Bob Burke Helps Oklahoma Win Big

Nearly 50 years after earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma, Bob Burke is still in the thick of the action.

The 1970 journalism alumnus has been a practicing attorney since 1979, best known for his legal specialty in the area of workers’ compensation. However, Burke played a key role for journalists in the recent opioid trial: State v. Johnson & Johnson. He was appointed by Judge Thad Balkman to credential more than 250 journalists for a story that was reported on six continents.

“I enjoyed the trial so much. I pulled from my journalism training at OU to work with the major networks, reporters from England, and a television team from Al Jazeera,” Burke said.

That journalism training for Burke started in McCurtain County in the 1960s.

He worked 80 hours a week at the county’s only radio station, KBEL, broadcasting news, weather and sports.

“The exposure to a life in journalism was superb,” Burke said.

He was also editor of his high school newspaper, so reporting was on his radar. Burke’s high school counselor suggested OU and handed him a transcript and a map, with a line drawn to Norman.

“I somehow was admitted to OU that day and enrolled in broadcasting and journalism classes,” Burke said.

The budding journalist worked at the student radio station of the time, KUVY. At the same time, he was a disc jockey at KOMA in Oklahoma City, where the Babbling Bob Burke Show was heard by millions late at night due to the station’s strong signal.

“We were No. 1 in Denver at night and No. 2 in San Francisco. That’s how strong the signal was,” he said.

A prolific historical nonfiction author, Burke was drawn to professional writing and legendary OU professor Jack Bickham. Bickham taught that class in professional writing at the same time he was writing The Apple Dumpling Gang, which was adapted into a movie by Disney starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts.

Bickham and other professors would often bring in journalists from The Daily Oklahoman, as it was called in the late 1960s, for lectures.

“We learned to write everything from radio and television news copy to newspaper ads. I worked so many hours at KOMA, and later as a news reporter and state Capitol correspondent for KTOK and the Oklahoma News Network that there was little time to work at the Oklahoma Daily (OU’s student newspaper),” Burke said.

He did get the opportunity to cover OU’s student senate and other campus organization meetings.

Burke’s advice to young journalists and students is to take advantage of all opportunities.

“Even if it’s free, the experience will lead one higher and higher. You can never get too much exposure to every facet of journalism and mass communication,” he said.

Bob Burke knows this well.

He’s written 129 books and has written more historical nonfiction than anybody. That part of his career started with an opportunity – an opportunity to get to know Lyle Boren, who served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives Congress in the 1930s and 1940s representing the Sooner State.

Each week, Burke played dominoes with Boren, the father of former University of Oklahoma President David Boren. He heard incredible stories.

“I thought, ‘Someone needs to write these down,’” Burke said.

That first book from Bob Burke was Lyle Boren’s biography. Burke said he has four or five books planned for 2020, including a major biography of former Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Don Nickles.

How does Burke get so much accomplished? He follows a rigid “four one-thirds” schedule.

“I want to spend one-third with my wife, six kids and 10 grandkids, one-third writing books, one-third representing injured workers and one-third advocating for increased benefits for injured workers,” he said.