Donald V. West, 94, former top editor of Broadcasting+Cable (formerly Broadcasting magazine), died February 4 at The Jefferson retirement community in Arlington, Virgina.

West took over as top editor of then-Broadcasting magazine in 1982 upon the death of magazine co-founder Sol Taishoff and led the magazine through design and name changes, as well as various enterprises including newsletters, international editions, and convention dailies. He was also editor of the Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook and principal editorial writer.

Born in Texas and raised in New Mexico, West’s first brush with electronic communications was running a recording studio as a teenager. He became, successively, a radio transmitter engineer, managing editor of a small-town daily newspaper — the Roswell (New Mexico) Record — and as wire editor of the El Paso (Texas) Times, before serving as an artillery sergeant in the Korean War.

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A graduate of New Mexico A&M College, West came to Washington with an eye on law school but a heart still in journalism.

He joined Broadcasting’s then-Washington headquarters in 1953, transferring to the  New York bureau in 1958 as manager.

When Broadcasting bought the monthly Television magazine in 1960, West was named managing editor and VP.

In 1966, he joined CBS as assistant to network president Frank Stanton, rejoining Broadcasting in 1971 as managing editor, again based in Washington.

The banner on the editorial page once read ”Committed to the First Amendment and the Fifth Estate,“ and the same could be said of West. 

In his editorials, as well as speeches, writing and appearances at industry events, he carried on the fight for a broadcast medium as free as print, which meant free from micromanaging by political interests. 

While broadcasters, particularly in tough economic times, have been tempted to forego that fight and accept a compromised First Amendment as a quid pro quo for the protection of their business and avoidance of further regulation, West never counseled such expedience and the expense of the speech protection they, and the public, deserved.

West was also instrumental in the creation of the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame. 

He exited the magazine in 2001. He joined the board of the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation in 2003 and became president, creating the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts awards. In 2015, West was honored as one of those giants.

His bio for the award notes that as a young Roswell newspaperman, West “was distinguished by missing the biggest story of the century when, as the first reporter at the site of the fabled Roswell alien invasion, he found nothing to report.”’ 

That could not be said for a 40-plus year career covering electronic communications that earned him plaudits from some other giants of the business.

“Don was a force in the industry in his own right and a tireless advocate for full First Amendment Rights for broadcasters,” Preston Padden, a former top News Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. executive and one-time head of the Association of Independent Television Stations (INTV) in Washington, said.

“It’s hard for folks today to comprehend how influential Broadcasting was under Don back in the day,” C-SPAN CEO Susan Swain said.

“I first met Don West during my FCC days and, thereafter, we had many wonderful lunches and discussions about broadcasting-related issues,“ former Federal Communications Commission chair Dick Wiley said. “Don was a terrific journalist who knew the broadcast industry — and everyone in it — from top to bottom. He was also a great advocate for applying First Amendment rights to the electronic media, a cause he supported during his entire career. He was one of the very best. RIP.”

In 1992, top executives in the communications business weighed in on West's impact on the industry.

“Few men or women in the broadcast and editorial world have had such a profound and lasting impact on the world of communications,” Jack Valenti, then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said. “He has oftentimes shaped the agenda for public leaders, and more than often clarified opaque, complicated issues for those who want to understand what the future may hold.”

“Don is the consummate professional and one of the best editors in the business,” said Robert Daly, then-chairman of Warner Bros.

“As editor of Broadcasting Magazine, [West] has shown insight and vision in his objective coverage of the emergence and development of the cable television industry,” wrote CNN and Turner Broadcasting System founder Ted Turner. “He has proved himself to be a true leader among journalists.”

“In my 50 years of working with editors of industry publications, none has come close to Don West for sheer knowledge of the business, for integrity, for leadership, and for style,” Stanton, the former CBS president, wrote in 1992. “Except for a brief interval during which he was my assistant at CBS, West’s life belonged to Broadcasting, the magazine, and broadcasting, the communications phenomenon of the century.”

A Celebration of Life is planned at a date to be determined. 

The Cable Center said Tuesday that it has rescheduled its 23rd Annual Cable Hall of Fame virtual celebration to Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. (ET).

“As we continue to navigate the world of Covid and the necessary rescheduling of various industry events, we made the decision to move our Cable Hall of Fame celebration to a later date,” Cable Center president and CEO Jana Henthorn said in a press release. 

This is the fifth time the Cable Center has rescheduled the event. Originally it was to take place at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City on April 30, 2020,  but the pandemic pushed that date to that fall of that year. In June 2020, the date was again pushed ahead, to April 29, 2021 because of pandemic concerns, and in February 2021 said it would try to hold the event both live in New York and virtually on Oct. 20. In June 2021, the Center said the event would be held virtually-only on Oct. 20. 

