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He also helped start the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and book many stars for local gigs.
On the eve of buying a station in Palm Beach, Hirsch collapsed at a restaurant there and died Monday. He was 64. The cause has not been determined.
In 1990, a Plain Dealer headline called the Shaker Heights native an "industry legend." PD radio critic David Sowd said Hirsch "is widely respected... and put together some of the biggest deals in broadcasting history."
John Gorman, a colleague for years, said, "Carl was the driving force in the successes of WMMS, Z100, WMJI and other Malrite, Legacy and OmniAmerica radio properties over three decades. He had only two rules: Don't make the same mistake twice, and don't jeopardize the license.... He fostered and encouraged creativity and taking chances."
Hirsch also owned transmitters for radio and cell phone signals. Said Gorman, "He was a futurist. He could really look at a property and see its long-range potential and find a way to achieve it even faster than normal."
The exuberant man was nicknamed the Duke. He loved to give things away, from food on his plate (insisting, "You've got to try this!") to millions to the Cleveland Clinic. He threw lavish parties, once flying employees from around the country to Jacobs Field for fireworks and song.
His fiancee, Cappy Abraham, said, "If he had 30 people over for the Super Bowl, he'd have enough food for 200."
As a child, Hirsch knew where his future lay. His friends would play football, and he'd announce the game on pretend radio.
He graduated from Shaker Heights, went to Kent State University and started broadcasting there. By age 33, he was president of Malrite Communications, which owned WHK-AM and WMMS-FM. With his encouragement, WMMS adopted the Buzzard mascot and a "Morning Zoo" slogan. They led the local market for years.
In 1983, Hirsch bought a suburban New Jersey station playing light jazz -- "chicken jazz," he called it. He moved its transmitter to the top of the Empire State Building, renamed it WHTZ-FM for "hits," nicknamed it Z100 and took it from worst to first in a single ratings period. He was also partners awhile with Malrite principal Milton Maltz in the Washington Federals of the U.S. Football League.
Hirsch helped bring stars like Michael Jackson to town. At WMMS's studio, he hosted the first of years of meetings that led to the Rock Hall.
"Carl thought big," said hall trustee Tim LaRose. "He could smell a winner. He made things happen."
In 1985, Hirsch left Malrite, moved to Beverly Hills and started the Legacy Broadcasting chain. He paid a then-record $44 million for Los Angeles' KJOI-FM and sold it for $79 million four years later.
His OmniAmerica later owned telecommunications towers and stations in Florida and Ohio, including WHK, WMMS and WMJI. He helped WMJI prosper by going from adult contemporary to rock classics.
He and his two siblings funded the William B. Hirsch Family Cancer Center at Hillcrest Hospital in their father's memory. He also funded a Carl E. Hirsch Family Lounge at the Cleveland Clinic Florida Health and Wellness Center in West Palm Beach and a Hirsch Media Convergence Laboratory at Kent State.
He received an honorary doctorate from Kent State and served on boards for the Clinic, National Association of Broadcasters and Radio Advertising Bureau. He was inducted into the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
About 11 years ago, he bought a home in Palm Beach but kept his old house in Beverly Hills.
Dean Goodman, Hirsch's intended partner in a Palm Beach station, said, "For Carl, there was no difference between the janitor and the CEO. He'd had an all-around handyman named Jake and took him to black-tie dinners."
In recent years, Hirsch was executive chairman of the NextMedia Group, a radio and outdoor bulletin company. He often sold stations, retired, bought stations and unretired. He often joked that he was one deal away from happiness.
Goodman planned to complete the Palm Beach deal today without him.
Carl Elliot Hirsch
1946-2011
Survivors: fiancee, Cappy Abraham of Palm Beach; children, Lori Goldsmith of Los Angeles and Scott Hirsch of Sunnyvale, Calif.; a granddaughter; a sister and a brother.
Funeral: 11 a.m. Sunday at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz.
Contributions: Lerner Research Institute Hirsch Fund or Palm Beach Wellness Expansion Fund, both at Cleveland Clinic, P.O. Box 931517, Cleveland Ohio 44193-1655, giving.ccf.org.
Arrangements: Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz.