Former CBS Head, Laurence Tisch, dead at age 80

[undergroundrailroad]

Laurence Tisch

Loews Corp. co-founder Tisch dead at 80



By LARRY McSHANE

November 15, 2003, 3:57 PM EST


NEW YORK (AP) _ Self-made billionaire Laurence A. Tisch, the Loews Corp. co-founder who built an enormous financial empire that began with a single New Jersey resort, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 80.

Tisch, who also spent nine tumultuous years as the head of CBS Inc., died at about 1 a.m., said Candace Leeds, a Loews spokeswoman. Tisch was suffering from cancer, she said.

At Loews, Tisch oversaw a financial corporation with assets of over $70 billion, including a hotel chain, a tobacco company, an insurance firm and an offshore drilling company.

The Brooklyn native served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of CBS Inc. from 1986-95, a period when the "Tiffany Network" saw its nightly newscast fall to third place and lost NFL football to the upstart Fox Network.

[Myra]

1. Did he die of shame?

After watching CBS buckle to their corporate/GOP
masters and cancel broadcast of the Reagan bio?

[The Zanti Regent]

2. Just what I was going to ask!

He had integrity, Leslie Moonvees has no clue as to what that is!

[pasadenaboy]

3. He dies

right after his insurance company (CNA) announced a $2B charge for asbestos underreserving. That would give me a heart attack too.

[johnfunk]

4. Tisch was a notorious downsizer

When he took over CBS he cleaned house, letting some of their best behind the scenes people go. He was loathe to update broadcast equipment, especially in their radio division, and in effect helped provide an opening for Clear Channel to thrive.

The joke at CBS' broadcast facilities was that Larry Tisch was so cheap, he recycled his own earwax to polish his bald pate.