Biography
After Producing The Mike Douglas Show, Erni went to the NBC Television Network where he launched Regis Philbin's national career as the Emmy® winning Producer of "The Regis Philbin Show". While at the NBC Network he also helped develop and create the Network Daytime Hour, "Fantasy" with Daytime's first female minority host Leslie Uggams, who also went on to win an Emmy® as Best Host for the 1981-82 Television Season. From 1982 through 1989 Erni produced for and partnered with some of television's top Executives including Fred Silverman and Roger and Michael King. He wrote and produced for talent including, Charles Grodin, Billy Crystal Terry Bradshaw and Oprah Winfrey just to name a few. While producing other programs he acted as a Consultant and Executive Producer for the King brothers for a period of three years in the mid 80's as they launched their company. In March of 1989 he joined KingWorld full time as Vice President Programming and Development. He was promoted to Senior Vice President Programming and Development in March of 1991. During his tenure at KingWorld he was responsible for helping to obtain the rights to Candid Camera, Hollywood Squares and managing all current on air programming including, Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Oprah, Rolonda, The Charles Grodin Show, The Arts & Entertainment Revue, and helped create and Produce Inside Edition, Instant Recall and American Journal. In 1998 when KingWorld was purchased by CBS/Paramount he became an independent Producer and formed Di Massa Productions, Inc. to produce first run television programs, and work in areas of new media. During this period he created "The Home Team" for Twentieth Century Fox Television in partnership with Comcast... helping Comcast move to the West Coast for its eventual acquisition of NBC/Universal. In 2000 he joined The Manhattan Entertainment Group as a consultant for acquisitions in the entertainment realm. During this period he traveled to Europe on behalf of Scientific Games to help devise television concepts from state run lottery enterprises throughout the world as a board member of ITV Games. In 2001 he joined with experienced industry veteran Scott Towle former President of ORION Television and KingWorld Distribution to form Coastline Productions. He was also the co-founder of VISTA Entertainment and helped in developing projects for Chambers Productions, the production arm of Chambers Communications one of the Pacific Northwest's largest broadcasters and production facilities, including helping to develop a multi million dollar studio complex in Oregon. Through Vista Media he has worked as a 'Scholar' for the GLG Councils: a network of academics, scientists, industry practitioners, and other professionals worldwide. He has performed consultations, reports, and educational presentations for, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney, Falcon Investment Advisors, Aperian Management, Eminence Capital, Pali Capital, LLG Capital, OSS Capital and the Northern Trust. He is currently President of Vista Media a full service new media and television production entity. He also sat for ten years on the Advisory Board of SnowballExpress.org and is on the Board of LucyPetFoundation.org. His video productions on behalf of SnowballExpress.org and LucyPetFoundation.org have raised awareness of the mission statements for both of these non-profit charities that provide help to military widows and orphans and save homeless pets.
Honors: Mr. Di Massa is included in: Psi Chi - The National Honor Society in Psychology Who's Who In Emerging Leaders In America 1986-87 Who's Who In The West 1989 Who's Who In America 2000 - current Recipient National EMMY© Award Memberships: WGA, PGA, NATAS, ATAS, Psi Chi
