Daniel Burke

Daniel B. Burke was CEO of Capital Cities/ABC from 1990 to 1994, years when the media conglomerate became the nation's leading source of information and entertainment. After serving as an infantry lieutenant in the Korean War, Burke earned an MBA at Harvard, and became a product development manager for General Foods, with responsibility for the Jell-O product line. He became involved in broadcasting in 1961, when his friend Thomas Murphy hired him to run a small UHF television station in Albany, New York. At the time, the company's only other major asset was a second station in Durham, North Carolina. From this relatively modest beginning, Burke and Murphy built Capital Cities into a media empire. With daily and weekly newspapers, shopping guides, business publications, book publishing, a television production company, eight television stations, 21 radio stations, and cable channels including A&E and ESPN. In 1986, Capital Cities acquired ABC Television. As President and Chief Operating Officer, Burke built the debt-ridden network into the industry leader, succeeding to the CEO role in 1990. Mr. Burke retired from Cap Cities in 1994, and the company was subsequently purchased by the Walt Disney Company. In this address to the Academy of Achievement, recorded during the 1992 Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, he discusses the personal qualities he credits for his own success. He recalls the love and support of his parents, and urges the Academy's student delegates to read to their children, as his parents read to him. He stresses the values of friendship, and the essential value of honesty in all relationships, especially business ones.