Gordon Greb

Gordon B. Greb (August 7, 1921 - September 12, 2016)[2] was an emeritus professor of San Jose State University,[3] a "distinguished broadcast educator"'[4] historian[5] and an investigative journalist.[6]

Gordon Greb
Born (1921-08-07) August 7, 1921
Irvington, California
DiedSeptember 12, 2016(2016-09-12) (aged 95)[1]
Chico, California
EducationUniversity of California at Berkeley
Alma materUniversity of Minnesota
Scientific career
FieldsBroadcast education, history and investigative journalism
InstitutionsSan Jose State University
ThesisFreedom of the Movies in Presenting News and Opinions (1950)

Early life and education

Greb was a fourth generation Californian. He was born on a farm in Irvington (Alameda County), California, and grew up in Oakland and San Leandro. His father worked as a Southern Pacific railroad engineer and his mother was a housewife.

During the Great Depression, young Greb sold magazines door to door (Saturday Evening Post, Liberty), earned a few dollars selling cartoons and stories to Oakland newspapers (Tribune, Post Enquirer) and for a short time appeared on radio as a child actor (Rusty, Boy Aviator, KTAB, 1934).[7]

After serving as editor of his high school newspaper and winning the Rotary Club oratorical contest supporting world peace in spring 1939, he completed his undergraduate degrees (AA, BA) at the University of California at Berkeley, his master’s (MA) at the University of Minnesota, and became a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University.

Military

After Pearl Harbor, Greb volunteered for the U. S. Army and served three years in World War II (1943 to 1946). On maneuvers with the 102nd Infantry Division at Camp Swift, Texas, he contracted pneumonia, received last rites from a Catholic chaplain and needed 104 days of hospitalization to recover. His outfit was shipped overseas without him.[8] He was assigned to Special Services at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and rose to staff sergeant while editing the camp newspaper (The Fort Dix Post) and working as a recording engineer in the WDIX studios.[9]

Entrepreneurship

In 1942, with Dave Houser, Greb initiated the Bay Area’s first local radio newscast over KROW in Oakland.[10] In 1954, he formed Gordon Greb & Associates, a survey research company that measured listenership for local radio stations.[11] In 1962, he began the Co-Ad Agency with Kenneth Roed to place advertising in college newspapers nationwide.[12] In 1972, Greb created Newsmaker Features that syndicated his "Birthday Quiz" and "These Great People" in such dailies as the San Jose Mercury-News, Seattle Times and San Rafael Daily Independent.[13]

Advocacy

Ending film censorship

In order to challenge a long-standing decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that had permitted movie censorship in eight states and 90 cities, Greb prepared a thesis calling for freedom of the movies.[14] He offered it to the law firm of Ephraim S. London, which was appealing the New York State Board of Regents' ban on exhibition of a controversial film called The Miracle. At the time, Greb was a graduate student at Stanford University.[15] The result was a precedent-changing[16] unanimous decision (9-0) protecting movies from censorship under the First Amendment in Burstyn v. Wilson, et al. (1952). The decision overruled Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio that had upheld film censorship for more than 37 years. In thanking Greb for allowing him to quote his research in the oral argument, London wrote, "I am amazed that someone who is not a lawyer could have had so clear a comprehension of the legal questions involved."[17]

Exposing state corruption

As an investigative reporter at a San Jose radio station (KSJO), he began conducting interviews by telephone and compiling documents that enabled him to uncover improper influence peddling involving millions of dollars of California’s money at the state capital.[18] Coming as a surprise to the entire press corps in Sacramento, he exposed a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle between two of California’s most powerful officials – Gov. Goodwin J. Knight and State Treasurer Gus Johnson – concerning who should benefit from the profit-making potential of the state’s treasury. Broadcasting the story to his Northern California audience (jointly released statewide by UP) ultimately brought about a state legislative inquiry[19] that forced Johnson to resign in what the UP bureau chief Jim Anderson in 1956 called "the best state political story in many a moon".[20]

Making historical discovery

In 1959, Greb published a research paper in the Journal of Broadcasting proving that San Jose was the birthplace of broadcasting.[21] He provided documents and witnesses[22] to establish that the first broadcaster was a Stanford University dropout – former science major Charles David Herrold – who was transmitting regularly scheduled programs starting in 1909[23] from his College of Engineering and Wireless in the Garden City Bank building that predated the accepted beginning (KDKA, 1920) by eleven years. Herrold worked in collaboration with his wife Sybil and numerous students. Greb’s revelation of Herrold’s accomplishment was significant enough for Journal of Broadcasting editor Robert Summers to credit him for making a "first station find" (winter 1958-59 issue) and for the media authority Christopher H. Sterling to recognize Herrold as one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley, since he was at "…the very beginning of what has grown into the modern electronic media business".[24]

