Bob Losure

Biography

Bob 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.

In his dynamic keynote speech, former CNN anchor Bob Losure examines the recent terrorist attacks abroad including the Charlie Hebdo office massacre in Paris, and the growing number of airline bomb threats here in America. Are radical Islamists forcing the national media including CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times to re-think how far they want to go in covering Islamist terrorist actions? Is there a real fear the networks' own staffs will be attacked for standing up for freedom of the press? Bob probes those questions.

With terrorism literally a global, as well as national issue in 2015, Bob examines how all the news networks including the BBC and Al Jazeera are expanding their international presence with more freelance reporters, producers and photographers strategically placed to cover potential wars in Yemen, The Ukraine, and Nigeria, as well as the continuing ground wars by ISIS and Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a journalist for over 30 years, Mr. Losure also speaks on the political bias of the all-news networks including CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, who are pushing conservative or liberal agendas that abandon long-held journalistic traditions and leave little room for “moderate” points-of-view for their audiences. Bob looks at why TV networks are increasingly focused on terrorism, torture, and rioting at the expense of all other stories, and with a significant bias toward stories that are New York or Washington D.C.-centric.

As the battle continues for TV news ratings dominance, Bob gives some steps for us to get relatively unbiased immediate news even before it airs on U.S. Television networks. Instead of relying on one or two networks for so-called “breaking news” that leaves us with a feeling of depression, fear, and hopelessness about the world around us, we can now pick out stories from the internet that give us the in-depth coverage we're looking for.

Bob well remembers his first few weeks at CNN Headline News in Atlanta in 1986, anchoring the live coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that put CNN on the map to stay.
In his speech, he lets his audience in on what it's like to do a one-hour interview with the legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, and he speaks of his friendship with three-time cancer survivor and CNN anchor colleague Don Harrison, who saved CNN Headline News from mistakenly proclaiming that President George Herbert Walker Bush had died unexpectedly at the dinner table in Tokyo in 1990.

Bob recounts his “live” reporting from San Francisco's Marina District during the Loma Prieta earthquake, his reporting from atop the CNN Center in Atlanta on Nelson Mandela's U.S. visit, and Hurricane Hugo's devastation in South Carolina.

He talks about the life lessons he learned from Ted Turner, who's own courage in the face of financial disaster in the 1990s gave Bob some valuable lessons into never giving up, and striving daily to conquer fear, risk, adversity and change in our journey through life.

Chuck Roberts - - Great anchor, friend, and unfortunately for him – he looked a lot like me. - Back in the mid 1990's I went to a wedding of two friends of mine. At the reception, I congratulated the bride and groom and moved down the reception line. I knew no one in the wedding party.
First person: “You're Chuck Roberts. Honey, it's the famous anchorman”....is only the beginning.
“My mother knew your mother in Kansas City. What was your mother's name?
Husband: “Chuck, was your dad an architect or a plumber? You look different than the Chuck Roberts I know on TV.”
To the Next guy said, “Hi, I'm Larry King.”
“No you're not. You're Chuck Roberts.”
Final guy: “You know, you look a lot like Bob Losure?”
“I get that a lot. Bob's a nice guy. But, no, I'm Chuck Roberts.

KOTV Audition – (No one would hire me. Then they got a new news director--Jack Bowen from OKC.. I audition and he falls asleep, then quits the job. GM Duane Harm—Did he hire you?...”)

To overcome adversity, sometimes you have to be relentless. If you fail, you lick your wounds and use your mistakes as a launching pad for success.

I'm indebted to 3 experts for their advice--knowledgeable speakers on overcoming adversity and dealing with “change.” They counsel Fortune 500 companies, and all are successful.

(Colonel Lee Ellis spent 5 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton after his plane was shot down in 1967. Senator John McCain was also held there. They were brutally tortured, forced to endure starvation conditions, and lived among rats.)

(Pat Williams, Senior V.P. Of the Orlando Magic of the NBA. And since 1968, he's been a General Manager for the Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, and for many years now, Senior Vice-President of the Orlando Magic. He's the man who drafted Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and many others. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA coaches. He's written 75 books)

Jim Stovall , an author many times over, is legendary. And he's my neighbor in Tulsa. He's produced a series of movies including The Ultimate Gift and the Ultimate Life, with stars including James Garner and Peter Fonda. He listens to the narration of 300 books a year. He's been blind since his teenage years when he was on the cusp of going for a weightlifting title in the Olympics. His Narrative Television Network, headquartered in Tulsa, helps 13 million blind Americans by describing each scene as the dialogue rolls on in every episode of TV series including Law and Order.)
I'm going to give you a roadmap to overcoming adversity, which involves courage, motivation, facing risk and fear, and dealing with change.

