Bill Kobin

Bill Kobin was an American public television executive.

A student of English and psychology at U.C. Berkeley, Kobin first established himself in broadcast journalism as a producer for CBS and ABC News, working with the likes of Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney before joining National Educational Television, a precursor to PBS.

He would spend the next 50 years in public television, launching the then controversial Black Journal, the first regularly scheduled series produced by African-Americans; he was involved in the creation of An American Family, the documentary that would inspire today's unscripted programming, and he contributed to the Children’s Television Workshop, the production company behind Sesame Street and The Electric Company.

Kobin also helped build the PBS station KCET in Los Angeles and was behind such programming as Road Trip with Huell Howser and California Stories.

Kobin died January 8, 2021, in Brentwood, California. He was 91.