In a decades-long career in the industry, he worked for all of the Big Four television networks, including positions in their owned-and-operated station groups, and a tenure as president of ABC Sports.
College came at a tough time for Swanson's family; his father was dying, and he won a $500 scholarship for a chemical engineering major, quietly switching to journalism.
[4] After TVN folded, Swanson turned down a position as sportscaster at WJBK in Detroit to work as the executive producer of the local newscasts at KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
[8][9] One of the challenges awaiting Swanson at WLS was filling the vacancy on the station's 6 pm newscast resulting from the death of Fahey Flynn.
[12] Winfrey immediately improved ratings over her predecessor,[13] crediting Swanson for the "bold" selection for the time of a Black woman as host.
[18] Swanson was also credited with reversing a years-long ratings slide for WLS's newscasts, arriving at a newsroom he called a "circus".
[19][13][20] By the end of Swanson's tenure, WLS was on a noted upswing in news ratings,[15] and Winfrey and the new King World shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
Two years after Swanson departed, under his protégé Joe Ahern, WLS-TV was described as a "juggernaut" with dominating leads in all local news time slots.
[26] He scrapped the three-man booth Arledge instituted for Monday Night Football, naming Al Michaels as the play-by-play voice.
[23] In his last months at ABC Sports, Swanson set up meetings that helped lead to the creation of the Bowl Championship Series of college football.
[5] Swanson's invitation for syndicators to attend led to the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree being broadcast nationally for the first time in 1997.
[5] In addition to running WNBC, NBC named Swanson the president of its Olympics division in 1998, with the charge of planning coverage of the Games beginning in 2000.
[17] The Fox stations generally rated well in the morning but failed to hold onto viewers for late local news despite successful prime time fare from the network.