Andy Barth spent 35 years as part of the news team at WMAR-TV in Baltimore, beginning as a desk assistant in 1971 and working his way up to being an on air feature reporter, which he spent decades doing before retiring in 2006. Barth produced two feature franchises, one called “Andy At Large” and the other “How Do They Do That?” in which he tried to focus on good news stories.
Barth retired in 2006 to run for Congress, but lost. And since then he has taught Broadcast Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi, he served as Director of Public Information for the Howard County Health Department in Maryland, and he was Press Secretary for two public officials whose political party affiliations were different from his own. Retired again, Barth now works as a free-lance editor of books and articles and is a political strategist.
Mr. Barth recently gave a talk called “The Way We Were: The Early Days of TV” as part of the Florida Gulf Coast University Provost’s Seminar Series, which is presented in partnership with the Naples Discussion Group, so we brought him by the studio while he was on campus to talk about his career, and how the world of TV, and TV news, has changed.
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