RALPH H. BOOTH, II

Following the sale of Booth Newspapers to Newhouse, Jack Booth, always tenacious, supported a renewed effort to expand the Booth American cable division which was then under the management of its Chief Operating Officer Lynn Decker. Lynn was joined by Ralph II, who had agreed to return to Detroit from working on Wall Street to head up corporate development. Lynn Decker and Ralph II formed a bond and together traveled all over the country vetting possible cable television acquisitions. Cable systems were acquired in Florida, California, North and South Carolina, and South Dakota, significantly expanding the scale of operations. In addition, the company resumed its applications for the construction of new systems and successfully won and built contiguous cable systems in Oakland County Michigan (Birmingham, Beverly Hills, Franklin, Lathrup Village and Bloomfield Township). Ralph II led the franchising team in partnership with Heritage Communications, Inc., to integrate these awards and build the franchises.

Years late, Ralph II, Jack’s younger son, in New York City hosted the Detroit chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) for a symposium to better understand how Wall Street operates. On the agenda was a tour of the New York Stock Exchange trading floor with a presentation by John Whitehead, Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs. John Whitehead was the banker for both Samuel Newhouse and Booth Newspapers (BNI). He prided himself on never engaging in a hostile offer. Before introducing John Whitehead to the group, Mr. Whitehead took Ralph aside to apologize for how things got out of his control during the takeover of Booth Newspapers. He very much believed that the outcome was in everyone’s best interests. The initial and early sale price of the Cranbrook Educational Community BNI shares to Newhouse which triggered the hostile bid was, however, at a deeply discounted price, roughly half, to the final sale price. Cranbrook would have one more opportunity to sell its newspaper stock endowment when the sale of The Evening News arose in 1985. This time Cranbrook did not repeat its mistake of selling early. Instead, it hung in and saw the sale to its conclusion and maximized the remaining value of its endowment.

Starting in the early 1980’s, it became apparent to both John and Ralph II, that the history of Scripps/ Booth clan members wishing to cash out their shares in the newspaper business was about to repeat with the Evening News Association. With little or no stock float on the local Detroit over-the-counter stock market and a general unwillingness by the Board of Directors of the Evening News to offer to repurchase family shares in this closely held business at a reasonable fair market price, family members and the Cranbrook Educational Community were eager to diversify their investments and looking to sell. Because the Evening News Board of Directors had no interest in a public offering, these shareholders were frozen. With this in mind Ralph and John, knowing the private asset value of the Evening News television stations alone to be worth considerably more than the recent public sale price of this stock, decided that they would make a market for the shares of the Evening News that was significantly higher than the going market price of recent sales. When word got out through Booth American’s agent John Grant of the securities firm of Manley, Bennett, MacDonald and Co. about John and Ralph’s offer to pay a premium price for Evening News stock, for the first time Booth American became a significant individual shareholder. John worked with family members, and Ralph worked closely with John Grant and The Cranbrook Educational Community with whom he had a relationship by virtue of the construction of the company’s cable television system near and around Cranbrook. This time Cranbrook held on to its shares and did not sell until the end. Booth American was able to accumulate the second largest holding of ENA stock after Cranbook at the time of the final sale.

Unfortunately, the Booth American purchases were not understood by the Board of Directors of the Evening News, who considered the purchases to be a creeping hostile takeover offer instead of a sincere desire to replace disinterested family shareholders with new family members who were committed to a long-term investment with a view to a possible future merger with the media interests of Booth American and others. In 1985 and 1986, the Board of Directors of the Evening News, after suing Booth American in an attempt to stop its purchases, was unable to hold the loyalty of its other family shareholders who voted to break up the company. The Detroit News was sold to Gannet Newspapers. Its big television station in Washington, DC, and WWJ AM and FM in Detroit were sold to CBS, and the remaining television stations and California newspaper were also sold. What was intended to be a longer-term family investment by Booth American suddenly became a short term windfall.

In addition to investing in cable television, the radio broadcasting division upgraded all of its facilities, especially its FM stations. In the 1960’s Jack sold his Flint stations and purchased a small daytime AM in Cleveland and its sister FM station. Over the next decades Jack’s older son John was able to trade up the AM station through two separate purchases and sales to acquire the big Clear Channel, 50,000-watt Cleveland AM 1100 radio station, then known as WWWE (WTAM). From a radio group that included small market stations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, in 15 years, John developed a strong group of major market stations serving Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis in addition to several stations in Saginaw and Toledo. Then in 1986, following sale of the Booth American shareholding in The Evening News, Booth American purchased Genesis Broadcasting, which operated stations in Denver, Sacramento, San Antonio and Austin. This separate radio group was merged into Booth American following the sale of the San Antonio and Austin radio stations in 1991. When the Federal Communications Commission expanded its local ownership rules in 1987 to permit licensees in large markets to own several AM and FM stations serving the same market, to continue to compete it became necessary to concentrate ownership in fewer larger markets. In 1992, Booth American courted other radio broadcast groups with which to merge. Ultimately Booth Broadcasting merged with a group of several major stations in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh owned by Bill Lane and managed by Frank Wood. The combined new radio group became Secret Communications, based in Cincinnati, operating multiple AM and FM stations in Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Denver and Sacramento under the management of Frank Wood with the assistance of John Booth. In order to complete this deal, John traded the company stations in Toledo and Saginaw for a second urban music FM Detroit radio station WMXD. These trades and mergers made Secret the largest radio broadcaster in audience and revenues in nearly all of its markets. Unable to expand into more markets after several attempts, and with the rapid rise in the value of radio licensees in the late 1990’s, Secret itself received offers to sell, which were ultimately accepted in 1997.

