Doug McConnell

Doug McConnell is a television journalist who has focused on environmental issues, with programs on the air continuously since 1982. He has created, produced and hosted many series, special programs, and news projects for local, national and international distribution. His broadcast awards include multiple Emmys, an Iris, and a Gabriel.

McConnell is co-founder and managing partner of ConvergenceMedia Productions (CMP) in Sausalito, California. One of CMP's principal products is OpenRoad with Doug McConnell, Exploring the West for Public Television nationally. OpenRoad on Public Television is closely linked to www.OpenRoad.TV, The Traveler's Video Guide to the West. McConnell is co-executive producer and managing editor for both ventures. McConnell also develops and oversees other media projects undertaken by CMP.

From 1993-2009 McConnell was the host and senior editor of the Bay Area Backroads television series on KRON Television in the San Francisco Bay Area. Backroads was one of the longest-running regional television series in American broadcast history, and was consistently the highest-rated locally produced, non-news program in the nation's sixth-largest market. During his Backroads years, McConnell co-authored two best-selling travel publications for Chronicle Books.

OpenRoad with Doug McConnell, Exploring the West began on San Francisco Public Television station KQED and its sister station in San Jose, KTEH, in April 2009. It has been accepted by American Public Television for distribution, and is now being picked up by public television stations across the country for broadcast beginning this fall.

The Bay Area Backroads program aired for 23 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, from 1985 through 2008. It began as a news magazine-style segment at local station KRON, when Jerry Graham profiled a local eccentric who carved tiki statues in his front yard. McConnell was hired to complete the 1993 season after Graham's retirement, and remained as host for 15 years. The show's theme was to highlight offbeat individuals from the Bay Area, creating the impression that the production crew was simply encountering them on a recreational driving tour (when in fact, there was a small research team that had planned every show).

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