4th Grade Teacher, John Kennedy – It was a history class. One day he said he was giving us a pop quiz. We all moaned. Then he gave us some sage advice: “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it's time you knew that life is not fair. Life is grand, it's wonderful, but it's not fair. You won't always get what you need. You won't always get what you deserve. If you think you've already conquered your biggest adversity, another, bigger one will come up...” I went home from school somewhat depressed. And I didn't believe him. Many years later, in 2006 I called John Kennedy and said I wanted to come over. He was 90 by that time. I went to his house in my hometown of Tulsa and told him, “John, you were right; it's one thing after another.”

He nodded and smiled: “Bob, judging from your broadcast career, you took my advice to heart. Now, get ready for the next obstacle. It's just around the corner.” We both had a good laugh.

April 1985 – KOTV - I discover I have testicular cancer. I learned that no matter how valuable you think you are, you are replaceable. While I was hospitalized, KOTV made their move and replaced me. From my adversity came two things – I lived. That's always good! And it forced me to look for a better job and get it. For probably the first time in my life, I needed help to overcome adversity. The nurses at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa brought me back up from the depths of despair. Their caring attitude along with a chemotherapy regimen got me through the nauseau, the times I blacked out while trying to get to the bathroom, and the crying binges that seemed to overtake all sense of reason. I knew I could survive, but I needed help...and nurses and staff were there to make sure I got it. I'm forever thankful to them. But I had to find a job.

I knew I had the skills to anchor and report at CNN. I had a broadcast agent in New York and he found an audition for me at CNN Headline News. I flew to Atlanta, and tried to keep every hair in place because the chemo was makng my hair fall out in clumps. The news director, Paul Amos, could have hired any of a hundred other people with similar qualifications.
Only later did I learn that his mother had died of cancer...so he saw that I needed this job. He liked my style, I had to take a risk, and deal with change. As Pat Williams puts it, “For some people, the fear of change entails a fear of failure. I am amazed at the number of people who express anxiety at the prospect of achieving success. People have an endless capacity for dreaming up new fears. 'I may have to give up some privacy. I may have to give up the simplicity of my life. Success is going to complicate my life.' “Risk, fear, and change can kill our dreams—but only if we surrender to them. And the good news is that we don't have to surrender.”

For a newsman, it was where you wanted to be. I was anchoring the morning the Shuttle Challenger exploded...and the night the U.S. Airstrikes on Baghdad began in the first Persian Gulf War. I was reporting on the streets as well, “live” on top of the CNN Center as Nelson Mandela spoke in Atlanta. Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the site of the 1989 World Series, had hardly stopped shaking from the Loma Prieta earthquake, and I ws being called on to get to the Bay Area and report on it. I had conquered those dream killers – Risk, Fear, and Change.

Jim Stovall says for change to occur, companies have to learn to work smarter, not harder. Jim has done amazing things with some Fortune 500 companies. He gives each member of the sales staff a discount store stopwatch and tells them to keep it on them during the workday. When they're talking to a prospect about their company's products or services, they click it on. Then click it off when the presentation is done.
Jim says, “I told them that once they reached 15 hours of productive work time in the week, as indicated by their stopwatch, they were done until next week. What the average salesperson in that organization didn't realize was they had actually only been working around five hours a week, wasting forty hours telling stories to each other, and other non-productive activity.”
Jim continued: “The top third of the sales force was only coming into the office a few hours each day. They were efficiently and productively establishing new customers, and then spending time with their families or improving their golf game. Since their sales numbers were astounding to management, no one cared how many or how few hours they spent in the office. Your professional workday is about creating productivity, not just generating activity designed to convince someone that you're working.”

You know from your experience that success doesn't come without preparation. Like a football game, other companies are working hard to take part of your share. The Miami Dolphins drafted Bob Griese as quarterback in 1966, and in 1970 hired Don Shula, a hard-nosed no-nonsense guy as head coach. They did scrimmages, and murderous drills called “gassers.” Shula divided the team into two squads, and each of them sprinted flat-out, sideline to sideline and back again, then rested 30 seconds, and ran it again, rested 30, and ran it a third time. Shula was right there alongside them, running the gassers with his players. He knew that discipline was the key, and he had to do everything he told them to do. They went from 3-10 in 1969 to 10-4 in 1970. By 1971 they tied a game in regulation and went into two sudden-death overtimes. Griese said he was thinking “Hey these guys are getting tired, and we've still got plenty of steam.” With their superior conditioning and self-discipline, they won. Then they went unbeaten in 1972. The moral of the story is that self-discipline can make you unbeatable.

