Who We Are

For more than two decades, The Communications Workshop, LLC has been a leader in aviation emergency response staff development training, ERP planning, and on-site accident management, assistance and consultation. Our objective is simple; to get you and your staff prepared in the event the unthinkable happens. We also provide extensive media prep and internal communications training as well as web development and marketing/training video production services.

Our Mission

Steve Bassett, Chairman & CEO

Steve Bassett is chairman & CEO of The Communications Workshop, LLC. He is an instrument-rated pilot with more than three decades of aviation and communications experience. He was trained in aviation accident investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). During his aviation career he served as senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), executive vice president of Air Vegas Airlines, and president of the United States Air Tour Association (USATA).

Prior to aviation, Steve was a network and major market television and radio sports broadcaster. He announced college basketball for TVS/NBC Sports, reported for ABC Sports, served as sports director and sports anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington, DC and KTVI-TV in St. Louis, anchored television sportscasts at WIS-TV in Columbia, SC and WBAL-TV in Baltimore, was play-by-play announcer for college basketball and football for the Universities of Maryland and Missouri, called basketball for George Washington University and the University of South Carolina, hosted radio sports talk programs for WMAL Radio and WTEM Radio in Washington, DC, served on the television broadcast team for Washington Redskins pre-season football games in the nation’s capital, and called the Maryland High School Football and Basketball Championship games.

He is an award-winning corporate video producer. His video production work includes productions in a variety of industries including transportation, aviation, medical and health care, sports and recreation, high-tech, food, and construction.

Following broadcasting, Bassett began his aviation management career with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) serving as vice president of communications, vice president of state affairs, and senior vice president of government and technical affairs where he headed the association’s Congressional, lobbying, state legislative and technical aviation operations. Notably, he headed a team which authored Aviation: The Future Is Now, the first definitive work prepared for the federal government on transition to the Global Positioning Satellite System as the eventual precision instrument landing system in the United States and recommended against adoption of Microwave Landing Systems as the successor to ILS.

Bassett spent 16 years as president of the United States Air Tour Association (USATA). Among his other many achievements for the air tour community, Bassett successfully negotiated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and North American Air Defense Command a procedure to get air tour companies flying quickly following the September attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and emergency grounding of all flights in the U.S. While most others were grounded, USATA had many air tour operators flying VFR within 72 hours of the attack. He has testified frequently before various committees of Congress on a wide spectrum of air tour and other aviation issues.

Bassett began consulting on disaster response in the early 90s counseling Congressional offices on dealing with media ambushes. His broadcasting and communications career naturally provided him a unique expertise on the news media which he began to share with various other industries. His popular Back 2 Basics-Emergency Response 101 seminar is recognized as one of the best aviation emergency response training programs in the country. He also created and teaches the Flight Ops: Improving Internal Communications program.

He has written numerous papers on effective communications and presents “Did I Ever Tell You About The Time” – an entertaining and often laugh-out-loud presentation relating stories about his career as a sportscaster and success in business and management.

He is co-founder of NoClu! Golf and The Salute The Troops Golf Classic.

He is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran having served on a recon team with the prestigious 4th Infantry Division and also served with the 23rd Infantry (Americal Division) in South Vietnam in 1969-1970.