Bob Giles
Inducted 2011
News Director, WXYZ-TV
Robert “Bob” W. Giles’ professional broadcast news career has spanned a wide range of technological advances, but, as he puts it, “It was always about the story and how television could best tell the story, and the advantages broadcast journalism offered that were different from other media.”
Giles has been a part of Detroit broadcast journalism for nearly 50 years, being an influential journalist and mentor. From his start in 1962 at Channel Four, then WWJ-TV and later WDIV-TV, his career saw development from copy boy to television newsroom supervisor. In 1980, he moved to Channel Seven, WXYZ-TV, then owned by the American Broadcasting Company, and later Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, where he held the title of director of news operations from 1982 to his retirement in 2002.
The man known for the phrase, “Get it first, but get it right,” is still a tough evaluator and caring journalist, serving on the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and encouraging students to pursue careers in broadcasting.
Giles is active in the Radio and Television Digital News Association, the Automotive Press Association and the Independent Communicators Network. He now uses his journalistic talents for his automotive website (newcarnews.tv).
He is secretary of all-volunteer corps of retired executives who mentor and counsel people who want to start their own businesses (the Detroit Chapter 18 of SCORE). He pursues his love of baseball as a member of The Eddie Lake Society and honors his Scottish heritage in the St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit.