Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NBC News Correspondent Bob Dotson has a unique approach. He searches the neglected corners of our country, seeking the extraordinary in ordinary lives. "Stories only happen to people who are allowed to tell them," says Dotson. "I look for the kind of guy who may never run for mayor, or go to the moon, or transplant a heart, but whose story may touch a viewer's heart." His special reports, "American Story with Bob Dotson," are seen on the Today Show and other NBC News programs. He was also the writer and host of "Bob Dotson's America," a series of half-hour programs on the Travel Channel and the author of two books, one for aspiring journalists, "Make it Memorable," (Bonus Books, 2000); the other a memoir, "In Pursuit of the American Dream," (Athenaeum, NY, 1985.) He has received more than 100 awards for his work in broadcast journalism, including four National Emmys and eight nominations. Over the years Dotson saved more than 6,000 original story tapes, whenever his bosses, looking to save space, tossed them out. He preserved not just the stories themselves, but every field cassette. For three decades, they were maintained at his own expense in air-conditioned rooms — first in his basement then, as the collection grew, in warehouses. NBC donated that archive to the Oklahoma Historical Society. All of Dotson’s stories are now available to scholars at the Society's new 64 million dollar museum next to the State Capitol.