BIOGRAPHY

Raymond L. Buse III
Director, Public Relations
Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber     

Raymond (Buz) Buse III started with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber in 1991, and since that time he has placed positive stories about Cincinnati USA in The New York Times, USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, AP, UPI, TIME, Newsweek, US News & World Report, NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, CNN, FOX News, VH1, NPR, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and two Japanese networks.

He is best known as the creator of the World’s Largest Chicken Dance at Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, which earned an official Guinness world record in 1995 (since eclipsed), and for YPCincy.com’s zany cicada celebration that went worldwide in 2004.

His colorful and creative approach to Chamber public relations has earned multiple honors, including PR News’ Media Relations Professional of the Year and the Cincinnati Chapter of PRSA PR Professional of the Year, both in 2006. Since 2005 Buse has earned 19 national awards for creative PR tactics.

He came to the Chamber after producing a Cincinnati wine series for the city’s Bicentennial in 1988. Over the Bicentennial year the wine surpassed 50,000 sold, earning two national marketing awards from the art gallery industry and was the feature of a half-page article in The San Francisco Chronicle with the headline, “What’s A Nice California Wine Doing in Cincinnati?”

In 1997 he single-handedly received the written endorsements of more than 50 community and national leaders – including the mayor of Cincinnati, the governor of Ohio, five congressmen, astronaut Neil Armstrong and Vice President Al Gore – to persuade the Cincinnati Reds to invite then-NBC News anchor Linda Vester, a native Cincinnatian, to throw out the first pitch for the Cincinnati Reds on Opening Day, 1998. That event sparked positive coverage by TIME Magazine and a live national broadcast by Al Roker and Linda on the TODAY program from Fountain Square, with more than 6 million viewers watching.

Other career highlights:

In 2006, together with the Lily Pad project and Time Warner Cable Business Class, completed a yearlong quest for Cincinnati to introduce the nation’s first interstate wi-fi hotspot, connecting Cincinnati, Covington, KY, and Newport KY with a hotspot measuring more than 25 million square feet with 802.11 wireless capability. It's now possible "to surf the Ohio River" in Cincinnati USA.
In 2005, with then-Mayor Charlie Luken, staged “Blitz Jay Leno Day” to celebrate the new winning ways of our Cincinnati Bengals – previously fodder for Mr. Leno’s nightly monologue. This successfully engaged Mr. Leno to call personally to say he wanted to “play ball” with our rather audacious young professionals and led to a seven-minute monologue via a phone call to the Chamber’s young professionals summit about how his “tough love” had turned around the Bengals. Clear Channel Radio took Mr. Leno’s remarks and featured them in their Pro Football Insider radio program, carried on more than 100 stations nationwide.

In 2004, turned the emergence of 5 billion cicadas into a celebration of Cincinnati’s acclaimed music scene with Cicada Escape Zones (happy hour networking events) and a CD project of original music titled "Seventeen Year Itch: Mating Calls of Cincinnati USA" that earned placement in the Folk Art Collection in the Library of Congress. Also in 2004, staged “Bug Bill Geist Day” in cooperation with the mayor’s office, leading to a Bill Geist feature on CBS Sunday Morning, and personally commissioned SuperCicada the Mascot.

In 2003, commissioned "Sudsie, the World's Largest Soap Sculpture" -- made of 7,500 pounds of Ivory Soap, the equivalent of 26,666 Ivory Soap bath bars -- to put a large spotlight on an international economic development conference in Cincinnati. "Sudsie" generated coverage by CNN, AP and numerous other national and international outlets, and in 2004 earned a Guinness world record.

Before entering the public relations field, Buse – a Cincinnati resident --earned a number of statewide and national awards from the journalism profession for excellence in writing, editing and photography. He is a 1976 graduate of St. Bonaventure University.