UTSA Chief Communications Officer and Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications Joe Izbrand ’81 has been inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in recognition of his longstanding commitment to excellence in broadcast journalism.
While attending UTSA as a political science student from 1979 to 1981, Izbrand launched his career as a reporter with San Antonio news/talk radio station WOAI.
Following his graduation in summer 1981, he was recruited as a general assignments reporter by KTRH NewsRadio in Houston, which was in its early stages of evolving into the news juggernaut it would later become in America’s fourth largest media market.
Among his notable assignments, Izbrand covered numerous hurricanes along the Gulf Coast including reporting live from the Galveston seawall as Hurricane Alicia roared ashore in 1983.
After spending time on the general assignments beat, Izbrand leveraged his bachelor’s degree in political science and reporting experience to earn promotion to chief political reporter for the station.
“Everything I learned as a student at UTSA helped prepare me to build a progressively impactful career and, later, to return to our university to tell the powerful story of UTSA’s commitment to student success and economic prosperity for its graduates.”
— Joe Izbrand
His assignments included covering the 1981 Texas legislative session in Austin, providing live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco and the Republican National Convention in Dallas, and reporting on numerous state and local campaigns and other political stories. In 1985, he was given a special assignment in Central America covering Texas National Guard involvement in military maneuvers driven by political unrest in the region.
In 1989, Izbrand was named managing editor of the news operation, where his team of 37 reporters, editors, anchors and producers delivered the news to a population of more than six million in the Houston metropolitan area and Texas Gulf Coast region. Soon afterwards, in 1991, he was named news director, a position he held until 2000.
Izbrand oversaw a continuum of award-winning news coverage that earned the station its first Edward R. Murrow Award in 1993, the highest honor for excellence in broadcast journalism, followed by five other national Murrow Awards in successive years. The station also earned recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, Texas Associated Press Broadcasters and other professional organizations for outstanding reporting under Izbrand’s direction.
After coming home to San Antonio in 2000 to raise his family and working as a senior-level strategic communications counselor for a global public relations firm, Izbrand returned to UTSA in 2012, this time as its associate vice president and chief communications officer. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to associate vice president for communications and marketing. Today, he holds the position of associate vice president for strategic communications and external affairs and chief communications officer.
“Everything I learned as a student at UTSA helped prepare me to build a progressively impactful career and, later, to return to our university to tell the powerful story of UTSA’s commitment to student success and economic prosperity for its graduates,” said Izbrand.
As chief communications officer, Izbrand serves as spokesman for the university on key institutional issues and leads a team of communications professionals in developing and publishing news articles showcasing the UTSA’s march to excellence.
Among other broadcast news journalists who have been honored by the Texas Radio Hall of Fame is former CBS News anchor Dan Rather , who launched his career at KTRH before transitioning into television news.
Izbrand and other members of the Class of 2025 will be formally inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame during ceremonies this fall at the Texas Museum of Radio and Communications.
