Robert Blackmore, the former executive VP of the NBC Television Network, died March 9, according to his family. He was 90.
After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Blackmore began his TV career as a page and sales service representative for CBS in Hollywood.
He joined NBC in 1953 as a sales supervisor. After stints in NBC’s San Francisco and Chicago offices, he returned to the West Coast to open a sale office for the Today show and the Tonight Show.
Blackmore moved to New York as a network account executive and rose to senior VP of advertising sales, ringing up the first $1 billion upfront for the 1985-86 season. He was also responsible for sales and marketing of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Games.
He retired from NBC in 1994 but co-founded Studio One Networks, one of the first internet syndicated content marketing companies in 1997.
Just a week before his passing, Blackmore was bopping to his grandson's music in Boston, enjoying a ride in his Porsche with family, reading the New York Times, and dipping his toes in the sand. “Beautiful” and “It's all good!” he said multiple times each day, according to his family.
He is survived by two daughter and four grandsons.
Services will be held on April 8, 2017 in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, at the First Congregational Church. A memorial in Los Angeles is also being planned.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Advertising Federation’s Robert C. Blackmore Fund, which supports, recognizes and fosters talented students and young people seeking a career in advertising; University of Southern California Memory and Aging Center or the Greenwich (Tod's) Point Conservancy.
