RCA's Shootout

Another president goes down

Some of the most violent action in tele vision lately appears not on-screen but in broadcasters' boardrooms. The latst victim: Maurice R. Valente, 51, fired iast week as president of RCA Corp. after just six months on the job. Like CBS President John D. Backe, dismissed seven weeks ago by CBS Chairman William S. Paley, Valente had been the heir apparent to a major communications com pany. RCA is the parent company of NBC.

Valente's ouster was especially acrimonious. Instead of a polite parting common to executive firings, the RCA press release stated bluntly: "Mr. Valente's performance over nearly six months did not meet expectations." Industry insiders say RCA Chairman Edgar H. Griffiths, 59, was offended by Valente's loose work habits and freewheeling lifestyle, such as his personal use of company airplanes.

A former executive vice president of ITT, Valente was lured to RCA with a three-year contract, calling for at least $600,000 a year in salary and bonuses, plus an extra $400,000 if Valente were asked to resign.

The Valente affair is another in a long string of embarrassments for the company since 1968, when NBC Founder Da vid Sarnoff handed his firm over to Son Bobby. Bobby Sarnoff, an erratic administrator, plunged the firm into computers, where it eventually had to write off a $490 million pretax loss. Sarnoff s successor, Anthony L. Conrad, resigned in 1976 after informing the board of directors that he had not filed income tax returns for five years.

Griffiths' profit record at RCA since he took over in 1976 has generally been good. Subsidiaries like Hertz rent-a-car have helped bolster income, but NBCTV, once RCA's proud peacock, has lagged sadly behind the other networks.

Worst of all, Griffiths seems to have failed at assembling a strong management team. NBC Chairman Jane Cahill Pfeiffer, who became known within the company as " Attila the Nun" because of her strong personal style and onetime residence in a convent, is rumored to be on the way out.

Rather than name a new corporate president, Griffiths announced last week that he and five executive vice presidents will now direct policy. The new RCA oligarchy, says the chairman, will lead to a "more flexible management structure." Given RCA's history, a more flexible management may hardly be what is needed.

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