Word: cbs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Brooklyn house painter, Yetnikoff joined CBS Records as a lawyer in 1961 and rose to the president's job by 1975. He proved to be a superb negotiator, a world-class schmoozer and a self-described "rabbi, priest, marriage counselor, banker and shrink" to the leading rock stars. As the years wore on, however, Yetnikoff seemed to relish waging wars on those he felt were disloyal...
With his stocky build, spread-collar shirts and locker-room charm, Walter Yetnikoff fit right in among the sharp-elbowed power brokers in the music business. He was tone-deaf as well, yet for 15 years the colorful and fiery Yetnikoff steered CBS Records (major labels: Columbia, Epic) to world prominence. He boosted its revenues from $485 million in 1975 to well over $2 billion last year, when it ranked second only to the Warner Music Group. In the process, Yetnikoff managed to foster some of the most profitable talent ever to reach the music industry, from Michael Jackson...
Yetnikoff's devilish humor, irreverence for authority and barbed tongue were legendary. At a CBS Inc. shareholders meeting in 1986, he fell asleep at the dais -- or pretended to. He liked to refer to former CBS chief Thomas Wyman as "the goy upstairs" and to Wyman's successor, the frugal Laurence Tisch, with whom he feuded openly, as "the kike upstairs." When Tisch sold the record company to Sony, Yetnikoff, who engineered the deal, walked away with a $20 million bonus...
...into a costly $500 million deal to hire Jon Peters and Peter Guber, the producers of Batman, to run the movie studio. But rival Warner Bros. contended it had a contract with the producers and sued Sony. In a settlement, Warner won valuable properties, including half-ownership of the CBS record club...
Last year the award was won by an independent Polish journalist and organizer of the underground press. Other past recipients include Zwelekhe Sisulu, editor of New Nation of South Africa, and CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow...