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FORMER FFEAC MEMBER DICK LOBO APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA TO HEAD INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING BUREAU

2/5/2010

Lobo, 73, still must be confirmed by the Senate, so he may not be leaving Tampa soon. But the executive, whose wife Caren spearheaded fundraising for Barack Obama in Florida during the 2008 election, will eventually leave for Washington D.C. if confirmed, working under the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Last year, Lobo announced plans to retire from WEDU seven years after taking the reins at the then-troubled station. WEDU has hired an executive search firm to help with the process. He had already come out of one retirement to help the Tampa outlet past a fiscal crisis, having spent the first 40 years of his work life at commercial network TV affiliates. 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.

This latest appointment isn’t entirely new for Lobo. Back in 1994, he was appointed by President Clinton to run the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Marti. Radio and TV Marti regularly faces criticism from political opponents who say the stations, which are often jammed by the Cuban government, are a waste of money.

Lobo is also a retired Captain of the U.S. Army Reserve. 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.

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