Ed Ansin the maverick TV station owner and the last of a generation has passed away at 84 years old.

Ansin owned both WSVN in Miami and WHDH in Boston.

He was an owner that stood up to both NBC and Fox and did not back down. Twice NBC tried to bully him and both times he didn’t budge.

When WSVN lost the NBC affiliation in the late 80’s, Ansin decided to beef up the station’s news department and go independent. WSVN became a Fox affiliate back in the days when Fox was only providing network shows on weekends.

NBC tried to bully Ansin again years later in Boston and WHDH also became an independent station.

Ed Ansin believed in local news and he was not afraid to spend large amounts of money on his news operation.

The story of Ansin’s passing is not yet posted on WSVN’s website, but we expect it to be soon.

Here is the internal memo that went out to the staff at WSVN in Miami and obtained by FTVLive:

It is with immense sorrow that I am writing this email to let you know Ed Ansin passed away today. Ed was a broadcast pioneer and a true leader, at WSVN, WHDH and WLVI, in the community, and in both the real estate and broadcast industries.

 Besides his family, Ed loved nothing more than owning and operating his television stations.  We are all so fortunate to have worked for a man who truly cared about his employees and the industry.

 We will all miss Ed tremendously, but WSVN, WHDH, WLVI and Sunbeam Real Estate are in all good hands. We will have a seamless transition to the next generation of Ansin leadership with sons Andy and James, who will work closely with me. Andy and James will also work closely with Jim Goggins and Rodney Bacher to continue Sunbeam’s tradition of success in real estate and investing.

 Our thoughts and prayers are with the Ansin family.

 Sincerely,
Paul Magnes

Full disclosure: I worked for Ed Ansin at WSVN back in the mid-’90s.

My condolences to his family.