Bob for VP Broadcast

2009 NABJ Elections Biography
Bob Butler, VP of Broadcast

I am a relative newcomer to NABJ, attending my first convention in 2000. But I brought with me a wealth of experience from my years as an editor, reporter and writer in radio and television news.

VOTE FOR BOB AS VP BROADCAST

I'm a reporter at KCBS radio in San Francisco, a multimedia investigative reporter on the Chauncey Bailey Project and own an independent multimedia company. A former CBS diversity recruiter, I've been a regular NABJ Student Projects volunteer. I'm also a Navy "brat" having lived in Cambridge, Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Groton, CT, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. I served in the US Navy in San Diego, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Newport, RI and Philadelphia. I attended San Francisco State University, where I earned a Bachelors of Arts in Broadcast and Electronic Communications Arts.

My first radio job was as a desk assistant at Berkeley's KBLX in 1979, then Oakland's KDIA in 1980. I interned at KCBS in 1981 and was hired as a desk assistant, later promoted to editor before becoming a reporter in 1989. As a general assignment reporter, I've covered news across the United States and abroad. I've had assignments in Namibia, Tanzania, Senegal, Mexico and Brazil. Though grounded in radio, I also have television writing experience and serve as vice president and national EEO chair on the board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), helping improve job security and working conditions for broadcast journalists.

I've won numerous awards for my reporting and editing. I was part of the KCBS news team which won a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of the 1989 earthquake. Along with being a journalist, I have spent 10 years advocating for more diversity in our nation’s radio and television newsrooms. I worked for a year-and-a-half as director of diversity for CBS Corporation, directing an apprenticeship program that trained the next generation of television newsroom managers. 10 of the 11 apprentices were hired full-time at the end of their training, 9 at CBS Television Stations. As the AFTRA national EEO chair, I'm working to encourage the FCC to stop further media consolidation and make it easier for minorities to own broadcast stations.

VOTE FOR BOB AS VP BROADCAST

No other candidate has the skills I offer. I’m an NABJ chapter member, president and an NABJ regional director. I’m an experienced street reporter who has worked in local and network media, worked as a part of an investigative media team and I own a multimedia company (www.audiodocu.com). I have worked to make sure that more black journalists have been positioned for and hired into significant positions, including management jobs. If I'm elected as vice president of broadcast, I will work with the president and board to do what’s best for NABJ’s broadcast members and students, who are a significant segment of our membership. More importantly, I will work to keep NABJ the best journalism association in the United States.