Midmorning With Aundrea - August 10, 2020 (Part 2) [ENCORE PRESENTATION]

(Part 2 of 2.

Originally aired August 4, 2020) We meet a man with a lifelong history with CBS broadcasting!

Right bait it is as much a part of the network -as the name itself.

Wherever you see cbs, you see the cbs eye.

And those cbs eyes have long had a beloved champion.

Lee cowan, pays him a visit: "&beep, beep beep&.cbs presents this program in color& &" not everything changes on tv& "this, is cbs..

& that eye has been staring out of our tv screens ever since 1951.

"the inspiration / 15:43:44 was from an amish hex sign that was on a barn in pennsylvania.

// 15:43:58 the all- seeing eye which would protect them because it was all seeing."

Now if you're wondering if there's a keeper of such memorabilia around here - there isn't - not officially anyway.

"i'm making toast!

Which is where george schweitzer comes in.

"...pop... "it's better to b cbs toast, than to be toast.

.

Right?"

If that sounds like a marketing slogan - that's because that's how schweitzer made his living.

Until this past spring - he was cbs' chairman of marketing.

"...typing... for nearly three decades - his job - a big one - has been to get your eye, on ours.

"...doink, doink doink...."

And along the way, he turned his office - into a mammoth scrapbook of his efforts... "before i knew it... "this happened..

"this happened / 13:38:50 it just kind of grew and grew and grew and the next thing i knew, i was a hoarder!"

Broadcasting cast its spell early on the schweitzer family - cbs especially.

His mom worked at cbs - he met his wife at cbs - heck as a young boy he even appeared on cbs - on the game show to tell the truth.

"the rest, i history as we say..."

From news to sports, to kid's shows - he did it all.

"this is my scrip binder from the legendary captain kangaroo... lee: oh my gosh&" "if you hadn' collected this stuff, what would have happened to it?"

"landfill?

I don' know."

It was william s paley who founded the columbia broadcasting system back in 1928.

He's pretty much a legend around here - and as legend has it - this contraption - was his.

"george: this is custom made remote control // 15:55:38 it was attached to the tv, which must have been pretty far away from his desk..."

This isn't paley's tv set but it's collectable nonetheless.

He's got stacks of old cbs radios too&broadcasting nostalgia.

But all of the hardware meant nothing -- if people weren't tuning in - and that was where schweitzer shined.

"the viewer i smart.

They know the good stuff, and the not so good stuff."

"no matter ho good a marketer you are, you can't sell schlock..."

"nope, nope.

Yo can, but you can only do it once.

You can sell schlock once."

He helped launch 28 seasons of prime time shows& "and now a important announcement from this network's new late show host.

I'm dave and i want to be your tv friend.

Including david letterman's move from nbc over to cbs.

"i checked this wit the cbs attorneys, and legally i can continue to call myself dave."

Selling his sarcasm instead of being afraid of it - worked wonders.

"he was true to hi brand, he was true to his brand.

And that's what made dave, dave and makes him so special."

"don't ya think tha cbs eye thing& is kinda creepy."

"there's scienc and art, and then there's the middle magic part.

That's the magic part."

In 2006 - he gambled - deciding to market cbs's entire fall lineup - on egg shells.

Yes real eggs..

"lee leave the yolks to us cbs mondays."

He dubbed it: "egg vertising."

"lee: this wa successful because why?

George: because it was so different.

// 15:34:08 you have to be different to be successful.

You have to be different to get people to pay attention."

And pay attention - they did.

His office is a tribute to that -- the breadcrumbs of a long career -one that should have been celebrated, but that was not to be.

"it's really okay it's really okay."

George schweitzer's 47 years in his job - came to an end this past april - right in the middle of the nation's lock down.

No party - no farewell - but he'll be back.

He's currently working from home - as a special advisor for what is now viacomcbs.

"generationsns turn and that's just part of the business, that's just part of the business.

// 14:13:14 this will always be with me, cbs is never far from me."

The man with a passion for tv history - can surely, after all these years - now count himself a part of it too..

That and more