CLASS OF 2002
Robert H. Storz was a master strategist and businessman. He got into radio by backing his son Todd Storz who transitioned radio from network block programming to local music and news.
Robert helped run the family’s Storz Brewing Company, the state’s top-selling beer in the 1950s. He also had an extensive banking career, including Omaha National Bank where he was a director. He left the brewery in 1959 and went into the investment banking business.
In 1949 he and his son Todd founded Midcontinent Broadcasting. Todd’s love was broadcasting rather than brewing. Robert supported Todd with the purchase of KOWH Omaha. Todd programmed KOWH turning it into Omaha’s top station in just two years while the industry was competing with the strong growth of television.
Robert Storz operated Midcontinent Broadcasting from a financial standpoint as the company expanded into a half-dozen other markets. With Todd’s untimely death in 1964, Robert took over the day-to-day operation of the far-flung stations, centralizing the entire organization in Omaha from billing to payable, creating a system used later by corporate broadcast operations. At that time the Storz Stations were WTIX New Orleans, WDGY Minneapolis, WQAM Miami, WHB Kansas City, KOMA Oklahoma City, and KXOK St. Louis. The stations were eventually sold off in the mid-1980s.
Storz tirelessly served his community. He was chairman of the board of Clarkson Memorial Hospital where he spearheaded fund-raising for a new building and was the driving force behind the construction of Omaha’s 63-acre Memorial Park. He persuaded then President Harry Truman to come to the park’s dedication.
Robert H. Storz passed away in May 1992.
