Robin Meade has had a very visible public career as a beauty pageant queen, television broadcaster, and sometime pop-country singer, and if she has a personal marketing plan, which she undoubtedly does, she’s executed it flawlessly against the ever shifting backdrop of 21st century media. Born April 21, 1969, Meade grew up in New London, Ohio, and later attended Malone College and Ashland University, graduating in 1991 with a major in programming and performance and a minor in political science. Entering beauty pageants, she was crowned Miss Ohio in 1992 and went on to compete in the Miss America pageant, where she was a Top Ten finalist. She began her broadcasting career at WMFD-TV in Mansfield, Ohio, then moved on to stations in Columbus and Cleveland before landing a job as the news anchor on WSN-TV’s Today in Florida morning show. A rising star, she moved to on the NBC Chicago affiliate WMAQ-TV, where she anchored or co-anchored the morning and weekend newscasts and garnered a lot of camera time as part of the affiliate’s coverage of the 1996 Olympics. Meade next moved to CNN Headline News (which eventually became known as HLN) in Atlanta, Georgia, where she hosted and anchored Morning Express with Robin Meade as well as serving as one of hosts on Ask Oprah’s All Stars on the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Meade released a motivational book, Morning Sunshine!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too, in 2009 and completed her media hat trick by also releasing a country-pop album, Brand New Day, on the Somerset Entertainment label in 2011. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi
