In 1979, Kim Spencer founded Public Interest Video Network, a consortium of independent media makers in Washington, DC, that produced several innovative live broadcasts for [PBS], including “Nuclear Power: The Public Reaction” (1979) after the [Three Mile Island] power plant incident, and “America at Thanksgiving” (1980), which featured humorist
Art Buchwald having a two-way TV conversation with diverse families at their holiday dinner tables across the US. In 1982 Spencer co-founded
Internews Network, a global non-profit organization supporting independent media and access to quality information worldwide, with
Evelyn Messinger and David M. Hoffman. With his partner Messinger, he produced a series of satellite “
spacebridges” between the US and
Soviet Union, including “The Moscow Link,” a live two-way exchange between Russian scientists and the first global conference on “
nuclear winter” sponsored by
Carl Sagan and
Paul R. Ehrlich in Washington, DC (1982). More than a dozen spacebridges culminated with the
Emmy Award-winning "Capital to Capital" series, six programs linking the
United States Congress with the
USSR Supreme Soviet that appeared live on
ABC News and
Gosteleradio (1987–88). Spencer was a coordinating producer at the launch of the
ABC News weekly series "
Prime Time Live" in 1989, responsible for coordination of major productions, including "Behind the Kremlin Walls," a one-hour live broadcast from Moscow, which won an
Emmy Award in 1991, and "Nature in a Bottle," a report from inside the
Biosphere II sealed environment in
Arizona. In the early 1990s in Paris, with journalist Patrice Barrat, Spencer developed the innovative "Vis à Vis" series: transcontinental two-way video dialogues linking people ‘face to face’ from their homes and workplaces using videoconference technology. Recorded over a period of a week, then edited into 15 one-hour programs for European broadcasters. The "Vis à Vis" format was later used as a model for many trans-border, cross-cultural exchanges. Working with producer Steven Lawrence, three programs were created for PBS, including "Beyond the Veil" in 1997, which connected a schoolteacher in
Tehran with her counterpart in Washington D.C. – the first independent Iranian-US media co-production after the
hostage crisis in 1979. From 1993 to 1999, Spencer was the executive director of
Internews Network, responsible for managing media development and journalism training in more than a dozen countries in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and Israel/Palestinian Territories. In 1999, Spencer founded Link Media and directed the launch of
Link TV, the independent satellite network devoted to global affairs. Originally called WorldLink TV, the non-commercial Link TV is available in 34 million US homes on
DIRECTV channel 375 and
DISH Network channel 9410. Spencer served as president of Link Media for 10 years and was involved in a 2012 merger with
KCET, the major public broadcaster serving 6 million Southern California households. At Link TV, Spencer helped create the
Peabody Award-winning daily news program "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East," the news analysis programs "Latin Pulse" and "Global Pulse," the documentary series "Bridge to Iran," the digital media platform ViewChange.org, and the weekly series "
Earth Focus,” currently the longest-running environmental program on American television. Kim Spencer is Senior Programming Executive of KCETLink Media Group, based in
Burbank, CA and
San Francisco. He is also a founding partner of DigitalCitizen.TV an organization promoting
transpartisan engagement and better media coverage of elections. ==Awards==