Political activism

In the 1950s, Greb joined Alan Cranston (later U.S. Senator) in organizing the Democratic Club movement that challenged the Republican Party domination in the state of California. He participated in campaigns that elected Nicholas Petris and Robert Crown to the state assembly and Carlos Bee and Alfred Alquist to the state senate, among others, while active with the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee.

In 1969, Greb handled press relations for the local union president Al Rutherford, and the state leader John Sterling of the American Federation of Teachers (later Phoenix University founder) in a 37-day strike by faculty members[25] at San Jose State College.[26] While their union action was opposed by Gov. Ronald Reagan, it eventually led to legislation that granted collective bargaining rights to teachers.[27]

Journalism

Greb became a journalist as a youngster in 1935 by publishing his own newspaper in Oakland, California, (The Katz Meow) with Jack Corbett when both were in junior high school. He started his professional career as a newspaperman for the San Leandro News Observer in 1939 and continued after World War II at the San Rafael Independent Journal. He then moved to San Francisco Bay Area radio stations KROW, KRCC, KLX, KTIM, KVSM, KSJO and KSJS; television stations KNTV, KABC, KNBC, KQED, KCSM, and KTEH; as well as network stations owned by CBS and ABC in Hollywood, and NBC in Burbank. He has been heard on the BBC World Service and featured on the PBS series History Detectives.[28]

A veteran of radio broadcasting since 1934, Greb is one of the oldest of Northern California’s notable broadcasters[29] and was named to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.[30] During his career in radio and television, he was a judge for the Emmy Awards of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences[31] and statewide chairman of the radio and television awards committee of The Associated Press.

Teaching and research

A founding member and co-ordinator of the School of Journalism’s Graduate Program in Mass Communications, Professor Greb retired from San Jose State University in 1990. During his years in higher education, Greb lectured internationally at universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Fiji, New Zealand and Thailand as well as at Stanford University, the University of Oregon (Eugene), the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

He taught courses at San Jose State University (1956 -1991) in all media – newspaper, magazine, public relations and broadcast journalism, the latter being a new program he introduced in 1957 and which became the state’s first B.A. degree in that discipline. Early in his career he helped to pioneer instructional television with recorded lectures on "The Press and Democracy" in 1960[32] and "“Contemporary Issues in American Society" which he organized in 1967 with professors from history, political science and philosophy.

To provide American students with a world view, he took them abroad during several years to study in the United Kingdom (1980-1983), teaching a summer course on the "British Mass Media", holding seminars at Imperial College, the BBC, ITV, The Times, Fleet Street and ABC News (Peter Jennings).

At the invitation of the U.S. State Department, Greb was a guest lecturer at China’s Radio-Television News Center and the University of Beijing in 1985, and an information specialist for news media and educational institutions in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji in 1991.

Publications

Master's thesis

"Freedom of the Movies in Presenting News and Opinions" (University of Minnesota, 1950). TC Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement (MA Theses) Quarto 378.7M66 OG7972.

Books
  • Contemporary Issues in American Society: A Study Guide for Instructional Television Course (1967) Edited with Whitaker T. Deininger, Billie Barnes Jensen, and James E. Watson.
  • The Benbow Family, California Pioneers: A History and Genealogy from England to America of Thomas and Sarah Benbow, 1820 to Today (1994)
  • Charles David Herrold: Inventor of Radio Broadcasting (2003). Co-authored with Mike Adams.
  • Google Brain: Making Your Memoir a Time Machine on the Internet (2009).

Video, films and DVDs
  • KQW: World’s First Broadcast Station, (1980), presenter, 22-minute 16 mm film featuring pioneer broadcaster Ray Newby, directed by Jim Ashcroft and produced by Dr. Clarence Flick of San Jose State University.
  • "The Sumi Artist, (1958) narrator of documentary on Chiura Obata, professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, produced by Lobett Films, San Francisco.
  • The American Newspaper: What Makes the Democratic Press Different," (1961) host of 16 mm. 40-min. motion picture, ITV Center, San Jose State University.
  • The Dow Chemical Demonstration, (1967) host of 35-min videotape of documentary aired over KQED-TV based on taping of three-hours of live coverage of event from San Jose State for KNTV (channel 11), San Jose, CA.
  • Why Did He Die? (1968) Host of 30-min. videotape documentary on death of Martin Luther King aired over KCSM-TV.

