Robert Dunbar

Robert “Bob” Dunbar is a community media leader whose work spans public access television in Seattle, startup support in Newburyport, and long-term PEG leadership in Revere, Massachusetts. A former Rhode Islander, Bob began his community media career in Seattle in the mid-1990s and worked at SCANTV until August 2007 before returning to New England. That path gave him the kind of hands-on access background that shaped his later work building and stabilizing a local media center.

In 2008, Bob helped lead Revere’s transition from a cable-run access center to a nonprofit community media organization. He was hired as Executive Director of RevereTV that September and has remained in the role as the organization grew into Revere’s public, educational, and government access media center. Under his leadership, RevereTV expanded its physical space, upgraded its control room and production tools, moved toward high-definition production, and created more room for local producers, arts programming, volunteer training, and community participation.

Bob’s work reflects the practical leadership that keeps community media useful to a city over time. RevereTV has served not only as a place for residents to learn production and share programming, but also as a civic communication tool during public meetings, local events, school partnerships, and moments of community crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, RevereTV helped collect and air survivor stories with the City of Revere, turning local media into both a public health resource and a record of what the community lived through.