Bob Beck
Retired News DirectorBob Beck retired from Wyoming Public Media after serving as News Director of Wyoming Public Radio for 34 years. During his time as News Director WPR has won over 100 national, regional and state news awards.
In addition to duties as News Director, Bob was the co-creator, host and producer of the news magazine Open Spaces, which has won 11 national Public Media Journalist Association awards. Bob has personally won four PMJA awards for reporting and five regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. He has also won numerous Associated Press and Wyoming Association of Broadcasters awards in his career.
Bob was given the WEA School Bell Award for education reporting and was honored by the Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving for his reporting. On the television side, Bob has been part of two Emmy Award-winning PBS telecasts.
In his career, Bob covered the legislature longer than any Wyoming broadcaster. Additional coverage as a reporter includes events such as the Mark Hopkinson execution, the Jessica Dubroff plane crash, the Matthew Shepard murder and a drunk driving crash that killed eight University of Wyoming Athletes.
Professionally, he served on the PMJA Board and has been state coordinator for the Radio Television Digital News Association and Project Vote Smart.
Bob taught broadcast news at the University of Wyoming for 20 years and twice was honored with a Top Prof award by the UW Mortar Board.
Around Laramie, Bob was active in community events. He co-chaired the 2009 Albany County United Way Campaign, served as President of the United Way Board, and has been involved with other non-profit organizations as a board member and volunteer.
Prior to coming to WPR, Bob worked as a News and Sportscaster at stations in Wyoming and Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and is a native of Wheaton, Illinois in suburban Chicago.
Email: btwo@uwyo.edu
Phone: 307-766-6626
-
During a forum in Jackson, Wyoming U.S. Representative Liz Cheney said election reforms are needed, but she opposes ideas that would infringe on a state’s ability to run an election. -
Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney doubled down on asking the Biden administration to reduce regulations and open up more leases for energy development. -
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said he’s happy with how the state responded to the challenges of COVID-19 in the past two years. -
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said despite some concerns expressed by legislators, he’s generally pleased with the legislative redistricting bill. -
The Wyoming Cowboys are gearing up for their first NCAA tournament game since 2015 when they take on Indiana tonight. -
National Ag Day is on March 22nd and in honor of that, we discussed how agriculture and landscapes benefit Wyoming. The Executive Director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust Jessica Crowder told Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck about their program and why it’s important. -
The Wyoming House and Senate finally reached a deal on a new redistricting plan late Friday night allowing the legislative session to come to an end. -
The Wyoming 2022 Legislative session got bogged down by a handful of social issues from addressing critical race theory to abortion and whether transgender women should be allowed to play on women's sports teams. But when it comes to the main focus of the session, which was the budget, generally lawmakers were happy. -
-
A bill that will reduce Wyoming’s coal severance tax by half a percent was approved by the Wyoming Senate.
