Biographie
At last count, Raymond J Brune has produced more than 15,000 hours of live network, syndicated, cable, local and web television. With a mantle full of Emmys and various other broadcasting awards, Ray is a proven game changer in the genres of news, talk, reality, & sports TV.
Ray's west coast production company, Raymond J Brune Productions, remains on the bleeding edge of broadcasting in Los Angeles. Ray executive produces James & Sunda, the #1 prime time series on the JLTV network and seen in 116 countries around the world. As a founder of Yani-Brune Entertainment, Ray and business partner Andrew Yani sold a mixed martial arts competition show, Knockouts, to VH1. Yani-Brune has had amazing growth since its first show, Second Verdict, aired a full season on the PAX network in 2004. It was followed by the sale of Guardian Angel to Buena Vista Productions and Lay Of The Land to the Q-Network. While pitching show ideas to TV Legend Merv Griffin, Merv was so impressed with the guys show ideas and pilots that he signed YBE to run his television division. That relationship led to two seasons of Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead on Lifetime and Merv Griffin's Crosswords, which launched 225 episodes into syndication and spawned ancillary products including video games, board games and books. The guys also sold Dream Horse to CBS, a reality project set to star Merv himself, but was shelved after Merv's passing in 2007.
In 2010, Ray was recruited to create and produce Eye Opener, the national morning show syndicated by Tribune Broadcasting. The show premiered in May of 2011 and in just 10 weeks tied the local and national competition in the 18-35 & 18-49 demo. The show has since expanded to 5 additional top 10 markets and is targeted for national syndication.
Ray went out on his own after a wildly successful two-year stint as Vice President & Executive Producer of E! Network's news division. Ray re-launched the network's flagship news franchise E! News Live and grew the highly-desirable adult 18-34 demo by a whopping 71% and its adult 18-49 demo by 44%. Ray also added the highly-rated E! News Weekend to feed the insatiable appetite for entertainment news. Some of the show's most faithful fans were also its stars - Julia Roberts, George Clooney and dozens of other A-listers have appeared live on the show. E! News Live is seen in 300 countries around the world in 17 languages
Ray's previous role as Vice President and General Manger of the Fox-produced TVG Network brought television into the new millennium. The 24-hour, international horse racing network, headquartered in Los Angeles combined state-of-the-art digital technology with interactive wagering from home via broadband cable. This first truly interactive TV network was a joint venture between Fox, AT&T and TV Guide International. Since its launch in July 1999, TVG boosted TV Guide's valuation by more than $2 (b)billion.
Before joining TVG, Ray was hired by legendary news pioneer Roone Arledge to Executive Produce Good Morning America/Sunday, the weekend edition of the ABC News franchise, Good Morning America. Ray Began his tenure at ABC in 1997 as Executive Producer of World News Now, the network's top-rated overnight news broadcast. While at ABC, Ray Executive Produced the network's #1-rated coverage of the year's biggest breaking story, Princess Diana's funeral.
It was back in 1991 that Ray first woke up Los Angeles with his irreverent approach to morning television - the KTLA Morning News. With its mix of news, off-beat celebrity interviews, and casual conversation, the two-hour program (later expanded to four hours) was consistently #1-rated for 14 consecutive sweeps under Ray's watch. His format for the show was, according to Tribune executive John Reardon, "the most copied and imitated format of any show in the history of television."
Ray produced TV shows featuring some of the world's most powerful leaders and Hollywood's brightest stars and musicians. On the political front, he worked with Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., Dan Quayle, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Al & Tipper Gore, the Reverend Jesse Jackson (who hosted Ray's Tiger Stadium coverage of the Nelson Mandella Freedom Tour), Sarah Duchess of York, George Stephanopolous, and countless Governors, Senators and Representatives. One of Ray's fondest New York memories is playing softball with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliana in Central Park. In Hollywood, there's hardly a celebrity that Ray hasn't worked with on one of his daily shows. But despite the parade of personalities he's encountered, Ray's favorite guests are also his friends -film & TV actor Jerry O'Connell, pop legend Olivia Newton-John, soprano superstar Sarah Brightman, international pop star Roch Voisine, old pal & mentor Jerry Springer, and noted surgical pathologist and CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Marcia Cohen. News colleagues he's worked with include Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Connie Chung, Joan Lunden, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Robin Roberts, Bob Woodruff, Walter Cronkite, Lisa McRee and Charlie Gibson.
Prior to KTLA, Ray was a news producer at WDIV-TV & WJBK-TV in Detroit, WBNS-TV in Columbus, WSAZ-TV in Charleston-Huntington, and WLWT-TV in Cincinnati where he produced for Jerry Springer, who, at the time, was a news anchor. During his career, Ray picked up four Emmy Awards, a Peabody station award for continuing coverage of Rodney King, three Best Newscast awards from the Associated Press, six additional Emmy Nominations, and three Golden Mike Nominations.
A Cincinnati native, Ray attended Northern Kentucky University with classmate George Clooney. He spends his free time at homes in Los Angeles and Cincinnati
