, Associate Professor/Radio-Television
Office phone: (406) 243-4088

Ray Ekness has worked at The University of Montana since 1989. He began as a television producer at the UM Broadcast Media Center (then known as the Telecommunications Center) and an adjunct instructor. He began working as an assistant professor of Radio-Television in the School of Journalism in 1998. He was named department chair and promoted to
associate professor in 2004. Ray teaches a variety of audio and video
production classes.

Ray has produced programs about subjects ranging from sports, dance, history and culture to travel, politics, news and public affairs. In the past year, he produced the 2005 Governor's Award for the Arts television program that aired on MontanaPBS and received a nomination for the Northwest Emmy Awards for the Backroads of Montana television series with co-producers John Twiggs, Gus Chambers and William Marcus. Backroads has received five non-commercial Program of the Year awards from the Montana Broadcasters Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. The program, which airs on MontanaPBS and around the region, has also been nominated for five regional Emmy Awards.

Ray has produced many award-winning commercials and industrial and instructional videos for The University of Montana. He received a Montana Advertising Federation Addy Award for a MontanaPBS promotional campaign for "The Corps of Discovery." He also worked as a cameraman on two regional Emmy Award-winning programs and two programs that have been broadcast on PBS.

Ray has an associate's degree in Radio Broadcasting from Dickinson State University (N.D.), and a B.A. in Radio-TV and M.A. in Journalism from The University of Montana. He has worked in commercial television news and production at KECI-TV in Missoula, KTVQ in Billings and KTVB in Boise, Idaho.

Ray and his wife, Pattie Corrigan, have a dog named Chowtime.

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