Tampa Pubcaster Nominated for International Broadcasting Bureau

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Richard Lobo to be Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) which provides transmission services for all the broadcasters under the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). It is the administrative and marketing arm of the Agency.

IBB encompasses the Voice of America and Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio/TV Martí. IBB manages a complex network of domestic and overseas transmitting stations as well as satellite and Internet delivery systems with multimedia content. It conducts extensive audience and market research to enhance the worldwide reach of U.S. international broadcasting.

Lobo is currently serving as chairman of the Florida Public Broadcasting Service Inc. Lobo is president and chief executive officer of WEDU (PBS)Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota. He previously was president and general manager of WTVJ in Miami, station manager for WNBC-TV in New York, and vice president and general manager of NBC stations in Chicago and Cleveland. Early in his TV career his interview subjects included Fidel Castro, Robert Kennedy, Mickey Mantle, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Barbra Streisand and The Beatles. He also served as Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in the United States Information Agency from 1994-1995. A graduate of the University of Miami, Mr. Lobo is a member of the Tampa Bay chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and the Leadership Council of the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. He is on the board of the Florida Association of Broadcasters and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Suncoast chapter. He earned the Leadership Award from the Chicago Latino Committee on the Media. He will be inducted into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame in March. Mr. Lobo is a Captain (Retired) in the U.S. Army Reserve.