Bruce DuMont dies
Founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, WTTW alum, dies at 81
Bruce DuMont, known as the host of Beyond The Beltway and the founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, died from cancer complications on Wednesday at the age of 81.
DuMont was born in New London, Conn. in 1944 and moved to Chicago shortly thereafter. His uncle was Allen B. DuMont, who co-invented the cathode ray tube and founded the DuMont Television Network, the original “fourth network” that folded in 1956.
A graduate of Columbia College, DuMont landed his first job at WEEF-AM in north suburban Highland Park as a weekend fill-in host. In the 1960s, DuMont was a producer for Jim Conway’s show at ABC’s WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) and moved to WGN-TV as a producer-director. He left media for an unsuccessful run for office, but returned to produce a radio show at WGN-AM and co-hosted a show for Evanston’s WLTD.
In the 1970s, Dumont worked for several local media outlets in a variety of roles, including programs at WBEZ-FM and the former WFYR-FM, and producer of WBBM-TV’s Noonbreak from 1978 to 1981, when the show was canceled at year’s end.
While at WBEZ, DuMont showed a show called Inside Politics, which segued into Beyond The Beltway, with stops at WIND-AM, WLS-AM/FM (when during this time, it entered national syndication), WCGO-AM, and was shown on WYCC and TCI Chicago’s public access channel. DuMont retired from the show in January due to his declining health.
DuMont also helped launch WTTW’s public-affairs news program Chicago Tonight in 1984, where he was a field correspondent, producer, and fill-in host for John Calloway, and also hosted the station’s Illinois Lawmakers. He left the station in 1991 to focus more time on his duties at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, which he founded four years earlier to preserve Chicago’s TV and radio history.
In 2012, DuMont finally opened the museum in the River North neighborhood at the southwest corner of State and Kinzie. However, the museum struggled to draw visitors, especially after the pandemic, and was closed in 2023 (the museum will return in a pop-up location in the West Loop this fall.) By this time, DuMont had stepped down from the organization.
DuMont certainly had his share of distractors. In 2012, Howard Stern blasted DuMont for inducting him into the Radio Hall of Fame after he left, when lesser-known people had entered before him, and declined to attend the ceremony. And this space was critical of him for the cost overruns and delays the museum in River North endured after the project, leaving the building half-finished for years, which looked like an eyesore (one this writer had to see every day while I worked across the street.) This space also ripped him for the way MBC was run, as inferior compared to its peers The Paley Museum and the UCLA Television Archives.
Even though this writer wasn’t a fan of him personally, you can’t deny the passion DuMont put into preserving Chicago’s media history and his political knowledge.
I worked with Bruce for a short time. I found him to be despicable. My feeling was that he hated women.
I quit my job as director of public relations for a major publishing company. I think it was 1976. The President was a friend and he asked me to stay on, until he could find someone to replace me. Eventually, he found Bruce and brought him in. He wasn’t there one hour when he had me vacate my office and ordered me to a cubbyhole. It turned out that he had no idea what he was doing. Had never done public relations, publicity or promotion and, had never worked in publishing. He expected me to train him. He would buzz me and order me into my former office. Had a tape recorder running and he would say, I am meeting today with LR. Tell me step by step, how you set up author tours to promote their books. He spoke down to me and threatened me. I was leaving of my own accord to start my own business. I only stayed because my friend asked if I would help out.
I put up with his crap for about a week and then, I walked out. But before I left, he warned everyone not to speak with me. Told the receptionist to call him and watch what I took out with me. Again, he has NO idea what he was doing and as I recall, he wasn’t in that position for very long. In all my years in business, no one has ever treated me the way Dumont did. Those who did not work with him, have no idea what he was really like.
I get along with most people fairly well. Bruce was the exception. Clearly, I have never forgotten how he made me feel. the day that I walked out, I told him that I would not continue to put up with his treatment, and that I would be leaving that day. He then said to me “you’re fired.” I said, you can’t fire me. I quit 2 months ago, agreed to stay until they found someone. You’re on your own.
I wonder if he still had the tapes of him having me explain in detail, how I ran the department. When I saw his name come up in Robert Feder’s column about 10 years ago, my first thought was “he’s dead.” I thought he was reporting that Dumont kicked the bucket, not retired. I was ready to rejoice. Made me want to draft something, telling him off…even 40 years later!
I remember when he married Kathy Osterman. She died soon after they were married. I didn’t know her but, their union seemed questionable to me then. I always felt he might be gay but, never heard it mentioned anywhere.
It sounds like his decision to “retire” 10 years ago, had something to do with his boyfriend’s arrest for child porn. Wonder why news about that arrest wasn’t more widely known. I am a local media junkie and marvel as to why I never saw any of that.