Known more for his position as the longtime Sports Director of WAVY-TV and WVBT-TV for more than 40 years, Bruce Rader’s work with various charitable organizations, as well as his own Bruce Rader Charities Foundation, has helped raise well over one million dollars in the Hampton Roads area.
Honored by some of the most respected journalistic organizations in the nation, Bruce received the Silver Circle Award from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
In February 2022, WAVY/WVBT announced that Bruce would be stepping back from his role at the station and that Craig Loper would be taking over as Sports Director.
Several Hampton Roads institutions over the years have honored Bruce. He is a past recipient of the George A. Bowles, Jr. Broadcast Journalism Award from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. The award is presented to a broadcast news journalist who has longevity in Virginia broadcasting, is respected by his peers and who exhibits enthusiasm for his work and the community. Hampton University President William R. Harvey presented Bruce with “The Presidential Award for Outstanding Citizenship”, recognizing him for virtues of decency, dignity, and human rights. In 2005 Bruce was inducted in the CIAA Hall of Fame and was presented the Abe Goldblatt Memorial Award by the Norfolk Sports Club, a lifetime achievement award.
Over several decades, Bruce Rader Charities provided hundreds of area young people the opportunity to attend local sporting events. The Foundation also helped organize the Peninsula All-Star Football Camp featuring top stars from the National Football League.
Bruce Rader Charities has also supported the Union Mission, and other outstanding organizations.
The annual Bruce Rader/St. Jude Golf Tournament in May hosts a sell-out field, including stars from professional sports and Hollywood, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
Bruce has covered some of the top national and international sporting events over the years. Multiple Super Bowls, World Series games, college football bowl games, and more than 25 Daytona 500’s and major NASCAR events. Bruce was selected to cover Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, Sydney, Australia and Athens, Greece.
In both 1996, and 2002 Bruce was selected to carry the Olympic Torch. In 1996, he carried the torch through Charlottesville, Virginia, during its worldwide trip to the Atlanta Games, and in 2002 he carried the torch in Arlington, Virginia in the shadow of the Pentagon. He was then among several torch runners honored in the Rose Garden of the White House by President George Bush.
For more than 30 years Bruce hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, which helped raise millions of dollars for the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation in Hampton Roads.
The Tall Cedars of Lebanon of North America recognized Bruce for Outstanding Service. He was also honored for Outstanding Community Service by the Virginia Beach chapter of the Norfolk State University Alumni Association, and helped with major fundraising events for United Cerebral Palsy of Southeastern Virginia and the Virginia Beach SPCA.
Bruce also speaks to groups throughout Virginia and North Carolina encouraging volunteerism in our nation.
Bruce is a multiple winner of the “CIAA Sportscaster of the Year” award, the Chesapeake Athletic Club has honored him several times as “Tidewater Sportscaster of the Year”, and the Virginia Beach Alumni Chapter at Norfolk State University honored him with an award for Excellence in Sports Media. Other honors include several “Best Sports Award” from the Associated Press, “Sportscaster of the Year” from Virginia’s United Press International as well as a “District Leadership Award” from the United Negro College Fund. Bruce has also been inducted into the Peninsula Baseball Hall of Fame.
Under Bruce’s leadership, WAVY-TV’s Sports Department has been honored by the Associated Press as having the “Best Sports Department” in Virginia several times. Also, in numerous years Bruce has been named Hampton Roads’ “Sportscaster of the Year” by the readers of Portfolio Magazine.
Bruce was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, but has lived and worked in Hampton Roads for more than 40 years and resides in Virginia Beach.
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