Coverage: Ralph Baruch, former Viacom president, passes away at 92

Ralph Baruch, a pioneer of the broadcasting industry, died at his home in New York City. He was 92.

Baruch led Viacom during the company’s separation from CBS during the 1970s. He was also an influential voice over legislation concerning the deregulation of the cable industry.

Matt Schudel of The Washington Post had the unfortunate news:

Ralph M. Baruch, who escaped Nazi Europe in his teens and later became a powerful television executive, building the onetime CBS subsidiary of Viacom into a broadcasting giant in the 1970s and 1980s, and who influenced legislation that deregulated the cable industry, died March 3 at his home in New York City. He was 92.

The death was announced by his family. The cause was not disclosed.

Mr. Baruch became fascinated with the possibilities of television after watching a wrestling match on a screen in a Manhattan storefront in 1950. He soon began selling advertising for the old DuMont network before moving to CBS in 1954.

He eventually was put in charge of international distribution at CBS before being named chief executive of Viacom, a newly created cable-TV entity, in 1971. At the time, Viacom was little more than an afterthought, a company spun off from CBS because of a Federal Communications Commission ruling that broadcast networks could not own cable or syndication businesses.

At Viacom, Mr. Baruch began to acquire radio and television stations and turned the company toward original programming, launching Showtime and the Cable Health Network (now Lifetime Television).

As cable began to catch on across the country, Viacom continued to grow into one of the industry’s most powerful conglomerates. In 1985, it acquired a branch of Warner Communications, bringing MTV, Nickelodeon, the Movie Channel and VH1 under the Viacom umbrella.

The Variety Staff had details about Baruch’s time at Viacom:

Viacom was born out of what had been the syndication division of CBS. In 1971, the Federal Communications Commission enacted the so-called financial interest in syndication rule, an anti-trust effort that barred the major networks from owning most of the programs that they carried. CBS’ syndication library was spun off as a publicly traded entity dubbed Viacom. Baruch, who had been general manager of CBS’ syndication and nascent cable activities, was handed the reins as CEO.

“Ralph Baruch was a true pioneer and a giant in the media industry,” a Viacom spokesman said. “We are privileged and honored to carry on his legacy.”

Under Baruch, Viacom began buying TV and radio stations and cable systems. Most significantly, he invested in the future of cable programming in 1976 with the launch of the Showtime pay TV channel as a competitor to HBO. Viacom also birthed the Cable Health Network, which would become Lifetime. In 1985, Baruch spearheaded the acquisition of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which brought MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and the Movie Channel into the Viacom fold.

Two years later, Sumner Redstone, who was then known primarily as an exhibitor, bought Viacom for $3.4 billion. In 1994, Redstone merged Viacom with Paramount Pictures.

William Grimes of The New York Times explained Baruch’s escape from Nazi Germany:

In 1985, two years after he took the title of chairman, he and Terrence A. Elkes, Viacom’s president and new chief executive, acquired Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment and, with it, MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel and VH1. The deal completed Viacom’s transformation into a diversified communications and entertainment powerhouse. In 1987, Sumner M. Redstone paid $3.4 billion for it.

Rudolph Maximilian Baruch was born on Aug. 5, 1923, in Frankfurt, Germany, where his French-born father, Bernard, practiced international law.

During a 1932 trial, a Nazi storm trooper pushed his way into the courtroom where Mr. Baruch was defending a Social Democrat and began shouting insults. When the judge laughed, Mr. Baruch, who had fought 20 duels by sword and pistol in incidents provoked by anti-Semitic slurs against him — and had the facial scars to prove it — approached the bench and punched the judge.

After the Nazis came to power the following year, the elder Mr. Baruch was tried for attempted murder, found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. Using his connections in the judicial system, he engineered his escape and fled with his family to Paris, where Rudolph took the name Raoul and attended a lycée.

After the fall of France, the family was again in mortal danger. Bernard Baruch had returned to Germany in 1938 to recruit spies for the French counterintelligence services, making his way back to France after the war began. When a captured spy gave up his name under interrogation, he moved near the top of the Nazi most-wanted list.

The Emergency Rescue Committee helped the family to emigrate to New York in December 1940. Raoul, who soon changed his name to Ralph, found work in a shoe factory for 35 cents an hour and on weekends was an usher at a movie theater on 42nd Street.

He moved closer to his eventual profession when he was hired in 1943 as an engineer at Empire Broadcasting, a recording studio, having studied the topic with a borrowed textbook.

Against the wishes of both sets of parents, he married 17-year-old Elizabeth Bachrach, known as Lilo, also a refugee from Frankfurt. She died in 1959.

In addition to his daughter Michele, Mr. Baruch, who also had a home in Bedford Hills, N.Y., is survived by his wife, the former Jean Ursell de Mountford; three other daughters by his first marriage, Eve Baruch, Renée Baruch and Dr. Alice Baruch; and three grandchildren.