{"id":606,"date":"2013-10-06T21:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=606"},"modified":"2013-10-07T07:51:38","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T12:51:38","slug":"dumont-to-step-back-from-museum-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2013\/10\/06\/dumont-to-step-back-from-museum-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"DuMont to step back from museum operations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bruce<\/a>

<\/a> Bruce DuMont<\/p><\/div>\n

Thirty years after he founded the Museum of Broadcast Communications,<\/a> Bruce DuMont is ready to let someone else run the show.<\/p>\n

DuMont, 69, said he plans to recommend that his board of directors hire an executive director or general manager to succeed him in overseeing day-to-day operations along with sales and marketing functions at the Chicago museum.<\/p>\n

But he insisted that he remains no less passionate about its mission: \u201cThe museum continues to be an important part of my life, and I think there\u2019s a lot more that I can give to the institution,\u201d he told me. DuMont said he will continue as president and CEO of the nonprofit organization he incorporated on Oct. 5, 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wearing all of the hats. I don\u2019t think for the good of the institution that\u2019s a good idea anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to professionalize the staff in a variety of ways, and we should start with the person that\u2019s coordinating the day-to-day operations. That\u2019s not my strong suit, it\u2019s not what I like to do, and there are far better people who can do that than I.\u201d<\/p>\n

DuMont\u2019s announcement comes 16 months after the museum officially reopened in its new $27 million edifice at 360 North State Street. The shrine to broadcast history and repository of programs and artifacts had been closed for nearly a decade as delays in state funding and other problems stalled construction.<\/p>\n

Once he\u2019s freed from managing the museum, DuMont said he can focus his energy on raising funds and raising awareness \u2014 especially on the West Coast, where he hopes to expand the museum\u2019s national profile and broaden its base of financial support. He\u2019ll continue to live in Chicago but spend much more time in Los Angeles.\u00a0DuMont called it \u201ccoincidental\u201d that his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live in L.A. \u201cIt\u2019s good to have your family out there, but the most important thing is it\u2019s where the next level of the museum must go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked to assess the museum\u2019s first year in its new home, DuMont said: \u201cI think it\u2019s been creatively diverse. The ongoing challenge of operations is the same as at any other institution. If we had a larger advertising budget, we probably could have done a better job of attracting tourist traffic. But the things we\u2019ve done and the programs we\u2019ve sponsored have raised our visibility. I think it\u2019s been a very successful year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its themed exhibits on the history of television and radio in America (with special emphasis on Chicago), the museum also houses the National Radio Hall of Fame and the broadcast studio for \u201cBeyond the Beltway,\u201d the weekly political talk show DuMont has hosted since 1980.<\/p>\n

With younger leadership onboard, DuMont said he\u2019s eager to see the museum evolve in the digital age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity for a new generation of innovative entrepreneurs at the board level and the staff level,\u201d he said. \u201cThis institution should be an incubator of new ideas in new media because the world is changing. My original idea, which goes back to 1982, was for this to be a place where people could come and watch historic television shows and listen to historic radio shows. I didn\u2019t know about the Internet or streaming media then. So we opened a building where people could come in and look at our analog tapes on our VHSes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Internet and streaming media have raised that initial idea to unlimited opportunity. We\u2019ve been focused on bricks and mortar for 10 years here. Now the focus can be on building the digital aspect of it, creating and expanding educational products that can be used by students all over the world. That\u2019s what the Museum of Broadcast Communications should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

DuMont said he\u2019d been strongly thinking about stepping down from day-to-day management for some time \u2014 long before he underwent surgery last month to replace a stent in a coronary artery. (He said he\u2019s feeling fine now.)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor any founder of anything, there comes a time when you say: \u2018OK, can somebody do a better job of this than I can?\u2019 Insofar as operating the museum on a daily basis, yes, I think there are people who can do a better job of doing that than I can. Is there someone who\u2019s got more passion for the institution than I have? I doubt that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has defined my life for 30 years, and I\u2019ve put a lot into it for 30 years. It\u2019s come a long way from an idea to where it is today. And I think it can go a lot further in the next 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty years after he founded the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Bruce DuMont is ready to let someone else run the show. DuMont, 69, said he plans to recommend that his board of directors hire an executive director or general manager to succeed him in overseeing day-to-day operations along with sales and marketing functions at the... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}