Bob Pondillo

Bob Pondillo was in the media industry - radio, TV, and film - for more than 30 years before coming to academia. His credits include: The Voice of America, Washington, D.C.; WNBC radio, New York; ABC Radio Networks, New York; Columbia Pictures Television, Los Angeles; Paramount Pictures Television, Los Angeles; as well as more than 20 local radio and television stations from Ohio to Florida. He’s garnered four Emmy Awards for television writing and producing, and in 2002 was inducted into The Radio and Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. Dr. Pondillo is also an award winning filmmaker. His short narrative movies, "Would you Cry if I Died?" (2006), "My Name is Wallace" (2007), and "Wait…" (2008) have won dozens of awards from film festivals around the nation and the world including “Best Screenplay,” Best Director” and more than 20 “Best of Fest” honors. Both "My Name is Wallace," and "Wait…," which Dr. Pondillo wrote and directed, were selected as “Official Selections” in more than 100 film festivals including the prestigious Festival de Cannes, Cannes, France in 2007 and 2008. His current film - The New, True, Charlie Wu - is also a multi-award winner. It's the story of a young man who finds his true purpose in life during a strange dream. In his day job, Bob Pondillo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of American Media and Social Institutions at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of "Censorship's Golden Age: The Secret Life of NBC-TV's Stockton Helffrich, America's First Network Television Censor, (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), as well as numerous journal articles on early network TV censorship. His research interests include American media censorship, the interplay of news on American democracy, and issues of media and religion. He is on the Graduate School faculty in Mass Communication, as well as a faculty member teaching in MTSU’s Honors College program.