On Tuesday, the Center said the event will premiere on C-SPAN 3 and be available to view simultaneously online at CSPAN.org. The program will also be featured in the C-SPAN Video Library and available for on demand viewing immediately following the event.

The Cable Hall of Fame selected seven industry leaders in March 2020 for this year’s class:  Baker Media CEO Bridget Baker; former Charter Communications EVP IT and Engineering Jim Blackley; Urban One founder and chairwoman Cathy Hughes; TV One chairman and CEO and Urban One CEO Alfred C. Liggins III; Cable Pioneer Jeff Marcus; Comcast Cable president and CEO Dave Watson; and WarnerMedia News & Sports president and president CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker.

The Bresnan Ethics in Business Award will also be presented to Ted Turner, Environmentalist and Philanthropist, during the Cable Hall of Fame celebration.

The Cable Center said Tuesday that its 23rd annual Cable Hall of Fame celebration, slated for Oct. 20, will be held virtually.

“After much thought and consideration, The Cable Center decided that it was best to host our Cable Hall of Fame event virtually at this time,” The Cable Center president and CEO Jana Henthorn said in a press release. “We are eager to gather in spirit with the industry on October 20, and finally have the opportunity to celebrate our honorees.”

The celebration will air on C-SPAN 3 at 8p.m. ET and be available for view simultaneously on C-SPAN.org. The program will also be featured in the C-SPAN Video Library and available for on demand viewing immediately following the event.

The Cable Center had hoped to hold part of the celebration at its regular venue -- The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City -- allowing those that couldn’t make the trip to participate virtually. Now it appears that the entire offering will be held online. 

The Cable Hall of Fame selected seven industry leaders in March 2020 for this year’s class:  Baker Media CEO Bridget Baker; former Charter Communications EVP IT and Engineering Jim Blackley; Urban One founder and chairwoman Cathy Hughes; TV One chairman and CEO and Urban One CEO Alfred C. Liggins III; Cable Pioneer Jeff Marcus; Comcast Cable president and CEO Dave Watson; and WarnerMedia News & Sports president and president CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker.

The Bresnan Ethics in Business Award will also be presented to Ted Turner, Environmentalist and Philanthropist, during the Cable Hall of Fame celebration.

“This year has proven that our industry is extremely resilient and creative, and the Cable Hall of Fame will be no different,” Michael Willner, president and CEO of Penthera Partners and chairman of The Cable Center’s Board of Directors, said in a press release. “We have some fun surprises in store as we roll out the red carpet virtually for our honorees and we are thrilled that C-SPAN has agreed to air this engaging celebration. We can’t wait to induct our 2020 class and hope that everyone will support this must-see event by not only viewing but also through our unique sponsorship opportunities.”

The Cable Center is still confirming its plans for 2021 honorees. For more information on the celebration, visit www.cablehalloffame.com.

The Cable Center said Wednesday that it will reschedule its 23rd annual Cable Hall of Fame celebration to Oct. 20 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

This is the fourth time the Center has had to reschedule the event. It was originally scheduled for April 30, 2020,  but was pushed to the fall of that year because of the pandemic.   In June 2020, it was rescheduled again to April 29, 2021.  

The Cable Hall of Fame inductees are: 

Bridget Baker: CEO Baker Media Inc.

Jim Blackley: Former EVP, IT and Engineering Charter Communications

Cathy Hughes: founder and chairwoman, Urban One

Alfred C. Liggins III: CEO, Urban One; chairman and CEO TV One

Jeff Marcus: Cable Pioneer

Dave Watson: president and CEO Comcast Cable

Jeff Zucker: chairman, WarnerMedia, News & Sports and president, CNN Worldwide 

The Bresnan Ethics in Business Award will also be presented to Ted Turner during the celebration. For those unable to gather in-person, the Cable Center said it will host a virtual celebration.

The Center said it is still confirming its plans for 2021 honorees. For more information on the celebration, visit www.cablehalloffame.com.

The Cable Center said Tuesday that it has named cable icon Ted Turner as the recipient of the 2020 Bresnan Ethics in Business Award. The award will be presented at the Center’s 23rd annual Cable Hall of Fame celebration, scheduled for April 29, 2021, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York.

An entrepreneur, philanthropist, sportsman, and environmentalist, Turner founded CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel and TBS, the nation’s first “superstation” using satellite technology to carry its signal nationwide. Through Turner Broadcasting, he also purchased the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team (now owned by Liberty Media) and the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team (now owned by Apollo Global Management co-founder Tony Wessler). Throughout his career, Turner also launched Cartoon Network, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and served as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner.

