CHANGES AT CBS: THE KEY PLAYERS : William S.Paley

CBS founder Paley, now 84, was 26 when he borrowed $400,000 from his father to buy a floundering New York radio network called Columbia Broadcasting. His father had run a lumber firm in Russia, then made cigars in Philadelphia.

A ladies’ man, party goer and gourmet, Paley as a young man vowed to make his fortune and retire by 35. But he became instead obsessed by the infant medium of radio.

After World War II, he helped create television. Part of his vision included treating CBS’ news division as special, exempt from many of the financial pressures of the company. That helped protect CBS from government pressure. It also helped build a sense of quality around the CBS name.

Some on Wall Street thought that Paley was getting old and out of touch back in 1979, following the death a year earlier of his wife. Paley then seemed content to leave CBS finally to a new generation, specifically to chief executive John D. Backe.

A year later Backe was gone, just as four years earlier Paley had ousted Backe’s predecessor Arthur Taylor, and before that Frank Stanton and John A. Schneider.

Laurence A. Tisch

Balding, bland, 63-year-old Tisch is widely considered one of the most brilliant minds in American business. Forbes magazine has made a habit of following Tisch’s investments. If Larry Tisch is investing in bonds, it’s a story.

Tisch’s career began in 1946 when he quit Harvard Law School to join brother Bob and father Al in the purchase of a small New Jersey resort. They had built a national hotel chain by 1959 when federal law forced a split between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Loews movie house chain.

What might have seemed a chain of aging movie houses to some looked like real estate to Tisch and his brother, who razed several theaters and built hotels. They took over the Lorillard tobacco company in 1968. The insurance company CNA came in 1974 and Bulova watches in 1979.

Tisch, a member of the board of Getty Oil, was a key figure in the sale of the firm to Texaco in 1984, consulting closely with Gordon Getty in the final hours.

A year later, CBS Chairman Thomas H. Wyman also sought out Tisch’s advice and support during CBS’ takeover challenge from cable mogul Ted Turner.

Thomas H. Wyman

Wyman joined CBS from Pillsbury Co., the Minneapolis-based food company, where he had been vice chairman. Before that, he was president and chief executive of Green Giant Co., which Pillsbury acquired in 1979.

And prior to that, he held a number of positions at Polaroid Corp. in Cambridge, Mass., during his 10 years there beginning in 1965.

Wyman spent several years in Europe in the early 1960s working for Nestle Co., the giant Swiss food company, in various capacities.

He kept a low profile during his first years with CBS. But, in his fifth year, he was thrust into the public light by a series of events that still haven’t abated.

Wyman sparked dissension within CBS, particularly its news division, when he moved to cut costs by firing hundreds of employees. He also oversaw the sale of assets to help pay off the huge debt CBS incurred in its stock repurchasing program.

Morale suffered when Wyman and his team pressured the news division to contribute more to profits, which led some at CBS to accuse him of abandoning CBS’ tradition of integrity.