born July 8, 1931, Forest Hills, N.Y., U.S.
died Dec. 5, 2002, New York City
U.S. television executive.
He began work at ABC-TV in 1960 as a sports producer. He later became president of ABC Sports and group president of ABC News and Sports (1985–90). He created sports programs such as Wide World of Sports (from 1961) and Monday Night Football (from 1968) and produced television coverage of 10 Olympic games, making many technical and editorial innovations in sports coverage. As president of ABC News he developed several successful news shows such as Nightline (from 1980) and PrimeTime Live (from 1989).