John W. Kluge, Founder of Metromedia, Dies at 95

[mahatmakanejeeves]

John W. Kluge, Founder of Metromedia, Dies at 95

By MARILYN BERGER
Published: September 8, 2010

John W. Kluge, who parlayed a small fortune from a Fritos franchise into a multibillion-dollar communications empire that made him one of the richest men in America, died on Tuesday night at a family home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 95.
....

In 1986, Forbes magazine listed Mr. Kluge as the second-richest man in America (after Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores). By this year, after a bankruptcy of the Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale restaurant chains in 2008, Mr. Kluge had dropped to 109th on the Forbes list with a fortune of $6.5 billion.
....

At college he distributed Communist literature. “I was never an official member of the Communist Party, but I was quite liberal,” he said many years later. But what got him in trouble was his card playing. At one point the dean called him in to warn that he was in danger of losing his scholarship.
....

His philanthropy was prodigious. About a half-billion dollars went to Columbia alone, mainly for scholarships for needy and minority students. One gift, of $400 million, was to be given to the university by his estate when he died.

Mr. Kluge also contributed to the restoration of Ellis Island and in 2000 gave $73 million to the Library of Congress, which established the Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanities.

Metromedia owned WTTG, channel 5 in DC. One more link:

John W. Kluge, 95, dies; self-made billionaire created Metromedia conglomerate

By Terence McArdle
Thursday, September 9, 2010

John W. Kluge, 95, a self-made billionaire who became one of the leading entrepreneurs of his generation and a major benefactor of the Library of Congress and Columbia University, died Tuesday at his home near Charlottesville.

His death was confirmed by the University of Virginia, which was also a major recipient of his largess. No cause of death was reported.

Mr. Kluge said he accumulated more than 200 companies in his lifetime, including seven television stations he sold to Rupert Murdoch in the mid-1980s, forming the foundation of the Australian-born media owner's Fox network.

The stations were part of Mr. Kluge's Metromedia telecommunications conglomerate, which at various times counted among its holdings the Ice Capades, the Harlem Globetrotters, Playbill magazine and a billboard advertising company.

[Pab Sungenis]

1. Metromedia bought up the remains of the Dumont network

including WABD Channel 5 in New York, which became WNEW. It made a rousing success out of a media empire that Allen B. Dumont built but couldn't maintain.

Metromedia sold its television holdings to News Corp in the 1980's, allowing for the creation of the Fox network.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Thank you for bringing that up.

One of my family's first TV sets, possibly its first TV set, was a DuMont. We watched DC's channel 5 when it was a DuMont station. I used to have a little wooden block with the DuMont logo on it.

DuMont Television Network

(I thought it was "Dumont" too, but Wikipedia says it's "DuMont.")

There's a discussion of Kluge going on at DCRTV. He had a fair amount of DC-area broadcasting influence.