Steven M. Bass
President and CEO
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Steven Bass serves as president and chief executive officer of Oregon Public Broadcasting since January 1, 2006. An independent, non-profit organization, OPB captures and shares important stories of the northwest and serves a critical role as a primary source of news and information.
OPB operates a network of a sixteen radio stations providing news & information, a full- time jazz station operated in partnership with Mt. Hood Community College and five television stations and dozens of translators that provide broadcast service to 85% of Oregon’s population as well as a significant number in Southwest Washington.
During his tenure, OPB established Earthfix, a partnership of six public broadcasting partners covering the environment and the Northwest News Partnership, which is a collaborative content-sharing partnership with nearly 40 newspapers, television and radio stations, and other media in the region. Significant growth in OPB’s reporting staff and the addition of daily and weekly radio programs (including Think Out Loud and State of Wonder), podcasts and digital content have yielded increases and audiences as well as one of the strongest base of financial support among public media organizations in the United States.
OPB’s work has been recognized with the most prestigious awards for journalism. In 2009, OPB was awarded the DuPont-Columbia journalism award for the television documentary, The Silent Invasion. In 2010, OPB was awarded a Peabody Award for its radio series, Hard Times.
Bass is the recipient of two northwest Emmy awards – for overall excellence in 2015 and community service in 2016. He has numerous credits on national programming including executive producer of Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues, which was broadcast on PBS in June 2004 as part of the American Masters series and in December 2004 on the BBC Arena series, and released on home video by Universal. He also served as executive in charge for the PBS series, History Detectives.
Serving previously as founding president & CEO of Nashville Public Television for seven years, he oversaw that station’s transition from government ownership to become an independent, non-profit public television station.
Prior to joining NPT, Bass served as vice president & manager of television stations for WGBH/Boston, where he led the development of the nightly news program, Greater Boston, which remains on the air to this day. He also oversaw a weekly talk show hosted by former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Prior to his service with WGBH, Bass spent nearly ten years with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Washington, DC.
He served as chairman of the board of the Association of Public Television Stations and a member of the board of directors of NPR. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Public Radio International, the Oregon Symphony and the Oregon East Symphony. In 2015, he traveled with a delegation on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to Kiev, Ukraine to work with the national television and radio network on free press issues.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with majors in economics and music. He also holds a Master of Arts in business from the University of Wisconsin’s Graduate School of Business.
In 2008, after a hiatus of nearly 30 years, he rekindled his musical career and performs regularly around the region. He is a clarinetist with the Vancouver (Washington) Symphony Orchestra where he has performed with notable conductors and soloists including Gerard Schwarz, Anne Akiko Meyers, and Elmar Oliveira. He also serves as principal clarinet for the Oregon East Symphony, and has performed with the Newport Symphony Orchestra, the Siletz Bay Music Festival and others. His recorded work includes the 2014 CD “Get Happy” with the band, Pink Martini and the Pink Martini Holiday Spectacular which was broadcast nationwide on NPR stations in 2015.
He and his wife, Sara, reside in Lake Oswego, Oregon. They have two adult daughters, Catie and Caroline. He was raised in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York and is a 1975 graduate of Hastings High School.