Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame

Ralph Dolan
Inducted 2006

In a career that took him from the air to the airwaves, Ralph Dolan played an important role in the many innovations at KSTP TV and Hubbard Broadcasting in the Twin Cities for almost fifty years. After serving in the military during the Korean War and attending the University of Minnesota, Dolan became a pilot. He began flying for Hubbard Broadcasting in 1956, and in 1957 became the first television news pilot in Minnesota, flying KSTP TV’s “News Hawk” plane. While still serving as Hubbard Broadcasting’s chief pilot, he became assistant to the general manager of KSTP TV in 1962, and was named its operations manager in 1966. While there he founded successful local programs such as Good Company and reinvigorated Sunday late-night programming. He became vice president and station manager of KSTP TV in 1981. He was involved in bringing the first electronic news gathering to Minnesota, making KSTP TV one of the first stations in the world to employ this technology. In 1986 he became vice president of programming for United States Satellite Broadcasting. Since 1996 he has been program specialist for Hubbard Broadcasting.