With time management comes Fear Management. There was nothing more fearful in 2001 than the horror and aftermath of the World Trade Center catastrophe. In the aftermath, then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani saw chalk-white dazed people moving through a gray haze near the World Trade Center towers, like ghosts in a fog. Giuliani and his team worked courageously restablishing communication and displaying a calm demeanor to a shaken population. His steady presence helped prevent panic.
Interviewers have asked Giuliani if 9/11 changed him.

He reveals his bout with prostate cancer the previous year changed him much more. The cancer, he said “gave me more wisdom about the importance of life, the lack of control you have over death. It removed some of the fear of death.” Giuliani said the most important lessons he learned about 9/11 were about courage: “Courage is managing fear to accomplish what you want to accomplish. And it's a great demonstration of love. It's finding areas in which other people are more important than you. My dad taught me that in a time of emergency, you've got to become deliberately calm.

My dad said, “The more that people are yelling and screaming around you, the calmer you should become. Somebody's got to be able to figure a way out of the jam. And you'll be able to do that.”

Giuliani continued: “I always saw my dad as being very courageous. I can remember one of the last things he told me, when he was in a hospital bed, dying. I asked him, “Were you ever afraid.” He said, “Sure, there were times when I was afraid. But it isn't about being afraid. It's about overcoming it.”

Pat Williams suggests there will always be critics and opponents who will tell you that you're doing the wrong thing, doing it the wrong way. Don't let the critics get you down. Ask yourself: “If the critics know so much, why haven't they achieved something great?” I've seen statues of presidents, inventors, scientists—but I've never seen a statue of a naysayer. I've never heard anyone give a speech praising a naysayer, proclaiming, “Of all the people who said it couldn't be done, he was the greatest doom-and-gloomer of them all. Stop listening to the negativity. Smile politely—and a smile can do so much—thank them for their opinion, and then go about the business of building your dreams.”

Change and Adversity are the only things certain in life.

To Pat Williams, Courage is an absolute necessity if we're to overcome adversity and achieve our dreams. He says, “We all need courage to take risks, to embrace change, to let go of all that is comfortable and familiar, to stand along in the arena, to express our convictions.

We need courage to accept criticism and condemnation, knowing that whenever we stake out a bold position, someone will disagree. We need the courage to do what is right, and let the chips fall where they may. And when we're wrong, we need the courage to admit it and take our lumps.

When we make mistakes, we need the courage to learn the lessons of those mistakes. We need the courage to set an example to the people around us who look to us for reassurance. We need the courage to speak with bold optimism, even if we're quaking inside.”

Colonel Ellis puts it this way: “Character is perfected in hardship; talents are refined in the crucicle of trials. Like it or not, we tend to learn the most about ourselves in our struggles. Such self-awareness is the prerequisite for all personal development.”

Anchor Don Harrison -1990–(Pres. Bush and Barbara in Japan.) George passes out at dinner.

CNN should have celebrated Don's heroics to save not himself, but the network from a terrible embarrassment. Unfortunately, celebrations in corporate America don't come along very often, even after disaster is averted.

And that's a shame, according to Colonel Ellis, who says “We need to celebrate our successes. Celebrations validate our deep human need for confirmation and affirmation of accomplishments. People who feel valued tend to be more energetic, enthusiastic, proud, and confident. These emotions produce the kind of positive energy that drives results. Our celebrations in the POW camps had to be simple and subdued, but they were powerful boosts to our morale, our teamwork, and our ongoing ability to achieve the mission. Too often people celebrate only the big successes and victories, and they forget that celebrating the day-to-day battles in work and life are important too. Some of the most successful companies,which are also many times the best places to work, have regular celebrations instead of waiting for some “big event”.

And we know that Time takes its toll on us. There's the joke about A group of 15 year old boys discussing where they should meet for dinner. They agree to meet at the McDonald's next to Captain Jack's Seafood Grille because they only have six bucks among them, and Jennie Webster, that cute girl in Social Studies, lives on the same street, and they might see her.
 
Ten years later, the same group of now 25 year old guys agree they'll meet at Captain Jack's Seafood Grille because the beer is cheap, the bar has free snacks, the house band is good, there's no cover charge and some cute girls go in there.

Twenty years later, at 45, the group agrees to meet at Captain Jack's Seafood Grille because the martinis are big and the waitresses wear tight outfits.

Twenty years later, now 65, the group once again agrees they'll meet for dinner at Captain Jack's Seafood Grille because it's handicapped accessible, the food is not too spicy, and they have an “early bird special.”

20 years later, at 85 years of age, the group agrees they'll meet for dinner at Captain Jack's.......because they've never been there before.

