Satellite Pioneer Robert Wold Dies At 87

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, Aug. 10, in Irvine, Calif. He was 87.

Wold’s  Los Angeles start-up company, The Robert Wold Co., 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).

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 Sept. 11, 1925, in Minneapolis. Following graduation from Minneapolis Southwest High School, Wold served in the US Navy from 1943 to 1946. 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 of 165 U.S. TV stations.

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, 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.

More on his career can be found in his profile in Broadcasting magazine in 1977.

He is survived by his ex-wife Mary Wold of Brentwood, Calif.; son Peter Wold of Playa del Rey, Calif.; daughters Margaret Wold-Sackey of Laguna Niguel, Calif.; and Molly Seidel of Coto de Caza, Calif., as well as his six grandchildren — Sterling Sackey, Brooke Seidel, Erika Seidel, Vincent Sackey, Chase Seidel and Isabella Sackey. His first son, Robert John, died in 1981.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations in Wold’s name to his alma mater, the University of Minnesota. Click here for more information.