Milt Grant; Dance Host, TV Station Entrepreneur

"What's our favorite drink?"

"Pepsi!" they shouted, in an early example of embedded advertising carefully crafted by Mr. Grant.

Besides being the on-air host, Mr. Grant produced the show, sold ads and booked the guests, who included Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin, Buddy Holly, Harry Belafonte and Ike and Tina Turner. One day a week, Mr. Grant had African American teenagers on his show, considered a bold move for the time.

Although he knew next to nothing about music, he claimed songwriting copyrights for some of the music by local artists, including guitar legend Link Wray -- a practice later outlawed.

For five years, the "Milt Grant Show" was a runaway success and soundly beat the Philadelphia-based "American Bandstand" when the two shows ran head-to-head.

"I often asked myself why the show did so well," Mr. Grant told The Post in 1990, in his last known interview. "We were part of the great new beginning of television, and there was just so much energy. It made me fall in love with television and all its powers."

Mr. Grant was born in New York on May 13, 1923, according to public documents, and grew up in Plainfield, N.J.

Despite the success of the "Milt Grant Show," it was abruptly canceled in 1961 and replaced by reruns of "Robin Hood." There was speculation that Mr. Grant demanded too much money or that the station's management simply didn't like rock-and-roll. But the real reason, Opsasnick said, "is a complete mystery."

Mr. Grant then formed a corporation that led to the launching of WDCA in 1966. He was among the first station owners to introduce "counter-programming," by running syndicated sitcoms when other stations had news or showing movies when his competitors aired soap operas. In the mid-1970s, he secured broadcast rights to the Washington Bullets and Washington Capitals, and in 1979 he sold WDCA for $13.5 million.

He then moved to Texas and bought stations in Houston and Dallas. His $12 million investment led to a reported $163 million profit when he sold the stations in 1984.

A year later, he made a high-profile move into Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami by buying three independent stations. All three hemorrhaged money, and in 1986 Mr. Grant filed for bankruptcy, $420 million in debt. At the time, the Los Angeles Times described it as the largest TV bankruptcy ever.

By 1989, he was back in the game, picking up stations in smaller markets across the country. He owned eight stations, several of them affiliated with Fox network, at the time of his death.

Mr. Grant was apparently married twice.

Survivors include three children; a sister; and four grandchildren.