During the years when All in the Family, M*A*S*H and 60 Minutes helped define CBS, James H. Rosenfield ran the business side of the television network and later shared responsibility for its major broadcast divisions. Rosenfield, a former president of the CBS Television Network and senior executive vice president of the CBS Broadcast Group, died on September 26, 2026, at 97.

Rosenfield's route to the executive floor began with radio and sales. Born in Boston on July 18, 1929, he attended Roxbury Latin School and belonged to Dartmouth's class of 1952. At Dartmouth he hosted a student radio program called Rhodes Record Rack. According to Reisenbach Philanthropies, he served in U.S. Army Signal Corps Intelligence, entered television through NBC's executive training program, then worked at Polaroid and the photographic equipment maker Airequipt.

He joined CBS in 1965 as an account executive in television network sales and rose through senior sales posts. William S. Paley, the network's founder and chairman, became a mentor. The family's Dignity Memorial notice said an early assignment managing CBS's sales relationship with Grey Advertising helped propel his progress.

One memory captured the uncertainty behind a landmark program. Rosenfield later told Salon that the sales division had no advertiser for the first episode of All in the Family. "I couldn't give it away," he recalled. The show joined M*A*S*H and 60 Minutes among the programs associated with that CBS period. Rosenfield did not make them, but his commercial and operational work connected the network's output with advertisers, affiliates and viewers.

CBS named Rosenfield president of its television network in 1977. He oversaw sales, affiliate relations, operations, engineering and finance, the system that moved a national schedule through local stations. His portfolio widened in 1981 when he became executive vice president of the CBS Broadcast Group, responsible for the television network, entertainment and sports divisions.

By 1983 he was senior executive vice president, responsible for finance, operations and development. The Washington Post reported that Rosenfield belonged to the management team that regained the prime-time ratings lead for CBS. He retired in 1985, ending a 20-year rise from sales account executive to one of the broadcast group's most senior officers.

Television remained his working world. Rosenfield became chairman and chief executive of John Blair Communications, a national representative for local stations, and later created JHR & Associates to advise traditional and digital media, communications and entertainment businesses. He also served as a director of Red Sky Entertainment.

His industry connections extended into civic service. Rosenfield was a founding board member and later chairman emeritus of Reisenbach Philanthropies, established in memory of John Reisenbach to support New York. He served as president of the International Radio & Television Society, chaired the Advertising Council, sat on the boards of Internews International and Salon Media, and became a lifetime fellow of the International Council of the Television Academy. St. John's University awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Rosenfield was predeceased by Nancy Stenbuck Rosenfield, his wife of 57 years, and by his brother, Dr. Allan Rosenfield. His survivors included his partner, Charlotte Rosenblatt; his children, Laurie Rosenfield and Jim Rosenfield Jr.; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

The visible record of his career is a set of titles at CBS and the media companies that followed. Its lasting substance lies in the connections he managed: national programs carried through local affiliates, advertisers brought to ambitious television, and industry relationships redirected toward civic and professional institutions. Those structures, along with the broadcasts they helped place before the public, continue to bear the work of James H. Rosenfield.