Medford, Oregon’s KOBI-TV has hired Julie Akins as its news director. Akins, a Pacific Northwest native who grew up in Seattle, has led several news departments as a news director. She also worked as a media consultant for the California Media Collaborative and a reporter for KRON 4 News in San Francisco, California.
Inspired by her experiences as a journalist, Akins wrote Common Miracles; Gifts from a Grateful Universe , in which she shares insights gained on the job, and invites her readers to rediscover childhood wonder.
While the station might be new to Akins, KOBI-TV (Channel 5) has been on the air since 1953. In Medford, KOBI was the first TV station to offer local color programming and the first with statewide microwave news coverage. KOBI and its sister station KOTI of Klamath Falls are the only locally owned stations in the Rogue Valley and Klamath Basin, and on their website, they proclaim “their number one interest is localism!”