William F. Baker (television)
| William F. "Bill" Baker | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Franklin Baker September 20, 1942 Cleveland, Ohio |
William Franklin "Bill" Baker (born September 20, 1942) directs the Bernard L. Schwartz Center for Media, Education, and Public Policy at Fordham University, where he is also Journalist-in-Residence and a professor in the Graduate School of Education. He is a professor at IESE Business School and is President Emeritus of WNET, New York’s public media station. Over the four decades of his career, Dr. Baker has been a broadcaster, executive, author, public speaker, academic, and explorer.
Baker’s career spans four decades. During his twenty years as chief executive officer of WNET, he raised over $1 billion for the station through fundraisers, and established the largest endowment in the history of public television. Baker introduced the landmark program Charlie Rose, oversaw the station’s transition to digital broadcasting, and launched WNET’s first of many cable channels, MetroArts/Thirteen.
Before joining WNET, he was president of Westinghouse Television and chairman of their cable and programming companies. At Westinghouse, Baker introduced Oprah Winfrey as a talk show host and established PM Magazine as the #1 syndicated program in America in the 1980s. During Baker’s tenure, Westinghouse also launched five cable networks, including the Discovery Channel and the Disney Channel.
Baker is the executive producer of the The Face: Jesus in Art, a landmark Emmy-winning feature film that traces the image of Jesus Christ in art around the world and across two millennia. He is also executive producer of the forthcoming film SACRED, which will depict sites and rituals from the sacred calendar of a diversity of world religions.
Baker is co-author of the books The World's Your Stage: How Performing Artists Can Make a Living While Still Doing What They Love, based on a class he teaches at The Juilliard School and Fordham University, Every Leader is an Artist and Leading with Kindness: How Good People Consistently Get Superior Results. Baker also hosted the 2008 PBS documentary Leading with Kindness. Baker is also the co-author of Down the Tube: An Insider’s Account of the Failure of American Television and the author of Lighthouse Island: Our Family Escape.
Baker is former Chairman of the National Parks System Advisory Board, and serves on the board of Rodale Press. He holds a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, and seven honorary doctorates from universities in America and Europe. In cooperation with Fordham University, he teaches The Business of the Performing Arts, Juilliard’s only business course.
Dr. Baker’s long-standing commitment to promoting education led him to establish WNET’s Educational Resources Center, the nation’s most prolific trainer in multimedia teaching techniques. He also founded the Bernard L. Schwartz Center for Media, Education, & Public Policy at Fordham University, and was an annual speaker at WNET’s Celebration of Teaching and Learning.
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