Yes, time is marching on. If I had not conquered my fear to go from Radio to TV reporting and anchoring...who knows. Then if I hadn't developed cancer, I wouldn't have had the guts to audition for CNN. If I hadn't finally tired of working double shifts anchoring on overnights at CNN, I wouldn't have conquered my fear of public speaking and started doing keynotes around the country. And I wouldn't be here with you tonight.

You know what really matters? Today. Yesterday is a canceled check, and tomorrow is little more than a promissory note. Today is cash, and you have to spend it wisely.

It's just about impossible to turn on your TV without being confronted by some supposed expert telling you how to be successful in your personal or professional life. I'm a big proponent of getting advice on success from truly successful people. And while you're getting that advice, you should also get some good advice on failure. In every situation, learning why people have failed can be as instructive as advice on success.

And if you can, get your advice “first hand!” Remember the game you played in school, where everyone sat in a circle and a short message is whispered into the ear of the first person, then on around the circle?” The simple message “We rode in my father's Buick to visit my grandmother on summer vacation, and she took us to the zoo,” after it's been passed down a ways can turn into “My grandmother lives at the zoo, and my father drives for Buick on the NASCAR circuit!”

I hope you take some time this week for some quiet time at home without distractions or interruption. Do you tend to be controlled by fear and anxiety?
Clear your mind of the clutter and map out your course.

And remember, no one has ever succeeded by themselves. If someone tells you they've never failed at anything, you can confidently assume that they've failed to recognize the big contribution of others to their lives.

Let's say you meant to cook dinner but you didn't. Then you'll be hungry. If you intended to light the fire in the fireplace, but failed to act, you'll be cold. And if you don't implement your mission to overcome adversity on a daily basis, you will fail.

Paul Harvey – So God Made a Farmer
I want to close with an excerpt from a speech that the legendary radio commentator Paul Harvey made at the Future Farmers of America National Convention in Chicago in 1978. Harvey began in Tulsa radio, and had a 65-year career in broadcasting nationwide from Chicago. He died in 2009.

My dad was a farmer in his early days in Indiana; his dad, for whom I'm named, ws a farmer there in the late 1800's, and my great-grandfather farmed from 1850-1900 in Van Buren. I think back on my memories of my aunt's farm in Indiana, and the hard work she and her son put in from dawn to dusk.
I've got to admit I don't know hard physical labor. They did.

At the 2013 SuperBowl, Dodge Ram had a 2-minute commercial of a small portion of Paul Harvey's speech that was simple, direct, and pulled at the heart strings of everyone who has faced adversity. The commercial, with photos of farmers in the field and with no sales pitch except for an image of a Ram Truck at the very end, was acknowledged as the most dramatic of all the commercials that aired during the SuperBowl.

Dodge Ram agreed to donate to the Future Farmers of America Foundation 100 thousand dollars for every one million views of the commercial on YouTube up to a total of one million dollars. The goal was reached in less than five days.
I'd like to close with a few paragraphs of Paul Harvey's speech:

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker."
So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it."
So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.'
I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours."
So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It has to be somebody who'll plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
Somebody who'll bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who'll laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'"
So God made a farmer.
Thank you ....

A former CNN anchor remembers Ted Turner” - Bob talks about the life lessons he learned in working for Ted Turner, and how much Turner's own courage in the face of personal and financial disaster has given Bob some valuable insights into never giving up. Bob explores the early days of CNN in an old 4-story community building when Bob saw Ted making his noctural visits from his top-floor apartment to the CNN cafe in the basement of the old 4-story building. Bob then takes a look at what the past 30-plus years have done to build on Ted's dream of worldwide cable news around the clock from the beautiful CNN Center.

Bob Losure takes a look at the memorable cancer survivors and notable legends he's met since his original cancer diagnosis in 1985. Bob talks about how CNN reached out to hire him when he was at his lowest point to put him back in the anchor chair and allow him to regain his news career at CNN. Bob lets the audience in on speaking privately with legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, his friendship with three-time cancer survivor and CNN colleague Don Harrison, and his hopes for the future. Bob also speaks of the lighter times he remembers, when “live” TV news often goes awry, andthe punch lines from “Anchorman 2” become reality!

Bob looks at how Vegas continues to re-invent itself into a desert oasis unlike any other, and gives us an exciting peek into why more people than ever before are making Sin City their vacation destination. As a former CNN anchor, Bob looks at the state of the national economy, from unemployment to taxes, and how it's viewed by the movers and shakers in Vegas. His keynote takes us from Howard Hughes to Oscar and Carolyn Goodman, and a look into the crystal ball at where the money is coming from to keep The Strip and the suburbs humming.