Bruce Ramer to Receive CPB's Lifetime Achievement Award

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, October 12, 2022 | 12:08pm CT

Bruce Ramer

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Board of Directors will award CPB Board Chair Bruce Ramer the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to public media on Wednesday, October 12. Ramer, a Los Angeles attorney, is the longest-serving member of the CPB Board and its longest-serving Board Chair. He led CPB through some of its most challenging years, including the Great Recession and the global pandemic.

Ramer played a pivotal role in establishing the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, which is restoring, preserving, and archiving historic public media content for future generations. He will receive the award in Washington, DC, at a dinner attended by the board and special guests, including PBS NewsHour Managing Editor Judy Woodruff and StoryCorps Founder Dave Isay, with video tributes from filmmakers Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates Jr., Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and journalist Robert Costa.

"Bruce Ramer is being honored with the CPB Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of his extraordinary leadership and guidance given to CPB over the nearly 14 years of his service," said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison. "He led CPB's support for innovation, interconnection, infrastructure, and access to content over many platforms, and was committed to strengthening local, national, and international public media journalism and editorial integrity. And on a meaningful level, Bruce always advanced diversity and inclusion personally and professionally."

"This award recognizes Bruce's leadership, vision, dedication, and extraordinary service to public media, and by extension, our nation," added CPB Vice Chair Laura Gore Ross. "Bruce's leadership has strengthened CPB and public media when we needed it most. On his watch, CPB was able to distribute $75 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding and $175 million in CARES Act stabilization funding to public media stations, many of which stepped up to provide life-saving news and information and at-home educational services. And he has provided wise counsel through thick and thin that have been felt by all."

Presented by the CPB Board of Directors, the CPB Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes outstanding contributions to public media over many years. The most recent recipients include David Pryor, former governor and U.S. senator from Arkansas and CPB Board member; David Fanning, executive producer and founder of FRONTLINE; Newton Minow, former FCC chairman and one of public broadcasting's founding fathers; and the late Jim Lehrer, former PBS NewsHour executive editor and anchor.