Early life and career

Goen was born in Long Beach, California, but was raised in Los Angeles's suburb of Lakewood, California. In a 2009 interview at the Game Show Awards Red Carpet, he stated when he was 5, he always dreamed of becoming a game show host, with the encouragement of: Bob Barker, Bill Cullen, Bob Eubanks, Tom Kennedy, Geoff Edwards, Wink Martindale, Monty Hall, among many others, and his dream came true as a young adult. Goen graduated from Lakewood High School in 1972, and from San Diego State University in 1976 with a degree in telecommunications and film. In 1977, he used his college radio experience to land a part-time job at KFOX radio in his native Long Beach, which led to his first full-time job as a disc jockey/producer for KPRO in Riverside, where he was promoted to work as a director. In 1981, he came to television, becoming a sports anchor at KESQ-TV, the ABC affiliate in Palm Springs.

Career

Around that time, he also served as ESPN's desert-area correspondent. After almost four years in that role, he came to Hollywood, where he has hosted several game shows, including Perfect Match (syndicated, 1986), Home Shopping Game with co-host Bob Circosta (syndicated, 1987), Blackout (CBS, 1988), The Hollywood Game (CBS, 1992), Born Lucky (Lifetime Television, 1992) and That's the Question (GSN, 2006-2007), which was based on a format from the Netherlands. His greatest success in this area came as the final host of the daytime network version of Wheel of Fortune (CBS, 1989-1991; NBC, 1991).

He had a small role in the opening of the 1988 series premiere episode of Freddy's Nightmares: A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Series, "No More Mr. Nice Guy", as a nightly news anchorman and on-scene reporter at the Springwood Municipal Courthouse for the pre-trial hearing of accused mass-murderer Fred Krueger.

He served as host for the "Name That Tune" video game released for the Philips CD-i in 1993.

He also hosted several Miss Universe pageants in 1994 (Manila, Philippines), 1995 (Namibia), and 1996 (Las Vegas, Nevada).

Goen now trains celebrities on the art of being interviewed. He works for Media Training company, J2 Strategic Communications http://j2sc.com, alongside Steve Kmetko, Jon Kelley and Terry Murphy.

Goen also hosts the annual AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, broadcast on Animal Planet and other channels owned by Discovery Communications.

Goen's most recent work was a position as co-host of GSN Radio with Curan. The show debuted on August 18, 2008 and aired its last episode November 13, 2009. He is currently hosting The Price is Right LIVE in Branson, MO. He and his wife, Marianne Curan, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 2012 to work at Warm 98.

Goen has hosted live traveling versions of Family Feud and The Price Is Right.

Goen has hosted a locally-produced version of Let's Ask America called Let's Ask Cincinnati for Scipps' WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio featuring local Cincinnati celebrities and personalities playing for local charities in 2014.

Entertainment Tonight

On April 12, 1993, he joined Entertainment Tonight as a substitute anchor and a reporter. When John Tesh left ET on May 30, 1996, to pursue his music career, Goen was promoted to nightly anchor alongside Mary Hart.

Between 1994 and 1996, he hosted the worldwide telecasts of Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Pageants, all for CBS (replacing Dick Clark, Ironically, in 1988 Clark's CBS game show The $25,000 Pyramid was replaced by Goen's game show Blackout and 13 weeks later, Pyramid returned and replaced Blackout).

As ET host, he made guest appearances on two separate movies in 1999. On September 11, 2001, he covered the attacks on the World Trade Center. In 2003, he interviewed Suzanne Somers about the death of actor John Ritter.

In April 2005, Goen voiced a cartoon version of himself on an episode The Fairly OddParents. Goen, playing a character named Bob Glimmer, appeared with Mary Hart (whose character was named "Fairy Hart") as anchors of a show named Fairytainment Tonight. Goen also appeared as an interviewee on a 1997 episode of the cartoon mock-talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Personal life

In August 2004, after 11 years of serving as ET anchor, he left to spend more time with his new wife and to pursue other projects. Mark Steines succeeded him.

Goen was married to Sabrina in 1988, and had a son in 1994. The couple divorced in 1997. In 2004, he married fellow television personality Marianne Curan.

In his spare time, Goen does annual charity work for his golfing tournament, The Bob Goen Lexus Invitational, which benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]