Joseph Wallach (born September 10, 1923) is an American businessman,

television broadcasting A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United ...

executive and author. In 1985, Wallach, along with

Saul Steinberg Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914, Rm. Sărat, Romania – May 12, 1999, New York City) was a Romanian-born American artist, best known for his work for ''The New Yorker'', most notably ''View of the World from 9th Avenue''. He described himself ...

and Henry Silverman of Reliance Capital Group L. P., founded

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

, which is today the second-largest

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

in the United States.

Early career

Wallach attended Boston University for post graduate studies in business after receiving a BBA from the City College of New York. He served as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry in World War II Europe. Wallach's career in broadcasting began in 1960 as business manager and then general manager of

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

–based television station KOGO-TV, owned by Time-Life Broadcast Corporation from 1962 to 1970. In 1965, Wallach moved to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

to oversee another Time-Life venture,

TV Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto M ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. Under Wallach's guidance, by 1980, TV Globo grew to dominate the Brazilian market and became the 4th largest network in the world, with 31 affiliates and programming provided to 80 countries. Wallach became a Brazilian citizen in 1971.

Telemundo

In 1985, Wallach obtained an option to purchase television channel 52 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

with a plan to make the station a Spanish language channel. He secured Reliance as major stock shareholder and purchased channel 52 through Estrella Communications. As general manager, he engaged Paul Niedermeyer as assistant manager and Frank Cruz as director of public affairs. KVEA was launched in November, 1985, and in six months captured 40% of the Los Angeles Spanish television market. In 1986, Reliance purchased television channels in various other markets to create a Spanish language network. Wallach and his team, named it "Telemundo". Wallach managed the Telemundo network until his departure in March, 1987.

Post-Telemundo

After leaving Telemundo in 1987, Wallach was a consultant for the Italian network, Tele Monte Carlo owned by TV Globo. In 1991, Wallach founded GloboSat, the satellite broadcasting service based in Rio de Janeiro. As president of GloboSat he launched and operated the first pay television, 4-channel DBS broadcast system covering Brazil.

Personal life

In 1990, Wallach married Doreen Toll in Bel Air, California. He

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

on September 10, 2023.

Published works

Wallach is the author of the autobiographical book, ''My Chapter in TV Globo'' (''Meu Capítulo na TV Globo''), Portuguese-language, published by Top Books, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallach, Joe 1923 births Living people Boston University alumni American emigrants to Brazil American television executives Brazilian men centenarians Brazilian television executives American men centenarians Portuguese-language writers United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II