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Longtime newsman Bob Briley dies at 91

The Columbian
Published: August 11, 2015, 5:00pm

SPOKANE — Bob Briley, a local television pioneer who came to be known as the “Walter Cronkite of Spokane” in his more than 50 years in broadcasting, died Monday. He was 91.

Briley, a Rogers High School graduate, became entranced with broadcasting as a boy listening to radio shows, he told The Spokesman-Review in 1997. After a stint in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he attended Gonzaga University. He became a radio announcer, then added TV to his repertoire when he went to work for KHQ in 1954.

He was KHQ’s main news anchor from 1957 to 1969, and again from 1972 to 1976, covering big stories like the Sunshine Mine disaster in North Idaho.

“He was always upbeat and dependable,” said Sheri Barnard, who moved to Spokane in 1958 and was elected the city’s mayor in 1989. “He was trusted. He was the voice of that era.”

After he left the anchor desk, he was KHQ’s public affairs director until his retirement in 1988, writing, producing and reporting scores of local documentaries on issues including Native American affairs, AIDS and child abuse. After his retirement, he continued to do a weekly show on senior issues called “Prime Timers” until 1995, when he went to KXLY, where his daughter, Robin Briley, was news operations manager.

In 1957 on KHQ, he appeared on the 11 o’clock news, a new concept.

“It was all quite a big deal,” Briley said in the 1997 interview. “It was five minutes, at the top of the hour. You read it from the wire, or else a couple people in the news department would write it up. We had AP photos, and we set them up on the easel.”

Briley was a wordsmith who served as a mentor to many, said Jamie Sijohn, who worked for KHQ for 15 years starting in 1979 when she still was in high school.

“He always made you stop and see how you could elevate your story,” Sijohn said.

Sijohn credits Briley, in part, for her career and says she still uses what she learned from him in her work for a Spokane ad firm. But he also learned from her.

“Bob took the extra steps to learn about me and my culture,” said Sijohn, a member of the Spokane Tribe.

He received an Emmy Award in 2006 for reporting on the Spokane Tribe. He also won the Silver Circle Award from the Seattle chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which is akin to being named to the regional broadcasting hall of fame.

“Bob was truly a TV legend,” Sijohn said.

Briley is survived by Doris, his wife of 68 years, two children and five grandchildren. A celebration of life will be held later this fall.

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