Planning is under way for a Los Angeles celebration in memory of veteran newsman Bob Long, whose career included stints as an assignment editor at CBS affiliate KNXT in the early days of TV news.
He also was news director at KNBC.
A family spokeswoman said another celebration of Long’s life will also be held in the fall in Washington, D.C., where the former Marine had most recently been working for Voice of America as a TV executive producer at VOA Mandarin.
Long died Monday, just shy of his 72nd birthday, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., of complications from metastatic prostate cancer. His wife, Joan Rebecca, sister Judy and son Philip were by his side.
Long worked at Channel 4 in Los Angeles as vice president and news director from 2003 to 2009, when he retired and accepted a teaching post at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul.
He had previously been vice president for news and operations at the NBC- owned station in Washington, D.C.
Long was managing editor at Channel 4 in Los Angeles from 1997-99; an executive producer at KCAL Channel 9 from 1994-97; and managing editor and executive producer at KCOP Channel 13 from 1991-95.
He was assignment manager at then-named KNXT, now KCBS, in the Big News era, working alongside another local TV legend, Pete Noyes, who remembered the onetime Associated Press rewrite man this week as “one of the finest TV journalists I have ever known.”
Condolences can be sent to Long’s family at dctowestcoast@gmail.com.
— City News Service