Dennis Swanson was born on February 12,1938 and is an American retired television executive.
22 Facts About Dennis Swanson
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Dennis Swanson helped to create The Oprah Winfrey Show, and it was his suggestion that led to the Winter Olympics being staged two years after each Summer Olympics.
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Dennis Swanson waited tables at the Pi Phi sorority house in exchange for meals.
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Dennis Swanson then returned to Illinois and earned a master's degree in communication and political science.
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Dennis Swanson's broadcasting career began in 1965 as a sports reporter for WMT radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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Dennis Swanson took his first Chicago job in 1966 as news producer for WGN radio and television, becoming an assignment editor for the Chicago bureau of NBC News in 1968.
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Dennis Swanson then was promoted to general manager of ABC's Chicago station, WLS-TV, in 1983, when its general manager resigned.
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Dennis Swanson filled the void by hiring Oprah Winfrey, who had been hosting a talk show at WJZ-TV in Baltimore.
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When Winfrey was honored with the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 75th Golden Globe Awards in 2018, Swanson was the first person she thanked, for taking "a chance on me".
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Dennis Swanson was credited with reversing a years-long ratings slide for WLS's newscasts, arriving at a newsroom he called a "circus".
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Two years after Dennis Swanson departed, under his protege Joe Ahern, WLS-TV was described as a "juggernaut" with dominating leads in all local news time slots.
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Dennis Swanson was named president of the TV stations division of ABC in 1985.
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In 1986, Dennis Swanson was tapped to succeed Roone Arledge as president of ABC Sports; he would report to Arledge, who remained president of news and sports and would be the executive producer of ABC's coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics.
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Dennis Swanson scrapped the three-man booth Arledge instituted for Monday Night Football, naming Al Michaels as the play-by-play voice.
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Dennis Swanson secured rights to the Belmont Stakes, giving ABC rights to the full Triple Crown, plus signed Jack Nicklaus as a golf commentator and brought Brent Musburger to the network after his high-profile firing from CBS in 1990.
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One of Dennis Swanson's most enduring ideas in sports would not even air on ABC.
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At a breakfast with Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Dennis Swanson suggested that the IOC stagger the Summer and Winter Olympics, which at that time ran in the same year.
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In December 1990, Dennis Swanson added oversight of the daytime and children's divisions of ABC Entertainment.
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Dennis Swanson relinquished these additional responsibilities in 1993 to focus on the sports division.
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In 1995, The Walt Disney Company acquired ABC, 80 percent owner of ESPN, and a major restructuring of ABC Sports followed in which Dennis Swanson retired; he opted to leave knowing that a merged ABC Sports and ESPN did not need two presidents.
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The move upset NBC executives who thought he had retired for good; Dennis Swanson cited the increased value in Viacom's stock options as one of the key reasons he moved, though he had previously stated he would retire at 65.
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In 2016, Dennis Swanson retired from the Fox Television Stations group.