Ron Bornstein, a retired public broadcasting executive credited for steering NPR out of its 1983 financial crisis, died Feb. 23 in Madison, Wis. He was 91.
Bornstein spent much of his public broadcasting career at the University of Wisconsin–Extension, where his jobs included director of telecommunications and GM of WHA-TV and WHA Radio in Madison, stations that now are part of PBS Wisconsin and WPR’s Ideas Network. He went on to leadership roles at the University of Wisconsin System. He also established a consultancy, Bornstein and Associates, that provided executive search and strategic management services to stations.
In posts at public broadcasting’s national organizations, Bornstein worked as VP of telecommunications at CPB and as interim president of NPR.
Though Bornstein is celebrated as the station leader who saved NPR from bankruptcy, his influence on public broadcasting ran much deeper than his brief stint as interim NPR president, according to former colleagues. Much of his success came down to his personality and communications skills.
“He was a very impressive guy … totally charming and a really good people person,” said Jack Mitchell, a former director of Wisconsin Public Radio who worked with Bornstein and chronicled his role at NPR in his book Listener Supported: The Culture and History of Public Radio. “He had a way of spotting people he thought had potential. He was a great mentor and quietly helped people see their potential.
“The other great thing about him was his decisiveness,” Mitchell said. “He’d charm people into going along with him.” Bornstein could be tough and tended to make quick judgments about people that weren’t always fair, Mitchell added. He was “extraordinarily persuasive” and skilled at “bulldozing his way through with a big smile and charm.”
“He was also good at business,” said David Brugger, retired president of America’s Public Television Stations, who counts himself among the people who benefited from Bornstein’s mentorship. “He knew what he needed to do and say. He … didn’t belabor anything. Once he’d done it, he moved on.”
Brugger, who started in station management, worked with Bornstein at CPB on reorganizing its television and radio divisions. Later, Bornstein hired him to take his own job as CPB’s VP of telecommunications.
“What always struck me about Ron was his absolute sense of and commitment to integrity,” said Skip Hinton, former president of the National Educational Telecommunications Association. “He was a man of character and could sometimes be a little unyielding.”
One of Bornstein’s most significant legacies was his recruiting work, which professionalized public broadcasting’s leadership ranks over time, Hinton said.
That included at NPR, where Bornstein recruited Frank Mankiewicz, a former Democratic political strategist and press secretary, to lead the organization as president in 1977, Mitchell recalled. The hire came after the merger of NPR and the Association of Public Radio Stations, a lobbying group that had lost a fight over the division of CPB funds between television and radio.
In 1976, Bornstein and “probably some other people” decided that public radio needed to be reorganized, Mitchell said. “APRS was weak. NPR was weak. He organized a merger of those two as equals.”
Bornstein led the search committee that selected a new president of the merged organization, rolling over public radio insiders who were angling for the job, Mitchell said. “He brought in Mankiewicz and forced the [NPR] board to accept it,” Mitchell said.
‘Saving’ NPR
Mankiewicz did his own steamrolling during his tenure as president, according to Brugger. As CPB’s executive overseeing radio and TV, Brugger directly observed how Mankiewicz used his political skills and connections to deflect criticism and tough questions about NPR’s spending.
In expanding NPR’s news operations and attempting to develop business income that would reduce stations’ reliance on federal money, Mankiewicz’s management team had run up a budget deficit of $6.5 million, according to A History of Public Broadcasting by John Witherspoon and Roselle Kovitz. (A 2014 New York Times obituary of Mankiewicz reported the deficit reached $9 million.)
As Mitchell sees it, Bornstein “saved” NPR when he hired Mankiewicz as president. In those startup years, there was no consensus about what NPR should be, he said. Mankiewicz built the news operation and “put NPR on the map as a journalistic organization, which is what he was asked to do,” Mitchell said.
“In my opinion, it was more important that [Bornstein] rescued NPR the first time and put Mankiewicz in there,” Mitchell said. “When Mankiewicz ran the place into bankruptcy, Ron said, ‘He’s got to go.’”
Bornstein took a leave of absence from the University of Wisconsin to run NPR as interim president, according to A History of Public Broadcasting. A United Press International report on the abrupt leadership change quoted Bornstein describing Mankiewicz’s achievements: “During the past six years public radio has gained enormous support and a justly earned reputation for excellence. Frank Mankiewicz must be credited with significant leadership in that systemwide effort. This effort has led to public radio’s unprecedented audience levels.”
Brugger and Hinton noted that Bornstein recruited top-notch financial executives to help stabilize NPR: Westinghouse Broadcasting executive George Miles, who later went on to executive leadership at WNET in New York City and WQED in Pittsburgh; and Mel Ming, who later led Sesame Workshop as COO and CEO.
“Bringing those two into the system was a huge lift,” Hinton said.
When NPR appointed Doug Bennett, an administrator at the United States Agency for International Development, as its next president in October 1983, Bornstein returned to Madison, Mitchell said. He began working in leadership at the University of Wisconsin System but stayed involved with public broadcasting through his consultancy.
Influence as a consultant
Bornstein’s achievements at the University of Wisconsin included fighting off an attempt to move the public broadcasting networks under a state agency, according to Mitchell. “All the politics were against him, but he wasn’t going to allow that to happen,” he said.
The resolution was to create Wisconsin’s Educational Communications Board, which operates the state radio and television networks under a cooperative agreement with the university.
As a consultant, Bornstein led a study of funding alternatives for Idaho Public Television, Hinton recalled. State lawmakers wanted to eliminate the network’s state appropriation. Bornstein’s analysis of other potential revenue sources changed their minds. “They said, ‘The alternatives won’t work. We give up,’” Hinton said.
Bornstein and Associates was also involved in planning the merger of Iowa’s university-owned public radio stations into the network now operating as Iowa Public Radio, according to Mitchell.
At different stages of his public broadcasting career, Bornstein served on boards of directors and executive committees of APTS, PBS and NPR. He also served on the Temporary Commission on Alternative Financing, authorized by Congress in 1981 to study the revenue potential of limited advertising on public TV stations. Bornstein was a longtime member of Wisconsin’s State Educational Communications Board and president of its foundation.
In his retirement, Bornstein worked with Hinton as a founding partner of NETA Consulting, which provides business services to stations, and continued to run executive searches for public media organizations. He also served as executive director of the Pacific Mountain Network, which provided small grants to television stations from its endowment, until 2017.
Bornstein was born in Detroit in December 1932, according to an obituary published by his family. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and served in France as a member of the U.S. Army. He began his public broadcasting career at the University of Michigan Television Center and assisted in the development of Hawaii Public Television.
His career in higher education included posts as a professor of communication arts for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Extension and acting vice-chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Extension. At the University of Wisconsin System, he worked as VP for university relations, SVP for administration and COO.
Bornstein’s family did not announce the cause of death.
Bornstein’s survivors include his wife of 64 years, Lorraine; daughter Carol Bornstein (Gene Ungar) of Arden, N.C.; sons Robert Bornstein (Kristen) of Cedarburg, Wis., and David Bornstein (Shelley) of Verona, Wis.; and eight grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be sent to Wisconsin Public Radio and Television, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706; the M.D Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX; or the Attic Angel Community, 8301 Old Sauk Rd., Middleton, WI 53562. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.