“Ted is a true industry trailblazer and his commitment to humanitarian, conservation and environmental causes is incomparable,” The Cable Center CEO Jana Henthorn said in a press release. “We are delighted to honor him with this year’s Bresnan Award.”

A noted philanthropist, Turner has given to many causes but is probably best known for his $1 billion donation to establish the United Nations Foundation to support humanitarian work around the world. He also created the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which sought to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction, and has provided extensive funding to conservation efforts through his Turner Foundation. He launched the charitable Goodwill Games and also signed The Giving Pledge, committing more than half his wealth to good deeds.

“Ted’s passion for the cable industry and his commitment to philanthropy is at the core of the Bresnan Award,” said Michael Willner president and CEO of Penthera Partners and chairman of The Cable Center’s Board of Directors in a press release. “His entrepreneurial aptitude helped to form our industry and his dedication and support of numerous philanthropic and environmental causes is extraordinarily generous and unprecedented. We are honored to recognize him with this year’s Bresnan Award.”

The Bresnan Ethics in Business award was created in 2011 to honor outstanding men and women in the cable industry who best exemplify Bresnan Communications founder and longtime Cable Center chairman Bill Bresnan’s longstanding commitment to ethics in business. Awardees represent the ideals upheld by Bill Bresnan, including continually demonstrating ethical leadership qualities, doing what’s right in the face of adversity, even when it is unpopular, incorporating doing what’s right in everyday life, and demonstrating societal, community, and philanthropic engagement.

“It is an incredible honor to be recognized for accomplishments that were considered by many as genius and maybe a bit outrageous. Creating CNN, pretty much against all odds and with the support of my fellow cable pioneers, was a mission of pure joy and determination, surpassed only by my work and dedication to conservation and the environment,” Turner said in a press release. “Bill was a good guy, and I admired him for his integrity and good works that he upheld through every aspect of his life. My time in the cable industry was a big adventure and I treasure the lifelong friendships I made. I am humbled to receive this year’s Bresnan Award.” 

Turner was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame in 1999, the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2007 and has received a Peabody Award and the Bower Award for Business Leadership from the Franklin Institute. An endowed professorship at the George Washington University’s (GW) School of Media and Public Affairs is also being established in his honor, as well as the creation of the Ted Turner Exhibition Hall and Legacy Gallery at the University of Georgia.

Past recipients include former Continental Cablevision founder Amos B. Hostetter, Jr., former National Cable & Telecommunications CEO and Landmark Communications president Decker Anstrom; former CableVision Industries chief Alan Gerry; C-SPAN founder Brian  Lamb and NCTA executive June Travis. Last year’s winner was the late James Robbins, former CEO of Cox Communications. 

In December, WarnerMedia (which owns CNN) dedicated the news network’s Techwood Campus in Georgia to Turner, who a year prior told 60 Minutes he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. 

Reese Schonfeld, who founded CNN alongside Ted Turner, and later helped launch Food Network, has died. He was 88 and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Prior to teaming up with Turner on CNN, Schonfeld ran a service that sold news packages to TV stations, according to the NY Times, called Independent Television News Association. Turner approached him about a 24-hour news channel.

Schonfeld was CNN president as it launched in 1980. He was fired by Turner a couple years later.

Schonfeld then was VP at Cablevision, helping launch News 12, which the NY Times said was the first all-news local cable network.

He then helped Food Network launch in 1993, and departed in 1995, though he remained on the board.

Schonfeld authored Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN.

"He loved CNN," his widow Pat O'Gorman told the network. "He was very proud of it. It was a good time for him."

WarnerMedia dedicated the Techwood campus in Atlanta to cable legend Ted Turner, honoring the maverick founder of Turner Broadcasting, TNT, CNN and countless other innovations in the media industry.

The event was emceed by Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s lead political anchor and host of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and included remarks from John Stankey (President & Chief Operating Officer, AT&T Inc. and CEO WarnerMedia), Dennis Williams (SVP Corporate Social Responsibility, WarnerMedia), and Turner himself.

“Turner Broadcasting and its networks, including CNN, are my proudest professional accomplishments and they always will be,” Turner said at the event. “The Techwood campus holds a lot of meaning to me because this is where it all began.”  

Turner launched CNN from the Techwood campus in 1980, ushering in the era of 24-hour cable news. For years the former country club was the headquarters of CNN and other components of the Turner Broadcasting empire, before operations moved to the larger CNN Center campus in downtown Atlanta seven years later.

AT&T purchased Turner parent Time Warner Inc. in 2018, folding the Turner assets into WarnerMedia. 

In September 2018, Ted Turner revealed in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes that he is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia. 

