in the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) to push for deregulation; he supported the formation of C-SPAN and helped lead efforts that culminated in the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, which removed many federal controls on cable pricing and operations. The most transformative move came in 1985, when Baruch and Viacom president Terrence A. Elkes spearheaded the acquisition of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment for $550 million, gaining control of MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, and The Movie Channel; this deal significantly expanded Viacom's presence in the emerging cable programming sector. Viacom continued to grow its cable subscriber base through additional system acquisitions and purchases of television and radio stations; the company also repurchased full control of Showtime in related transactions during this period of rapid expansion.

Chairmanship and acquisition by Sumner Redstone

In 1983, Ralph Baruch assumed the chairmanship of Viacom after recommending Terrence A. Elkes as his successor for the roles of president and chief executive officer. The arrangement allowed Baruch to remain part of the office of the chief executive while Elkes took primary operational control. In the mid-1980s, Viacom found itself "in play" amid takeover pressures, including investor Carl Icahn acquiring approximately 18% of the company's shares before the stake was repurchased by Viacom at market price. In 1987, Elkes informed Baruch of his intention to pursue a leveraged buyout of the company but explicitly excluded him from the management-led investor group, reportedly stating, "Ralph, you’ve got to realize you’re dead meat." Baruch described the remark as the crudest and rudest comment he had ever heard and expressed profound dismay over the exclusion, given their previously close professional and personal relationship. Elkes proceeded with investment bankers, including Mike Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert, but withheld full disclosure from the board for some time. When outside directors learned of the plan and Baruch's exclusion, they formed a special committee, engaged Goldman Sachs as advisors, and initiated an auction process for the company. Sumner Redstone, who had previously built a stake in Viacom, ultimately prevailed in the auction and acquired the company at $55.50 per share in a transaction valued at over $3.5 billion. Other sources report the deal value as $3.4 billion. Following the sale, Baruch continued briefly as a consultant under a pre-existing agreement but chose not to remain in any ongoing executive capacity under the new ownership.

Later career and industry contributions

Post-Viacom activities and advocacy

After leaving Viacom in 1987, Ralph Baruch remained engaged in the media and entertainment industry through consulting and leadership roles in professional organizations. He served as a consultant to Viacom in the years following his departure from the company's leadership. Baruch held several prominent positions in industry associations dedicated to television and cable. He was a director and member of the executive committee of the National Cable Television Association (now NCTA – The Internet & Television Association). He founded the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and served as a past president of the International Radio and Television Society (now the IRTS Foundation). He contributed to cultural and educational institutions as a trustee of the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) and Lenox Hill Hospital. Baruch also served as vice chairman of Carnegie Hall from 1997 to 1999. In 2007, Baruch published his memoir, Television Tightrope: How I Escaped Hitler, Survived CBS and Fathered Viacom, reflecting on his life and career in broadcasting.

Awards and honors

Ralph Baruch received several prestigious awards and honors recognizing his contributions to the cable television industry. He served as chairman emeritus of the National Academy of Cable Programming, where he played a key role in establishing and reorganizing the CableACE Awards, which honored excellence in cable programming. In 1999, Baruch was presented with the Directorate Award by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the International Emmy Awards, with the honor bestowed upon him by legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite. In 2006, he was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering leadership in building the cable television sector.

Personal life

Marriages and family

Ralph Baruch married Elizabeth "Lilo" Bachrach, a fellow refugee from Frankfurt who was 17 at the time, in the early 1940s. They had four children, born in 1944, 1948, 1951, and 1958. Lilo died in 1959 from complications of an ectopic pregnancy at the age of 33. In June 1963, Baruch remarried Jean Ursell de Mountford, whom he met while searching for a nursery school. She converted to Judaism. The family maintained homes in Manhattan and Bedford Hills, New York. His daughter Michele Baruch Jeffery confirmed his death.

Death

Death and legacy

Ralph Baruch died on March 3, 2016, at the age of 92 in his home in Manhattan. As the founding president and chief executive of Viacom, Baruch led the company from its 1971 spin-off from CBS into a major entertainment conglomerate. He is widely recognized for his role in pioneering the development of pay television services and advocating for cable deregulation during the industry's formative years. Baruch's leadership also contributed to building the portfolio that became MTV Networks, helping establish cable as a dominant force in entertainment media. His memoir offers an autobiographical account of his escape from Nazi-occupied France as a child, his survival and career progression at CBS, and the founding and growth of Viacom. Baruch's legacy endures as a key figure in the transformation of cable television from a niche service into a central pillar of global media.
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