Robert W. Sarnoff (July 2, 1918 – February 23, 1997) was an American businessman best known as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and

chairman of the board The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...

Radio Corporation of America RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

(RCA) after assuming those positions on the retirement of his father,

David Sarnoff David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was a Russian and American businessman who played an important role in the American history of radio and television. He led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for most of his career in ...

. During his rise through the company's ranks, he was best known for his advocacy of

color television Color television (American English) or colour television (British English) is a television transmission technology that also includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improv ...

. Through the early 1970s, Sarnoff attempted to build RCA into a multinational conglomerate which included rental cars,

carpet A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of Pile (textile), pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fiber, synthetic fibres such as polyprop ...

manufacturing,

book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

and sold frozen vegetables. Focus on RCA's core technology businesses waned and also resulted in the selling of their computer division at a massive financial loss. The company's new direction was not particularly successful, and RCA struggled during the 1973–1975 recession. After five years as chairman, a "palace revolt" by the board and senior RCA executives removed Sarnoff from the CEO position. After Sarnoff's unsuccessful tenure, RCA never recovered its former stature and was purchased by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

in 1986, which liquidated most of the company's assets. After a struggle with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, Robert Sarnoff died in 1997 at the age of 78.

Early life

Robert was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on July 2, 1918, the first of three sons of

. He went to private schools for his basic education and then attended the

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

for

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. In 1939 he graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with a bachelor's degree in government and philosophy. After a year in

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

, Robert left to enter government service in the broadcasting arm of the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

. A year later he was commissioned in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and served in the South Pacific during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, he took a series of positions in media, for a short time as the assistant publisher at The Des Moines Register and Tribune and then moving to Look Magazine.

Career at RCA

After avoiding RCA for some time, Robert Sarnoff took a position as an account executive at RCA's

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

(NBC) in 1948 and held various posts within the company over the next few years. Throughout, he was a strong advocate of RCA'S development of

. In 1953, he broadcast the first commercial program in color, a production of his commissioned

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

, "Amahl and the Night Visitors". His work with NBC required constant travel, during which time he became an avid art collector. In 1956, he was promoted to the president of NBC, replacing Sylvester Weaver. At the time he stated that "We are committed to color and intend to make the transition as fast as possible." He commissioned the first all-color television station, WNBQ-TV in Chicago (which later became

WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo station WSNS-TV (chann ...

) and began an expansion of NBC's broadcasting network. Through this period, NBC was a leader in

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of Race (classification of human beings), race, and t ...

, the first network to broadcast a program hosted by

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...

, and the first to have a black actor in a leading role with

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...

in ''I Spy''. In 1965, Robert replaced his father as president of RCA, and in 1967, the

(CEO). One of Robert's first actions as CEO was to begin modernizing RCA's image. He retired the original RCA lightning-bolt logo and introduced a new logo featuring just the three letters 'RCA' in a modern squared font. He also largely abandoned the use of the Nipper/"His Master's Voice", "Victor" and "Victrola" trademarks, retaining them only for limited use by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. RCA reinstated the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademarks after Robert was ousted in 1975. David Sarnoff fell seriously ill in 1970 and was removed from the board, at which point Robert became

as well as CEO. The elder Sarnoff died in December, 1971. Earlier that year, Robert sold RCA's computer division to

Sperry Rand Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

at a $490 million loss, an action which resulted in significant criticism within the company. Over the next several years he sought to build RCA into a multinational conglomerate, purchasing

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or Cycle per second, cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in ter ...

car rental service, Banquet Foods and several other companies. Through this period, RCA's core business in the technology and home entertainment fields began to decline. The effects of the 1973–1975 recession hit the company particularly hard and Sarnoff was put under increasing pressure. This came to a head in 1975 when the board removed Robert in what has been called a "palace revolt".

Personal life

Sarnoff married Esme O'Brien and had a daughter Rosita before divorcing in 1949. That year he married Felicia Schiff Warburg and had two more daughters, Serena and Claudia, before divorcing in 1969. In 1970, Felicia remarried to Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. Robert became known for a series of brief relationships with various recording stars he met through

. In 1974, He married operatic soprano Anna Moffo. Sarnoff was a member of the boards of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

and a member of the

New York Friars Club The Friars Club was a private club in New York City, founded in 1904 and out of business by 2024. Famous for its risqué roasts, the club's membership was composed mostly of people who work in show business. The club was located at 57 East 5 ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarnoff, Robert 1918 births 1997 deaths Businesspeople from New York City Military personnel from New York City American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent American television executives NBC executives RCA people Harvard College alumni Phillips Academy alumni Burials at Kensico Cemetery