WarnerMedia unveiled a commissioned mural portrait of Turner by famed mural portrait artist Jeks and announced a $550,000 grant to the University of Georgia, which will establish:

• The Ted Turner Exhibition Hall & Gallery at UGA’s Library

• The Ted Turner Scholarship Fund, providing need-based scholarships to students at UGA’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication

• WarnerMedia’s Ted Turner Maverick Internship, in partnership UGA’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication

“It is hard to identify a single word for someone as multi-dimensional as Ted, but from his business decisions to his commitment to the environment, the word that comes to mind is audacious,” Stankey said at the event. “This dedication event is so appropriate given the history of what Ted has done for this company. We are forever honored and awed to be part of Ted’s legacy.”

It was 20 years ago today, that Ted Turner threw the switch in Time Square on vintage film’ aficionados’ dream.

Turner Classic Movies, bowed in 5 million homes on April 14, 1994, five months after announcing its first affiliate pact with Adelphia Cable. Today, the service counts some 83 million subcribers and features a sophisticated TV Everywhere companion in the form of Watch TCM, where authenticated subscribers can not only live stream the service, but tap VOD functionality and engage with complementary curated content around its library of memorable movies.

TCM has steeled its position as a leading authority in classic film with a number acclaimed original documentaries and specials via film series and franchises like The Essentials, hosted by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore, and Friday Night Spotlight, and annual programming events like 31 Days of Oscar® in February, Summer Under the Stars in August and TCM Essentials Jr. TCM also connects with movie fans through its annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, the TCM Classic Cruise and TCM Classic Film Tour in New York City.

To celebrates its 20th anniversary, TCM will air 11 of the top films ever produced, including the first film it ever screened, appropriately enough Gone With The Wind,and premiere the retrospective special, TCM: Twenty Classic Moments at 7 p.m.

In addition, TCM will present an encore of its enormously popular and widely requested special, Private Screenings: Robert Osborne, an in-depth interview with the TCM host, who has been with the network since its inception.

"For nearly two decades, TCM has evolved far beyond a network that presents classic films," said Jeff Gregor, general manager of Turner Classic Movies and chief marketing officer of TCM, TNT and TBS. "We've become a lifestyle brand for movie lovers everywhere, who come to TCM not only for the great movies, but also for the curated, contextual environment in which they get to enjoy those films. Like our community of fans, we at TCM share a true passion for the movies, and that passion is on full display in our April 14 schedule and especially in our new special, TCM: Twenty Classic Moments."

Ben Mankiewicz will host the network’s revisit with its own past. In addition to the media mogul turning the network on at the Crossroads of the World, here are some of the TCM toppers over the years:

• Mickey Rooney transfixes Osborne while telling the story about a fight he once had on the set of a movie. (1997)
• An incredibly nervous Betty Hutton joins Osborne for her first on-camera interview in decades. (2000)
• TCM teams up with the Library of Congress and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archive to preserve and present six RKO classics that had been lost for years. This marked one of many film preservation initiatives in which TCM has participated. (2006)
• Osborne just can't stop laughing during an interview with Kermit the Frog, one of TCM's many memorable celebrity Guest Programmers. (2007)
• Osborne receives a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (2008)
• TCM wins the George Foster Peabody Award, one of the highest honors in television. (2008)
• Fans from around the country help introduce some of their favorite movies on TCM as Fan Guest Programmers. (2009)
• Osborne interviews two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer, who had just turned 100, at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Even a volcano in Iceland and a broken hearing aid couldn't keep Rainer from what was one of the most remarkable interviews in TCM history. (2010)
• Ben Mankiewicz sits down with his own father, Frank Mankiewicz, to introduce four of Frank's films during a special Father's Day marathon. Frank subsequently becomes a fan favorite and is later featured as a special guest on the TCM Classic Cruise. (2013)

The following is the complete schedule for TCM's 20th Anniversary (all times Eastern):

• Monday April 14
• 5 a.m. – Mildred Pierce (1945)
• 7 a.m. – The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• 9 a.m. – The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• 11 a.m. – Gaslight (1944)
• 1 p.m. – Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3 p.m. – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• 5 p.m. – Casablanca (1942)
• 7 p.m. – TCM: Twenty Classic Moments – Premiere
• 8 p.m. – Gone With the Wind (1939) – First film ever presented by TCM
• Midnight – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne (2014) – Interview special hosted by Alec Baldwin
• 1:30 a.m. – Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – Second film ever presented by TCM
• 3:30 a.m. – It Happened One Night (1934) – One of the films that aired in primetime on TCM's first night
• 5:30 a.m. – The Petrified Forest (1936) – One of the films that aired in primetime on TCM's first night