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Roger Ailes |
| Roger Eugene Ailes | |
| Born | May 15, 1940 Warren, Ohio, United States |
|---|---|
| Occupation | President of Fox News Channel Chairman of Fox Television Stations Group |
| Salary | $8.3 million 1 2 |
Roger Eugene Ailes (born May 15, 1940) is the president of Fox News Channel and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. He was a media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as Rudy Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign in 1989.3
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Born in Warren, Ohio, Ailes attended the Warren City School. Later, he was inducted into the Warren High Schools' Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. 4 Ailes graduated in 1962 from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, receiving a BA.citations needed
Ailes' second marriage was to Norma E. Ailes, who had been a television producer with Mission Media Ministries5 The two raised one child, a daughter from Norma Ailes' earlier relationship, Shawn C. Ailes Visco Ferrer (born July 1968), now a television producer6
In July 1997, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Ailes was engaged to Elizabeth Tilson (born December 1960), whom he married on February 14, 1998. Formerly a television executive, she is now a homemaker. They have one son.
In the spring of 2008 Ailes bought local newspaper in Cold Spring, New York, the town in which they own a weekend/summer mansion. With a circulation of approximately 4,000, the newspaper, the Putnam County News and Recorder, is noted for its small-town feel and modest scope. It is unknown what changes Elizabeth will direct.7
In October 2007, Ailes gave a sizeable donation to Ohio University for a renovated student newsroom.8The new facility will double the size of the university's existing newsroom - last upgraded in the 1960s - and allow more students to participate in the school's WOUB radio station and television programs.
Ailes majored in radio and television while at Ohio University and served two years as manager of the school's radio station9. Since 1994 he has funded scholarships for Ohio University students in the school's telecommunications programs.10
Ailes said, "Ohio University ignited my interest in broadcasting, which became my lifetime career. The education I received there gave me the opportunity to take on my first managerial responsibilities and provided early lessons in leadership. I'm happy to contribute to a great university."8
Ailes' career in television began in [Cleavland and Philadelphia], where he was a producer and director for KYW, for a then-locally produced talk-variety show, The Mike Douglas Show. He later became executive producer for the show, which was syndicated nationally. He received two Emmy Awards for it in 1967 and 1968. It was in this position, in 1967, that he had a spirited discussion about television in politics with one of the show's guests, Richard Nixon, who took the view that television was a gimmick. Later, Nixon called on Ailes to serve as his executive producer of TV. Nixon's election victory was only Ailes' first venture into the political spotlight.
Ailes founded Ailes Communications, Inc., in New York in 1969, and consulted for various businesses and politicians, including WCBS-TV. He also tried his hand in theater production with the Broadway musical Mother Earth (1972) and the off-Broadway hit play Hot-L Baltimore (1973-76), for which Ailes received four Obie Awards. He was executive producer for the television special The Last Frontier in 1974. He produced and directed a television special, Fellini: Wizards, Clowns and Honest Liars.
Ailes served as a political consultant for many Republican candidates during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. His first such job was as media advisor for the Nixon campaign in 1968. He returned to presidential campaigning as a consultant to Ronald Reagan in 1984. He is widely credited with having coached Reagan to victory in the second presidential debate with Walter Mondale.
In 1988 Ailes was credited (along with Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to a come-from-behind 11 victory over Michael Dukakis. Ailes and Lee Atwater scripted and produced the "Revolving Door" ad. He did not produce the Willie Horton ad, which was directed and produced by the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), but Democrats later charged the Bush campaign with illegally coordinating the ads with the NSPAC. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigated the charge and deadlocked on a 3-3 vote, clearing Ailes and the campaign of legal problems.12
Ailes did not work on the 1992 Bush campaign against Bill Clinton.
In 1984, Ailes won an Emmy Awardcitation needed as executive producer and director of a television special, Television and the Presidency. 13
In 1988, Ailes wrote a book with Jon Kraushar called You Are the Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators,14 in which he discusses some of his philosophies and strategies for successful performance in the public eye.
In 1991, Ailes convinced a syndicator to bring Rush Limbaugh from radio to television and became executive producer of the late-night show.15 The show became the highest rated late night talk show but was eventually discontinued due to network inability to air the show at a decent hour. The pilot and series were produced with Richard Mincer, Maria Bianco, Kathleen Gleason and Nick Africano out of Unitel Studios on W. 57th Street in NYC. He announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1992.
In 1993, Ailes became president of the cable channel CNBC and began planning another NBC cable channel, America's Talking. The new channel debuted on July 4, 1994. Ailes also hosted his own nightly show, Straight Forward, an hour-long talk show.16
After the announcement of Microsoft and NBC's partnership to create an online and cable news outlet, MSNBC, taking the place of America's Talking, Ailes left the network in February 1996 and was hired by Rupert Murdoch to create Fox News Channel for News Corporation. In addition, 89 additional employees of the NBC networks left with Ailes to help with the new channel's creation for launch, on October 7, 1996.
After the departure of Lachlan Murdoch from News Corporation, Ailes was named Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group on August 15, 2005. Following his newest assignment, one of his first acts was canceling A Current Affair in September 2005 and replacing it with a new Geraldo Rivera show titled Geraldo at Large, which debuted on Halloween, 2005. Rivera's show drew about the same ratings as A Current Affair 17 in January 2007. Ailes decided to cancel Geraldo at Large to move Rivera back on Fox News Channel.
Ailes also hired former CBS executive Dennis Swanson in October 2005. Swanson will be president of the Fox Television Stations Group. Additionally, there have been changes in affiliates' news programs with the uniforming of Fox News Channel-like graphics, redesigned studios, news-format changes, and the announcement of a new morning television show called The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet to be produced by Fox News Channel.
Following the announcement of the UPN/WB merger creating The CW network, News Corporation announced the creation of MyNetworkTV to provide an alternative network for its O&O UPN affiliates on February 22, 2006. Ailes only learned of UPN's demise 10 minutes before the official announcement.17 The network officially debuted on September 5, 2006 with a slate of telenovelas like Watch Over Me and Wicked Wicked Games, which received low ratings. The soap operas were phased out after a few months.
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