Franklin Mieuli was born in San Jose. He attended the University of Oregon and served in the US Navy during World War II.
After the war, Mieuli found work as an advertising executive at the San Francisco Brewing Company, convincing the brewery to sponsor radio broadcasts of San Francisco 49ers football games. In 1954, according to the team, he produced the first telecast of a 49ers game.
Through his business relationship and friendship with Tony and Vic Morabito, the original owners of the 49ers, Mieuli was offered the opportunity to purchase a share of the club, which he held until his death.
Mieuli subsequently set up his own production company, Franklin Mieuli and Associates, landing the rights to produce 49ers game as well as those of the newly-arrived baseball team, the San Francisco Giants.
In 1958, Mieuli put his own radio station on the air: KPUP, a San Francisco-based FM station later known as KHIP. Mieuli sold the station (later known as KMPX) in 1962. He would also own a station in Colusa, CA.
Mieuli produced the English language radio coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.
He used the funds from his sale of KHIP to buy a partial share in the Warriors when the National Basketball Association team moved to the Bay Area from Philadelphia in 1962 and became a majority shareholder shortly thereafter.
Mieuli was a colorful and visible figure, casually clad, wearing a bushy beard and often sporting a deerstalker cap, a la Sherlock Holmes. He sold the Warriors in 1986. Hi production company continued to produce radio broadcasts for many professional and college teams.
Franklin Mieuli died in 2010 at age 89.