Larry Walklin, Journalism Papers

Larry Walklin was a professor of Broadcasting at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Journalism and Mass Communication, from 1967 to 2017.

Born in Grand Island, Walklin began his broadcast career as an announcer at KMMJ while he was a junior in high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Kansas State University in three years while working as reporter, newscaster, and announcer for KSDB radio. He earned a master’s degree at Michigan State an a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa.

Walklin accepted a position at Creighton University in Omaha in 1966. A year later, he was offered an assistant professorship in broadcasting at the UNL School of Journalism. When Walklin joined the journalism program he was able to help rebuild it after a long period of budget cuts. The program hired a group of young men who would be able to work long hours to rework and rebuild the program. Walklin helped earn the school’s accreditation in 5 years. He became a full professor in 1974 and also served as general manager of Radio KRNU.

Walklin has extensively contributed to the sucess of the University. He was president of the Faculty Senate, the chair of the University Curriculum Committee and served on the Executive Graduate Council. Along with helping rebuild the Journalism program, Walklin also played a key role in setting up the online distance program in 1994. He was named the first Fred and Gladys Seaton Distinguished Professor of Journalism and was the first winner of the M. Duncan Sowles Distinguished Teaching Award.

Walklin was also very active in the journalism field in Nebraska outside the university. He began working to get cameras into courtrooms in 1982 after attending a meeting at which Joe R. Seacrest, then editor of the Lincoln Journal, nominated him for the job. He continued this work for many years as chair of the media committee that coordinates the radio, television and photo pool coverage of the courts in Nebraska, Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

He has been president and chair of the board of directors of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association (NBA), a member of the national board of directors of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, head of the Radio-TV Journalism division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, and a member of the First Amendment Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters.

One of the highlights of Walklin’s year as NBA president was the opportunity to coordinate and host the association-sponsored debate between incumbent Governor Kay Orr and challenger Ben Nelson in October, 1990. With 52 radio stations and 23 TV stations covering the program, it was the largest single broadcast event ever held in Nebraska.

Larry Walklin retired in 2017.

https://journalism.unl.edu/larry-walklin https://unlcms.unl.edu/journalism2/cojmc/alumni/jnews/archive/91_spring/walklin.html https://journalism.unl.edu/news/larry-walklin-retires-cojmc-after-50-years https://unlcms.unl.edu/journalism2/cojmc/alumni/jnews/archive/00_summer/walklin.html https://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/unl-professors-retire-after-dedicating-50-years-to-building-the-university/article_b1183ec2-a317-11e7-b591-e350779eb935.html