Bob Losure

Biography

Former CNN Headline News Anchor and cancer survivor Bob Losure reached a milestone of 200 emcee and keynote speaking appearances in 2007, hosting the Edison Electric Institute Convention in Denver and KioskCom Awards Presentation in Las Vegas. Bob is author of “Five Seconds To Air”, detailing his successful fight against testicular cancer and how it led him to anchor at CNN.

Bob’s 11 years in the anchor chair at CNN Headline News also included on-the-scene reporting of such stories as the San Francisco earthquake, Hurricane Hugo, and the return of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to Miami.

The broadcast veteran remains in great demand as a speaker and emcee for firms like Mercedes, RadioShack and OfficeMax, and associations like the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. He’s interviewed top newsmakers such as Walter Cronkite, Donald Trump, and the late David Halberstam, and emceed several political debates in his home state of Oklahoma, including nationwide distribution on C-Span and C-Span 2.

His on-stage work has taken him around the world—emceeing the Junior Chamber International Conference in Seoul, South Korea, and anchoring a one-hour newscast for 700 JCB Inc. delegates onboard Holland America’s HMS Westerdam in the Caribbean.

His recent appearances have also focused on his own cancer survival, and included audiences in Salt Lake City; Springfield, Illinois; and San Jose, California. His popular presentation on the growing polarization between the national news media and Washington politicians received an enthusiastic reception in 2004 in his keynote speech before audiences in Houston and Palm Springs, California.

Nashville-based Providence House Publishers has printed the hardcover edition of Bob’s autobiography, “Five Seconds To Air,” a story that ranges across his broadcasting career, including the early days of CNN when it was known as Ted Turner’s “Chicken Noodle Network.” In the book, Bob details his 1985 battle with testicular cancer and how it forever changed his outlook on living each day to want to make their mark in the communications field. Bob was interviewed by correspondent Ed Bradley for CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ program in 1997, giving Bob a unique perspective on ’60 Minutes’ that might surprise some viewers.

Bob is also frequently called on each year to use his hosting and interviewing skills for several major companies, including BellSouth, UPS, Siemens, Wal-Mart, and Bayer Corporation. He also narrates ESPN2’s “Advantage Adventures” outdoors program airing Saturday mornings.

As perhaps one of the most widely known of the CNN Headline News anchors during a period of major international stories from 1986-1997, Bob has received several awards. The awards he’s most proud of include his induction into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame at his alma mater, the University of Tulsa in 1995, and his selection as only the second national television news anchor to be inducted into Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity’s “Order of West Range” in 1996, joining ABC news veteran Ted Koppel.

Publications

Former CNN Headline News anchorman Bob Losure loosens his newscaster's tie for a candid and humorous look at what can and will go wrong when you're doing live television, in his new book, Five Seconds To Air: Broadcast Journalism Behind the Scenes, published by Hilisboro Press and now on many bookstore shelves nationwide.

Losure draws on 30 years experience in broadcasting, from his beginnings in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to CKLW Radio in the Motor City at age 22, and finally to anchoring at CNN Headline News, known in its early days as the Chicken Noodle Network.

Losure has some fascinating behind-the-scenes stories to tell, all chronicled in the book--
barging unannounced with a live crew into Tina Turner's dressing room

chatting with a pajama-clad Ted Turner in the middle of the night at the old CNN facilities

watching fellow CNN Headline News anchor Don Harrison narrowly escape broadcasting disaster when told to read a bulletin that President Bush had died, only to find out later that the source was a n institutionalized mental patient calling from a pay phone

being on the wrong side of the microphone when Ed Bradley spars with him on 60 Minutes over of some controversial John F. Kennedy documents

On a more serious note, Five Seconds to Air relates Losure's uneasy departure from CNN after eleven years and gives his uncompromising view of where CNN should be headed. The book describes his fight through three surgeries and three sessions of chemotherapy to win a battle against cancer in 1985, a victory that propelled him to seek the CNN job. Seen around the world, his reporting of such history-making events as the San Francisco earthquake, Manuel Noriega's capture, and Nelson MandeIa's visit to America has given him a level of experience few national and international anchors have been privileged to have.

Titles

Lights…Camera…Cancer!
This keynote gives the exciting story of what goes on behind the scenes of network news. The speech also details Bob’s successful fight against testicular cancer, and how it led him to prominence in the CNN anchor chair.

The Evolution of “Branding”
This speech looks at how Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs, and Keith Olbermann, among others, are creating a polarization of “opinion” that’s rapidly crushing the traditional “objective” style of news.

The Final Decision in ’08
This speech shows how it will be the media, not the politicians, who will decide the winner of the ’08 Presidential race, and only after a photo-finish.