Tim Brooks (historian)


Tim Brooks is an American television and radio historian, author and retired television executive. He is credited with having helped launch the Sci Fi Channel in 1992 as well as other USA Network projects and channels.
He also served as a research executive for NBC, the N.W. Ayer advertising agency, and Lifetime Television, and as board chairman of industry organizations the Advertising Research Foundation and the Media Rating Council, among others.
He is the author or co-author of eight books about the history of media in the U.S., including television, radio, and the recording industry. He has also been active in urging reform of copyright laws regarding historical recordings, testifying at U.S. Copyright Office hearings in 2011 and chairing the Historical Recording Coalition for Access and Preservation. He was twice elected president of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and has been chair of its Copyright and Fair Use Committee since 2003.
Comments made by Brooks regarding the Sci Fi Channel's name being changed in 2009 to Syfy led network president Dave Howe to publicly distance himself and his network from Brooks' comments.

Awards

The Complete Directory by Brooks and Marsh won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in the one-year category General Reference.
Brooks was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 2007 to 2013.

Publications