J. Leonard Reinsch

James Leonard Reinsch was White House Press Secretary in 1945 and served under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Reinsch was one of the most famous names in radio broadcasting. He was called on by Governor James M. Cox in 1939 to manage WSB. He eventually became president and CEO of Cox Broadcasting Corporation. In March 1973, Reinsch was presented the coveted Gold Medal award from the International Radio and Television Society. In September 2003 the Library of American Broadcasting named Reinsch as one of the "First Fifty Giants of Broadcasting". He also served as a key advisor to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. In 1960, he arranged for the now historic TV debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Reinsch retired in 1973 from Cox Broadcasting.

Career

J. Leonard Reinsch was never Press Secretary to President Truman, according to Eban Ayers ( http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/ayers1.htm ) who served as assistant press secretary under both Presidents, Roosevelt and Truman.

Reinsch was born in Streator, Illinois in 1908; had schooling in Chicago majoring in Advertising at Northwestern University while working at Radio Station WLS. He started in radio in 1924; did his first television in 1931; and wrote a thesis on radio which won the D. F. Keller prize at Northwestern and was instrumental in getting an association with Governor Cox in Dayton, Ohio in 1934. He took over the development of what was then WHIO for Governor Cox. Reinsch was sent to Atlanta, in 1939, when the Governor purchased the Atlanta Journal and Georgian and the radio stations. He was put in charge of WSB radio. In 1942 he was put in charge of the three radio stations.; station WIOD Miami, WSB Atlanta, WHIG in Dayton.

In 1944 his national political works started with a call from President Roosevelt to Governor Cox. In 1920 Governor Cox had run for President on the Democratic ticket and selected as his running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt; these two men had a close friendly relationship. When the Democratic Party needed a radio man in 1944 President Roosevelt called Governor Cox and asked to borrow his radio man, Leonard Reinsch.

External links

• J. Leonard Reinsch Oral History Interview