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Featured CAB Honoree: Romona Robinson
AWARD FOR EXCELLECENT IN BROADCASTING/2009
Robinson was born in 1959 in Wilson City, Missouri. She was one of 10 girls and one boy in her family. Her mother, Henrietta Robinson, was a seamstress and maintained a small farm behind their house. Romona earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Robinson entered the broadcasting field in 1981 as a disc jockey at a country-western music station in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1982 she joined a television station as a sports reporter and weekend news anchor. In 1985 she moved to Charleston South Carolina, to take up a television news anchor position.
In 1987 she applied for a news anchor position at the new 10 O'Clock News newscast at WUAB in Cleveland, Ohio. Her demo tape included "a shot of her being wiped out by a hurricane-whipped wave", which impressed the producers due to her poise and self-confidence. Her appointment made her the first African-American woman to anchor a nightly newscast in Cleveland. In 1990 she introduced a segment called "Romona's Kids", spotlighting children doing positive work for their communities, which she continued at WKYC.
Robinson remained at WUAB until 1997, when the station changed ownership. She left WUAB in February 1997 without another position lined up, and was hired in March by Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC Channel 3. Per her contract with WUAB, she was assigned to "special projects" for five months and then began anchoring and reporting on air in September 1997. From 1999 to 2008 she co-anchored with Tim White, but when WKYC opted not to renew White's contract, Robinson became solo anchor of the evening newscasts on WKYC in late 2008, making her the first African American woman to be the solo anchor of a weeknight newscast in Cleveland. In 2011 she was one of four reporters invited to the White House for one-on-one interviews with the president.
When her contract expired on December 16, 2011, Robinson ended her 15-year affiliation with Channel 3. In January 2012 she signed with CBS affiliate WOIO channel 19 as their afternoon and evening anchor and has announced her decision to leave WOIO at the end of the year.
Robinson has been the Honorary Chair for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure since 1996. She is active in numerous communal and charity organizations, including the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio, Coats for Kids and Shoes for Kids, and United Way.
She appeared in a cameo role playing a reporter in a first-season episode of the ABC television series The Commish, which aired on March 21, 1992.
Robinson was inducted into the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. She is an eight-time recipient of the Lower Great Lakes Emmy Award and received the 2014 Edward R Murrow Award, together with co-anchor Denise Dufala, for breaking news coverage in reporting on the Ariel Castro Kidnapping in Cleveland.
She also received the 2008 Kent State University Diversity in Media Distinguished Leadership Award and the 2011 Woman of Achievement Award from the YWCA of Greater Cleveland.
Robinson married Rodney Tyler, a technology consultant and father of two, in 2004. She and her husband are members of the Mount Zion Church in Oakwood Village, Ohio, where Robinson is often asked to say inspirational words from the pulpit.
We wish you well, Ramona, and thank you for your excellence in broadcasting.
CAB Mission Statement
As a nonprofit 501c6 we work collaboratively as an industry to continue to advance excellence in broadcasting in Cleveland through education, social interaction, recognition and philanthropy.- Promote the quality of broadcasting in the Cleveland area
- Provide a forum for issues concerning all segments of the Cleveland broadcasting community
- Foster greater understanding between those in the broadcasting sales, advertising and business communities
- Increase the level of professionalism among those in the Cleveland broadcast community
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