Bruce Klopfenstein

Bio

Bruce Klopfenstein was born the third son of Heidelberg College history professor Carl Klopfenstein in Tiffin, Ohio. A ham at heart, he Experience in front of an audience led the way to a foray into electronic entertainment: radio. Klopfenstein earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communication (B.A.C.) from Bowling Green State University in 1979. Moving on to graduate school at The Ohio State University, Klopfenstein's masters thesis focused on the future of radio broadcasting. That study piqued his interest in new communication technologies, and he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in communication at Ohio State. Upon earning the doctoral degree, Klopfenstein took a job in the then Radio-Television-Film Department at BGSU where is has been teaching in the area of new media technologies (including the Internet) since 1985. Upon earning tenure in 1991, Klopfenstein was elected chair of the department which was already in the process of being renamed Telecommunications to reflect the changes in the external environment. Six of the current nine TCOM faculty members were hired with Klopfenstein as chair. Klopfenstein's current research and teaching interests remain related to understanding the processes by which new media are introduced and existing media react. He is a member of the Internet Society, International Communication Association, the World Future Society, and the Broadcast Education Association among others. He's also the host of a weekly educational television program, Internet Tools, broadcast on WBGU-TV (http://www-wbgu.bgsu.edu). He has a young daughter, Laurel, and his wife, Keri, is a computer consultant/ballet teacher.