Biography
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.
