Frederic W. Ziv was a visionary in the truest meaning of the word. Born in Cincinnati in 1905, Mr. Ziv attended Hughes High School and went on to earn a law degree from the University of Michigan. Always a writer at heart, Mr. Ziv returned to Cincinnati to try and find a niche where he could employee his writing and promotion skills. In time, Mr. Ziv founded his own advertising agency and in 1930 he recognized a great untapped potential in the still fledgling area of radio broadcasting. Mr. Ziv was one of the first to understand that local and regional advertisers who could not afford to sponsor large national broadcasts, would still be willing to sponsor high quality syndicated programs if they were made available. The first Ziv company offering was a show called “The Freshest Thing in Town” that was part kids-show, part soap opera. The show’s sponsorship appealed to bakers and breadmakers and Mr. Ziv would travel to markets around the region “selling” the show. The success of “Freshest Thing…” opened the door to greater things for the company. By 1947, the Ziv Company was, by far, the largest and most successful syndicator of radio programs--an international company with offices in all of the key-media cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. With the advent of television, the Ziv company grew even more with over 1800 employees worldwide. Always the visionary, Ziv would film his shows in color before color television was widely available because he knew the demand would be there in the future. In 1965, Fred Ziv sold his company to United Artists and retired to a life of academia at the University of Cincinnati. He brought with him to the University his personal collection of original radio master recordings, documents, contracts, scripts and other memorabilia. The collection has been largely unavailable for many years but through the cooperation of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Elecetronic Media Division, Media heritage, inc. is pleased to restore and make this collection available to current and future generations interested in Mr. Ziv’s life work.
There are over 11,000 transcription discs and master tapes of Ziv’s 42 different radio shows (some are duplicates—see attached list of show titles) making this, by far, the largest single collection in the Media Heritage archive. In addition, Mr. Ziv saved seven boxes of documents including contracts, promotional material, photographs, notes, awards and other material. There are another ten boxes of radio scripts including some television scripts to round out the collection.
Mr. Ziv always took a “hands-on” approach to his business and its success and it is to his credit that this personal interest has led to the legacy of valuable artifacts that make up this collection. Media Heritage is both thrilled and honored to share this collection with researchers and future generations.
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