Jon Duncanson

Jon Duncanson (born March 11, 1956) is a former American broadcaster who worked for many years as a television News presenter and reporter in Chicago.

Early life and education

A native of Minnesota, Duncanson earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.

Professional career

Duncanson began his career working for Greenpeace International.[1] In 1983 he began his journalistic career as a free lance photographer in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, working for UPI with occasional assignments from Time Magazine. He then worked as a television reporter and presenter for WDIO-TV in Duluth from 1984 until 1985, WFTV-TV in Orlando from 1985 until 1988, and KCRA-TV in Sacramento from 1988 until 1992.[1] He also traveled through Croatia in November 1992 and taped the fighting in that country on his home video camera, winning an Emmy Award in the San Francisco/Northern California region. In total he covered wars as a free-lance reporter in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras and later in Colombia for KCRA-TV(NBC) as well as Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia for KCRA and for WBBM-TV and WFLD-TV in Chicago. On 24 February 1992 he joined WBBM-TV in Chicago as a general assignment reporter. He won two more Emmys in the Chicago/Midwest region for reports from Bosnia. In 1994 his efforts were documented in the French film The Troubles We've Seen - A History of Journalism in Wartime, by Academy Award-winning director Marcel Ophüls. The film received the International Critics' Award at the Montreal World Film Festival.[2]

In September 1995 Duncanson left WBBM-TV after choosing not to accept a contract renewal. In late October 1995 he was hired by WFLD-TV in Chicago as a 6 am news presenter, which also included providing special reports for the station's 9 pm newscast. The following year he became news presenter for WFLD's 7 am to 9 am newscast also.

In 1996 Duncanson made a cameo appearance in the movie Primal Fear as a location reporter.[3]

In August 1997 Duncanson and his wife, TV presenter/reporter Sylvia Gomez, left WFLD to travel the world together.[4] They traveled to Yugoslavia, England, France, Italy, India, Thailand, China, Panama, Peru and Mexico, logging more than 30,000 miles over a five-year period. Nine months were spent sailing from San Francisco, into the Sea of Cortez off Baja Mexico, ending up in Puerto Vallarta, where they purchased a seaside villa. After their first child was born in 2002 the couple received an offer from NBC News and settled down in Los Angeles and began working again as correspondents on a full-time free-lance basis.

In 2003 Duncanson and Gomez returned to Chicago's airwaves, rejoining WBBM-TV on 30 June 2003 as husband-and-wife weekend news presenters and general assignment reporters.[5] Duncanson won his fourth Emmy covering the tsunami in 2005 reporting from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. In January 2006 Duncanson and Gomez were moved from their weekend news anchoring duties to full-time general assignment reporting duties. Duncanson was a returning guest lecturer on Journalism and Media Issues at Columbia College in Chicago, as well as at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He served as Master of Ceremonies for the University of Chicago Hospitals Cancer Survivors Day event for three consecutive years.[6][7] The couple left WBBM-TV at the end of 2006 and moved to their home in Mexico.

In 2007 Duncanson was named the public relations chief of a Mexican importer/exporter and national distributor of liquor.[1]

Since January 2007 Duncanson and Gomez have been running Aviana Productions, a video/strategic media company in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mexico.[8] In March 2009 Duncanson was invited to the West Wing of the White House and discussed how the Obama Administration could use viral video and social media to promote its political image and agenda.[8] In 2010 the couple produced a campaign film and served as advisors for Mario Lopez Valdez, the sitting federal senator from Sinaloa, Mexico, in his campaign for governor there. In a surprise upset, Lopez Valdez won the election.[9] In July 2010 Duncanson and Gomez, through Aviana Productions, won a North American Aegis Award for a marketing film produced with golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.[10][11] At year's end the couple won two more Aegis Awards for films produced for the luxury Mexican resorts Palmasola, and Imanta Resorts, both located near Puerto Vallarta.[12]

Personal

In 1992, Duncanson began dating Chicago TV reporter Sylvia Gomez. The couple was engaged early in 1995, and married on October 13, 1995 in a ceremony presided over by Cook County Clerk and former Chicago Mayor David Orr. Their first child, Ian Gomez Duncanson, was born in June 2002.

The couple have homes in California and in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Viva World Trade Appoints Jon Duncanson as V.P. Public Relations". Eclipse. 2007-03-30. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  2. ↑ "1994 Winners". World Film Festival. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  3. ↑ "Full cast and crew for Primal Fear". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  4. ↑ Badowski, Christine (2003-11-09). "Jon Duncanson & Sylvia Gomez". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  5. ↑ Cox, Ted (2003-06-13). "TV & Radio.(Time Out!)". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) cited at Highbeam.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  6. ↑ "New attitude for cancer survivors". The University of Chicago Medical Center. 2006-05-17. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  7. ↑ "Senator Barack Obama and Meredith Baxter to speak at University of Chicago Hospitals cancer survivors celebration". The University of Chicago Medical Center. 2005-05-31. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  8. 1 2 "Aviana Productions - About Us". Aviana Productions. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  9. ↑ Bernstein-Wax, Jessica (2010-11-07). "Mill Valley couple using reporting skills for video company". MercuryNews.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  10. ↑ "Aviana Productions Wins North American Aegis Award". Banderas News. 2010-07-22. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  11. ↑ "Jack Nicklaus & sons Play Bahia At Punta Mita". Aviana Productions, hosted on YouTube. 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  12. ↑ "PV's Aviana Productions Wins 2 Aegis Awards for Area Resorts". Banderas News. 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

External links

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