By Paul Lanning

Sacramento City College Alumnus Redefined Network Television Programming as ABC’s President



Terms like “revolutionary” and “unparalleled” get tossed around all too casually these days. Often times that results in someone who truly is revolutionary, who is unparalleled in his or her field, fading into history unrecognized by the generations that follow.



Elton Hoerl Rule was such a man. He revolutionized not just a company, but an industry and indeed society as we know it. He was unparalleled not just in his own time, but perhaps in the history of his industry.



Born in Stockton, California in 1917, Rule migrated to Sacramento City College after high school and, upon graduation, landed a job at a small local radio station, KROY. He was later quoted as saying that his first job consisted of being an "announcer dash writer dash salesman dash producer dash director dash…”



“On those stations, you did everything,” he said. “You went out and sold ads, came back and wrote the copy, put a show together – news, interviews, music – and did the announcing."



This hands-on experience as a young man in the years before World War II would shape the course of Rule’s career.



Rule saw infantry combat in the Pacific during the Second World War, attaining the rank of major and earning a Purple Heart. After the war, he relocated to Los Angeles and sold advertising for a local television station.



"KLAC had a television station, Channel 13, but nobody paid any attention to it," Rule later said. "I became one of the first salesmen to try and sell TV time."

Rule moved on to KECA (now KABC), the local ABC network affiliate, and by 1960 had become station manager. Despite ABC being trounced in the ratings nationally on a regular basis by CBS and NBC, Rule kept his station atop the ratings battle locally in the Los Angeles market.



In 1968, with ABC languishing in a distant third place among the three national networks and losing money, Rule was summoned to New York to translate the success he had in Los Angeles into something much greater, becoming president of ABC Television. He succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.



In rapid succession over the next four years, he became a group vice president of ABC Inc., a member of the board of directors and, in 1972, president and chief operating officer of the entire company.



It was as head of ABC that Rule truly revolutionized a company, an industry, and what we have come to expect and demand from network television. In moving ABC from worst to first among networks in an astonishingly short period, Rule also found and fostered the growth of many of the pioneers of network television programming, including Aaron Spelling, Roone Arledge, and Fred Silverman, among others.



Under Rule’s leadership, ABC introduced new types of television programming that changed the medium, including “Monday Night Football” in 1969 and, in ensuing years, the whole concept of the made-for-television movies and the television mini-series. Rule also pushed the network to become the leader for sports programming, including not just football but also the Olympic Games and Major League Baseball.



During this period ABC also launched an unprecedented run of light-hearted, broad appeal series such as “Happy Days”, “Love Boat”, and “Charlie’s Angels”. At the same time, Rule focused on building ABC News into the industry leader by aggressively recruiting leading print reporters and expanding news bureaus globally. By the mid-1980s ABC News was the leading broadcast journalism operation in the U.S.



Within four years of Rule’s 1968 arrival, ABC was profitable. In four more years, it was television’s number one network in prime time. By 1977 ABC was collecting more money for advertising time than any other media company in the world.



From 1968, when Rule arrived in New York, to 1983, when he retired, Rule instigated and led ABC’s amazing era of growth in all categories. ABC increased its number of television affiliates from 146 to 214 stations and its radio affiliates from 365 to 1,800. Company revenues grew from $600 million to $2.7 billion. Earnings increased from $13.5 million to $160 million.



In Rule’s later years, he returned to California, was active in political advocacy and non-profit leadership, founded two production companies, and bought and sold television stations, becoming a very wealthy man. He passed away at age 72 in 1990, a victim of cancer.



Upon his death, Elton Rule was heralded for creating, as historian Douglas Gomery wrote, “a television network empire, an economic, political, social, and cultural force second to none in the history of television.”



From his humble beginnings in Stockton, armed with his associate's degree from Sacramento City College, Elton Rule built one of the most successful and influential careers in the history of television and radio. He was revolutionary indeed, and unparalleled in his lasting impact on his industry and popular culture.