After 20 years at UM, Bill Knowles signs off

By Sarah Swan
J-School Web Reporter

photo by Garret W. Smith

Professor Bill Knowles lectures on the influence of fiber optics on today's media during an Introduction to Mass Media class last month.

Professor Bill Knowles, who watched history in the making during more than two decades as a broadcaster and later influenced generations of students at the School of Journalism, has announced he will retire at the end of this school year.

For 20 years, Knowles has taught popular courses such as Introduction to Mass Media and Sports and Media, which he recently created.  

“I think he will be remembered as a person who inspired many people who weren’t really interested in journalism to change majors, and how much he encouraged those who were inclined toward journalism to realize they’d made the right choice,” said Journalism Dean Jerry Brown.

Knowles began his journalism career at San Jose State University in California, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. At the time, Knowles was already interested in broadcast, but unsure how he would fare.

“I was concerned at that time that I looked like I was about 12 years old, which is a problem of many of our young males who want to be on camera,” Knowles said. “They look like they are awfully young; it’s easier for a woman to look older on camera than for a man.”

Knowles said he turned to his mentor, Gordon Greb, a professor at San Jose who helped establish the degree program there in broadcast journalism in 1956.

“I asked him some questions about broadcast, and he said, ‘There are a lot of jobs off camera.’ This is in the late 50’s, [19]58- 59,” Knowles said. “He was basically saying this is where people are starting to get their news, and then I started to read about broadcasting and where people thought it was going.”

Before Knowles could pursue his interest in broadcast any further, he enlisted in the Army in 1959 and was sent to Fort Slocum in New York.  There, he attended the U.S. Army Information Training School, where just four weeks into his eight-week course he was pulled aside by his military instructor.

“[He] tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You’re doing so well in this class, we’d like you to teach here for the rest of your enlistment,’ and, I thought it over and said,’ Yeah,’ ” Knowles said. For the next three years he taught, among other things, print journalism and law.

His interest in broadcast never died, and Knowles said that while teaching at the Army school he spent time with colleagues on the broadcast side of the military.

Once out of the Army, Knowles attended graduate school at the University of Southern California, where he studied telecommunications.  When he graduated, he accepted a job at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, which at the time was an entry-level job. KSL-TV is currently a destination market for many of the broadcast program’s graduates.

Two years later, in 1970, Knowles began working at ABC News, where he would serve as writer, associate producer and operations producer. During his time there, Knowles was in the midst of such historic events as Watergate and Richard Nixon’s resignation.

“The most interesting story I’ve covered over the years had to be Watergate,” Knowles said. “I was one of many journalists, producers, photographers kicked off the White House lawn the night President Nixon resigned in 1974. … I could see the reaction of the city, and the people who were congregating in front of the White House. There was a feeling of relief, and as President Ford said, just after he was sworn in the next day, ‘Our long national nightmare is over,’ and that was true.”

Knowles now shares his passion for broadcast and desire to watch history being made with his students at UM.

Kathy Weber, a weekend anchor and reporter for KPAX in Missoula, calls Knowles one of her dearest friends and mentor.

“[He once said to me,] ‘If you want to make money you can choose this career, but it’s got to be something you feel passionate about. Do you want to make money, or do you want to be involved with history as it unfolds?’ ” Weber said. “I was inspired by the promise of this career as something exciting, something fresh, something different and something challenging every day.”

After he left ABC news, Knowles came to UM as a professor at the Journalism School.

Charlie Hood was dean of the Journalism School when Knowles was hired in 1986. He said Knowles’ professional experience caught his eye.

“We are always looking for professionals. We had already gotten Joe Durso [also a professional who had worked for CBS in Chicago and in New York] so it was actually Joe and I who made the decision to hire Bill,” Hood said. “It was very important to us that our journalism school program had practitioners who really knew the business. …  Top journalism professionals like Knowles and Durso are paid so much more than what we could offer at the University of Montana that it was a real catch, we thought.”

Knowles said he took the teaching job hoping to give back to the television industry that had so graciously embraced him.

“Television news is, I think, a business that has to be taught by someone who’s done it,” Knowles said.

For years, students in the broadcast and radio field have been influenced by Knowles’ professional knowledge.

Dean Brown remembers watching Knowles lecture in the Intro to Mass Media class.

“It was clear to me then how much he really loved the course and how much material he had accumulated and was accumulating, and how up to date he kept himself on news issues,” Brown said.

Students value Knowles’ experience and they are amused by his anecdotes, said Brown, who has subbed for Knowles on occasion.

“I follow his script. It’s funny to try and play Bill Knowles,” Brown said with a chuckle.

For some people, retirement can mean buying a motor home and traveling around the nation, but for Knowles, retirement just means no longer being a full-time professor at UM.

He’ll return next year to teach the Intro class and the Sports and Media class.  “Where it goes after that depends on if I stay in the area, if the dean and the chair wants me back,” he said. “I can’t predict what will happen, so you never say goodbye, but on the other hand I’m looking forward to retirement.”

Brown says he hopes Knowles will continue to be an active professor. “I don’t think I see Bill ever not being a part of this school,” Brown said.

Knowles, who turned 70 last June (but don’t let that fool you, because, as he puts it, 70 is the new 60), says he is not looking to put his feet up upon retirement. Some of his interests include teaching overseas, writing and perhaps working with foreign governments.

“I may decide maybe I don’t want to do this, or maybe I want to go work in sports and be a PR man for a minor league baseball team, I don’t know, I really don’t know,” Knowles said. “I want to have the ability to make some decisions, to sort of change my life and maybe move onto a third career. I’ve had two very good ones, and before I am old, or older, and lose my health I’d like the opportunity to try some other things.”

Knowles said he will miss his interaction with the students the most, and being able to help them grow as professionals.

“Broadcast journalism takes a lot of hits today because of any number of reasons,” he said. “Young people who are interested in going into it see some ethical problems with it, some frustration and maybe a diminishing audience.”

Television news hasn’t shrunk, he said, but the number of people who watch it has.

“But my message to any young student is to, instead of running away from the problem, get in there and fix the problem,” Knowles said.  “We, at this school, train people to fix problems. I hope that they’ll get in there and fix them rather than running away from the business.”

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