Goen was born and raised in Long Beach, California and graduated 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.
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) alongside prominent Australian radio personality, Jonathan Coleman, and the popular That's the Question (GSN, 2006-2007), which was based on the Netherlands. It failed the first time it aired, but Goen's show was renewed for a second season. His greatest success in this area came as the fourth and final host of the daytime network version of the immensely-popular Wheel of Fortune (CBS, 1989-1991; NBC, 1991). Goen received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Game Show Host for Wheel (It was mentioned in the second pilot episode of the 1989 episode of the series that Goen watched game shows as a college student, including those of game show greats, Bob Barker and Bill Cullen).
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.
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.
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, a cartoon character named 'Bob Glimmer' was voiced by him in an episode of The Fairly OddParents. Goen also appeared as an interviewee on a 1997 episode of the cartoon mock-talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
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.
