Key dates in the life of ex-Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes

NEW YORK (AP) — May 15, 1940: Roger Ailes born in Warren, Ohio.

1962: After graduation from Ohio University, Ailes lands an entry-level position on a Cleveland TV station’s local talk and music program starring Mike Douglas, a former big-band singer. Ailes rises to executive producer as “The Mike Douglas Show” relocates to Philadelphia and gains hit status in national syndication.

1968: Enters the political arena after offering his services as a media adviser to a guest on the “Douglas” show, former Vice President Richard Nixon, who hires Ailes to help him up his game on television during a successful run for the White House.

1970-80s: After founding Ailes Communications, he serves as a communications consultant to corporations and Republican candidates.

- FWBP Digital Partners -

1970s: Produces television programs and plays including “The Hot l Baltimore,” which opens off-Broadway in New York in 1973 and runs for three years.

1970: Helps launch Television News Incorporated, a right-wing TV service funded by conservative brewing magnate Joseph Coors that folds a few years later.

1984: Serves as a political consultant to presidential candidate Ronald Reagan.

1987-88: Helps guide George H.W. Bush through the Republican presidential primaries and his come-from-behind victory over Michael Dukakis.

- Advertisement -

1989-91: Manages the unsuccessful first campaign by Rudolph Giuliani for mayor of New York, and the unsuccessful campaign of Jim Courter for governor of New Jersey. A final campaign is the unsuccessful race by Richard Thornburgh for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 1991.

1992-96: Produces conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated TV show.

1993: Declaring he is through with politics, joins NBC to run its cable business network, CNBC. He is credited with boosting CNBC’s ratings and putting that troubled NBC subsidiary in the black. Meanwhile, he creates another network, the talk-and-advice-oriented America’s Talking.

January 1996: Resigns from NBC after America’s Talking is sacrificed to free up channel capacity for the company’s cable-news venture, MSNBC. Soon after, he signs on with media titan Rupert Murdoch to build a news network from scratch to compete as a “fair-and-balanced” rival to CNN and the forthcoming MSNBC.

- Advertisement -

Oct. 6, 1996: Fox News Channel goes on the air, with Ailes its founding CEO, three months after MSNBC signs on.

1998: Marries Elizabeth Tilson, a programming executive with whom he had worked at CNBC,

By 2002: Fox News establishes itself as the ratings leader dominating cable-news competition in ratings and, arguably, influence.

2005: Adds an additional title as chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group.

2006: Launches Fox Business Channel in competition against his former employer, CNBC.

July 6, 2016: Former Fox host Gretchen Carlson sues the network, alleging that Ailes sabotaged her career because she refused his suggestions for sex and had complained about a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment at Fox. Ailes denies the charges.