LOS ANGELES: Robert "Bob" Bennett, a broadcasting industry veteran who guided a TV station group that became the initial core of the Fox network, has died. He was 89.Bennett died Tuesday at a Newport Beach, California, hospital after a long illness, according to spokesman Jerry Digney. The cause of death was not specified.In the early to mid-1980s, Bennett served as president of Metromedia Broadcasting , then among the nation's largest station groups with major-market stations in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. He worked with media magnate John Kluge.When another magnate, Rupert Murdoch, acquired Metromedia Broadcasting in 1985, its stations and prime-time programming helped create the Fox Broadcasting Co.Bennett, after a stint as a page at CBS Radio in the late 1940s in Los Angeles, began his TV career in 1952 at KTTV-TV in LA, first in sales and then as an executive. Survivors include his wife, Marjie, children, Kelly and Casey Bennett.

Source: Economic Times December 03, 2016 07:15 UTC