Stephen Nenno; TV Broadcast Executive

Stephen K. Nenno, a Los Angeles broadcast executive who became vice president of program operations for ABC Television and a mentor to other broadcasters, has died. He was 59.

Nenno, who had held his post since 1994, died July 30 of cancer at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had lived in New York for 30 years.

Throughout his radio and television management career, Nenno worked to bring the best and brightest into his business and retain them. He created a student intern fellowship program, sponsored by the International Radio and Television Society. The program selected and helped student interns learn about the broadcast industry.

“In many of their schools today, there’s not a lot of reality,” Nenno told The Times in 1983, explaining why he taught students corporate etiquette and prepared them to face talented competitors for scarce jobs. “You try to get them a little frightened . . . to impress the seriousness.”

He also served as professional representative on the governing council of Seton Hall University’s campus radio station.

Nenno also encouraged veteran radio and television workers, including George Ansbro, a network announcer for nearly 60 years.

Ansbro, who announced future shows, commercials and the news from the early 1930s until his retirement in 1990, credited Nenno with persuading him to write his autobiography, “I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memoirs of a Broadcaster.”

A major impetus for the book, he said, was Nenno’s letter congratulating him on 55 years of service with ABC, which made him its oldest employee in terms of service and its longest-lasting network announcer.

Nenno’s typically personal letter delighted the announcer, who said, “To say it knocked me out is putting it mildly.”

Nenno, born in Los Angeles, began his career while studying telecommunications at USC, serving as program director for KUSC-FM in his senior year.

He worked as operations assistant at CBS’ Los Angeles affiliates, first KNX Radio and then KNXT (now KCBS-TV) Channel 2 television.

In 1965, Nenno became operations manager at KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV) Channel 9.

He joined ABC, where he would build his career, in 1968 as a unit manager and then supervisor of unit managers at its Hollywood studios. He moved to ABC’s New York headquarters in 1970 and for 18 years was director of program administration. He was promoted to vice president of program administration in 1988 and six years later moved up to his final position as vice president of program and broadcast operations.

Nenno served on the board of governors of both the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York and the International Radio and Television Society. He was active in Broadcast Pioneers and Alpha Epsilon Rho, a national broadcasting association.