Jack’s two sons continued the radio and cable television businesses until 1997 when these U. S. based businesses were sold.

With the proceeds from these sales of assets Booth American invested in several media businesses in this country and abroad. In 2006, John chose to leave the company.

Ralph II continued as Chief Executive Officer of Booth American and co-founded European Cable Capital Partners with Goldman Sachs alongside a new partner Robert T. Goad to build digital broadband networks in the United Kingdom. The U.K. platforms were merged into NTL Incorporated, subsequently purchased by Virgin Media, and later owned by Liberty Global. This same team upon selling the U.K. business in 1999 then looked to South America to replicate building similar networks, including Cablevision Holdings, S.A., the majority shareholder of Telecom Argentina, forming the first fully convergent telecommunications provider in South America (Mobile and Fixed Line Telephony, Digital Broadband and Internet services). Booth American Company remains a large shareholder in this enterprise.

In the run up to the 1994 World Cup hosted by the United States, Detroit was not an obvious choice of venues for the games. The matches required natural turf in keeping with the open-air soccer stadiums throughout the world. FIFA (the Federation Internationalde Football Association), the international football association, faced a problem. In their chosen World Cup host country, the U.S., covered stadiums with artificial turf were the rule. FIFA in choosing the U.S. to host the games was keen to learn if an indoor stadium could maintain natural grass, given the inclement weather of many countries in which football (soccer) was played. Fortunately for Detroit, the Michigan State University Forestry Department had a solution which integrated the opaque ceiling of the Pontiac (Michigan) Silverdome Stadium with the replacement of artificial turf with natural turf. Additionally, a great son of Michigan and state booster, Alan Rothenburg, the chairman and CEO of the 1994 World Cup hosted by the USA. Paul Tosetti, a close colleague of Alan in the Los Angeles law firm of Latham and Watkins, introduced Alan to Ralph II at a meeting in London, England, where Ralph II was working on building a U K broadband cable platform for television and telephony. Paul, a friend of Ralph II, had been a Harvard classmate. Alan needed someone to take charge of the effort to lock up the key anchor automotive sponsorship for the World Cup, which in the past had never been a U.S. based Original Equipment Manufacturer. Ralph II accepted the challenge and joined the Detroit Hosting Committee charged with securing this sponsorship. The World Cup sponsorship package went out to all three large domestic car companies. Being a close personal friend of Bill Ford, Jr., who had played soccer, Ralph II assumed that Ford would quickly accept. But, Ford Motor passed, just as time was running out for Detroit to be selected for the eighth and final U S game venue. Ralph II decided to host an event on the terrace of Cranbrook House for the Detroit Automotive leadership with Alan Rothenburg, displaying the World Cup trophy, and showcasing Alexi Lalas, the U.S. Men’s Soccer team captain, who was also a distinguished Cranbrook School alumnus. Robert Stempel, the then Chief Executive Officer of General Motors, attended with his GM team and was given the opportunity to hold the World Cup trophy. Several weeks later, General Motors agreed to sponsor the games. This critical factor, now in hand, enhanced Detroit’s chances of selection, which came to pass in short order.

In 2009, at the inception of venture capital interest in next generation mobility, Ralph II with Booth American joined William C. Ford, Jr., Mark Schulz, and Ralph II’s son-in-law Christopher Cheever to form FONTINALIS PARTNERS, based in Detroit and Boston. Fontinalis was the first venture capital fund to develop a mobility thesis to invest in emerging technologies that enhance movement of people and goods, based on ideas Bill Ford had conceived several years prior while contemplating challenges facing the automotive industry in a world of evolving Megacities. Ralph II was the Managing Partner from inception and recently stepped back as Founder Emeritus. In addition to their own funds, Fontinalis raises and invests public capital.

In 2026, Booth American, founded December 1, 1939, will celebrate the 85th anniversary of Booth family ownership. In addition, February 1, 2026, will be the 100th anniversary of the company which became Booth American Company.