Bob Leweke
News Director / Morning Edition HostBob Leweke is WMRA's News Director and Morning Edition host.
Before coming to public radio in 2003, Bob had worked for The Roanoke Times as a circulation manager and writer. He later became a member of the communication faculty at Pikeville College in Kentucky, and at Bridgewater College in Virginia, where he taught public speaking, mass media law, communication theory and other courses. Bob holds degrees in communication and political science from Virginia Tech, and a doctorate in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2015 and 2016, the readers of the Daily News-Record voted him “Best Radio Personality.”
In his hours away from WMRA, Bob enjoys music, cycling, reading and movie-watching, and spending time with his family doing all of the above. You can follow him on Twitter @WMRAnews.
-
A new drug tested at UVA Health to treat severe COVID-19 gets FDA approval… The high school in Farmville that became part of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case is now part of the National Park Service… The Virginia Aquarium treats sea turtles accidentally caught by fishermen…. -
Some Shenandoah County residents are demanding that the school board restore the Confederate names of two schools, renamed after the murder of George Floyd… Church World Service in Harrisonburg holds its first awards ceremony, honoring those who help resettle refugees... We review the week in Virginia politics….
-
Twelve women reach a settlement with Liberty University in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the school… One Democratic state senator is in the spotlight for his stance on abortion access… Some property owners are suing Virginia’s wildlife agency over a law that allows hunters to retrieve their hunting dogs from private property….
-
The movement to restrict teaching of sexuality and race in Virginia’s public schools moves into rural counties north of Charlottesville… We have a preview of the total lunar eclipse happening this weekend… With a new health clinic and new territory, we check in with members of the Upper Mattaponi tribe four years after receiving federal recognition….
-
JMU students, and high school students around Virginia, protest in favor of abortion access… This year’s valedictorian at VMI talks about the importance of Black students there, who weren’t allowed into the school until 1968… In our weekly Full Disclosure conversation with Roben Farzad, we survey the present and future of solar power in Virginia….
-
UVa Health is reducing some radiography procedures due to supply-chain problems… Thousands of applicants for unemployment benefits in Virginia were wrongly told by the VEC that they were overpaid… School boards around the state are being confronted by increasingly hostile parents, but they still have to conform to open meetings requirements….
-
The recent death by suicide of a JMU student-athlete was not the first such death on campus this year… Harrisonburg’s vice-mayor says he will not seek re-election… We have our weekly Virginia politics review, dominated this week of course by the debate over abortion access….
-
A Fishersville man accused of participating in the January 6th insurrection gets a hearing in court… Senator Tim Kaine weighs in on the Supreme Court leak of an opinion on Roe v. Wade… New data highlight health disparities between high-earning and low-earning communities….
-
After a leak indicating the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, what is the future for abortion access in Virginia?... The avian influenza outbreak prompts extraordinary measures at the Wildlife Center of Virginia… After a surge in adoptions during the pandemic, animal shelters in our region are filling up again with adult dogs brought in as strays – but also as their owners surrender them….
-
JMU cancels the softball season after the suicide of one of its players… A jury finds that former UVa lacrosse player George Huguely is liable for beating his girlfriend to death in 2010, and he must pay $15 million in damages... Meanwhile, roller derby is roaring back to life after a two-year pandemic hiatus….
