R.I.P.: Former Broadcast Executive Karen Tobin

Karen Tobin

Karen Tobin, who served as SVP/Corporate Partnerships at the Advanced Imaging Society, died after a long battle with cancer, on Friday morning at her home in Woodland Hills, Calif.

She was 62, according to Variety.

Tobin was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1953 and received a degree in zoology from UC Davis. She joined the entertainment industry in the promotion department of Circus Vargas.

Tobin’s career path eventually led her to Los Angeles where she held radio marketing and promotion positions at CBS Radio K-Earth 101.1 FM, Westwood One, and Clear Channel Communication’s KIIS 102.7 FM, where she managed promotions for morning radio personality Rick Dees.

She also served as head of marketing communications at KNBC from 1997 to 2000 and VP of national promotions for Fox Broadcasting in 2003 and 2004, where she helped execute third-party promotional strategies for the network’s programs, including “American Idol”.

“Karen Tobin has been a friend, a trusted colleague, and a superb executive serving our industry, our member companies, and the society,” said AIS President Jim Chabin. “For those of us who worked with her every day, she was also an absolutely awe-inspiring role-model for the way she faced her cancer diagnosis and its process. As the years of illness took more from her, she focused more than ever, and to the very end, on her work. She did it with dignity, grace and integrity. No more could ever be asked of, or received from, a colleague.”