He oversaw TV’s ’60 Minutes’

Robert Chandler, 80, a former CBS News executive who helped launch “60 Minutes” and supervised the TV newsmagazine in its early years, died of a heart ailment Thursday at his home in Pittsfield, Mass.

Chandler joined CBS News in 1963 as director of information services and later served as vice president in charge of public affairs broadcasts. He was an early proponent of the “60 Minutes” format and helped put Don Hewitt’s concept for the pioneering program on the air.

As the program emerged as one of television’s highest-rated programs in the late 1970s, Chandler was responsible for approving Hewitt’s stories and budgets. He also played a role in adding Andy Rooney to the broadcast.

Chandler also served as director of operations for the CBS News Election Unit, where he helped create the CBS News Poll, which in 1976 joined with the New York Times to form the New York Times-CBS News Poll.

He was born Robert Zukerkandle in Brooklyn on Sept. 25, 1928, and used Chandler as a pen name when he started his writing career before legally changing it. He graduated from City College of New York, where he studied economics and was editor of the college newspaper.

After retiring from CBS in 1985, he worked briefly for NBC News and served as executive producer of a PBS documentary, “Learning in America: Schools That Work,” which premiered in 1990.