Scholarly articles
  • The Place of Journalism in the Junior College", Journalism Quarterly, 31: 354-57 (Summer 1954)
  • "The Golden Anniversary of Broadcasting", Journal of Broadcasting, 3-13 (Winter 1958-59)
    • "Surveying Public Opinion by 'Beeper' Telephone", Journalism Quarterly, 36: 57-81 (Winter 1959)
  • "Station Research Can Pay Its Way. Western Advertising" (January 1958)
gollark: Possibly because they generally come up when someone is trying to suggest that their own political opinions should influence X more.
gollark: I always find those "X is inherently political" claims intuitively beeish for whatever reason.
gollark: I don't think it's that hard to just check if the suffixes match.
gollark: I'm not sure if it has code for the case when it becomes webpoints.
gollark: The automated alerting system is even able to determine when the webring is split into weblines.

References
  1. "Gordon Greb". Bruise Funeral Home. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  2. San José State University Emeritus Faculty Association Biography
  3. "San José State University Emeritus Faculty Association Biography" (PDF).
  4. "Division Honors San Jose State's Gordon Greb". Static: 1. July 1998.
  5. Author of Charles Herrold, Inventor of Radio Broadcasting; The Benbow family, California pioneers: A history and genealogy from England to America : Thomas and Sarah Benbow, 1820 to today
  6. Gordon Greb. "Cold War Revisited –1961".
  7. "Radio broadcast schedule". San Francisco News. March 1934.
  8. Mick, Maj. Allan H. (1947). "With the 102d Infantry Division Through Germany". Infantry Journal Press. Washington, D.C. pp. 29–31.
  9. "History Detectives: Blueprint Special". September 15, 2008.
  10. "Gordon Greb - elected to the Bay Area Hall of Fame, Class of 2011". BroadcastLegends.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2013-07-07.
  11. "Station Research Can Pay Its Way". Western Advertising. January 1958.
  12. "Personal Mention". Campus Digest. San Jose State College. October 25, 1962.
  13. "Do's and Don'ts for Beginning Writers". The Writer. January 1974.
  14. Greb, Gordon B. (1950). "Freedom of the movies in presenting news and opinions". TC Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement (MA Theses): University of Minnesota. Quarto 378.7M66 OG7972. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. "Stanfordie helped shape film decision". Palo Alto Times. May 27, 1952. p. 5.
  16. Brock, Gerald (1995). Toward a Competitive Telecommunication Industry. Lawrence Erlbaum. p. 351.
  17. File:Ephraim London letter.jpg
  18. "Gov. Knight Clashes with State Treasurer". The San Francisco Examiner. June 22, 1956. p. 1.
  19. "Solons Order New Probe of Treasurer's Office". San Jose News. July 27, 1956. p. 1.
  20. Speegle, Paul (June 25, 1956). "Radio Column". San Francisco News.
  21. "A New "First" Station?" (PDF). Journal of Broadcasting. 1959.
  22. Barnouw, Erik (1966). A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States To 1933. Oxford University Press. pp. 34–35.
    - Sterling, Christopher H.; John Michael Kittross (2002). Stay Tuned: A History of American Broadcasting (3rd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 45.
  23. Cassidy, Mike (February 2, 2009). "Let's celebrate the centennial of Charles Herrold's historic radio broadcasts". San Jose Mercury News.
  24. "(Noted in preface)". Communication Booknotes Quarterly. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.: 217–218 December 20, 2003.
  25. "1970s: The Politics of Diversity". California Federation of Teachers.
  26. Egner, Dick (January 8, 1969). "Pickets Ring SJS". San Jose News. p. 1.
  27. Meister, Dick (February 14, 1969). "Teachers End San Jose Strike". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 1.
  28. "Historical record". News & Review. Chico, Calif. September 11, 2008. pp. 10–11.
  29. "Gordon Greb Elected to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2011". Broadcast Legends. Archived from the original on 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2013-07-07.
  30. "All-Time Inductees". Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.
  31. "Film Jury". San Francisco Chronicle. August 14, 1974.
  32. "ITV Telecast to Present World Press". Spartan Daily. May 13, 1960. p. 1.


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