Robert N. Wold, who left a successful career as an advertising executive to become a pioneer in the use of satellite technology for broadcasting, died Saturday, August 10th, 2013 in Irvine, California. He was 87.
Wold’s Los Angeles start-up company, The Robert Wold Company, later renamed Wold Communications, is credited with several “firsts” in the emerging use of satellite technology in the mid- 1970’s, including the first use of a domestic communications satellite for a live television program (a baseball game, 1975), and the first worldwide business videoconference (1979).
Robert Norman Wold, September 11, 1925 – August 10, 2013
While his company owned neither the satellites nor the programming it transmitted, Wold is often seen as creating a niche industry for value-added resellers and packagers that continues today. Forty years later, video broadcasting continues to be the largest segment of multi-billion-dollar geo-stationary satellite industry.
Robert Norman Wold was born September 11, 1925 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Following graduation from Minneapolis Southwest High School, Wold served in the US Navy from 1943-46. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1950, majoring in Journalism.
He worked for CBS Network, then Campbell Mithun in Chicago and Minneapolis before moving to California to join NW Ayer, later Ayer Jorgensen McDonald, in 1962. At Campbell Mithun, Wold was a key creative director behind the iconic 1950’s “Land of Sky Blue Waters” sales campaign for The Hamm’s Brewing Company.
Wold’s jump to the technical world of satellites initially evolved from his efforts to find cost-effective means of distribution for his advertising clients who bought sports broadcasting rights for radio and television. Though his company’s founding was coincidental to the emergence of new technologies, Wold found his market place niche came from his ability to introduce broadcasters to satellites and technically minded satellite providers to the world of entertainment production and distribution.
His company made headlines in May 1977 through the real-time satellite delivery of the four “Frost/ Nixon Interviews” to an independent network to 165 stations nationwide. Wold Communications built and operated satellite ground stations and mobile uplinks, now commonplace tools of the industry. For example, to encourage the delivery of day-and-date syndicated television programming by satellite, the company gave reluctant TV stations their own ground stations with which to receive from the satellites. This move spurred the 1981 launch of such independent programs as “Entertainment Tonight,” “The Merv Griffin Show “ and “Star Search.”
By the mid-1980’s, the company had offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC and more than 150 employees. Wold sold the company in 1989 after which he consulted to broadcasters and technology companies. In 2001, Wold was inducted into the Society of Satellite Professionals International Hall of Fame.
An avid golfer, Wold was a long-time member at Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles.
He is survived by his ex-wife Mary Wold of Brentwood, California. son Peter Wold of Playa del Rey, California, daughters Margaret Wold-Sackey of Laguna Niguel, California and Molly Seidel of Coto de Caza, California as well as his six grandchildren- Sterling Sackey, Brooke Seidel, Erika Seidel, Vincent Sackey, Chase Seidel and Isabella Sackey. His first son, Robert John, passed away in 1981.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations in Wold’s name to his alma mater, the University of Minnesota. https://www.giving.umn.edu/givetoday/GiftForm.pdf
For additional information contact:
Margaret Wold-Sackey (daughter) [email protected]
Robert Edward Wold (nephew) 310-913-5885
