Broadcasting and Journalism

  • Photo of Joel Bartlett

    Joel Bartlett

    Former TV meteorologist

    During his career as an Emmy-winning weathercaster, he quipped that the fog at SF State does not come "on little cat feet" but on "heavy panther paws."

  • Photo of Ken Bastida

    Ken Bastida

    News anchor

    This CBS Eyewitness News co-anchor received a 2004 Emmy Award for his "Inside the Middle East" series along with eight Emmy nominations during his tenure at the station.

  • Photo of Stan Bunger

    Stan Bunger

    News anchor

    The popular anchor at San Francisco's KCBS Radio says that his professors, the late Harb Morgan and Benjamin Draper, Spencer Michels and Ron Compesi, helped him start a successful broadcasting career.

  • Tim Cahill

    Tim Cahill

    Adventure writer

    The adventure writer, author of "Jaquars Ripped My Flesh" and "Hold the Enlightenment: More Travel, Less Bliss," once told an interviewer he has the "best job in journalism."

  • Steve Centanni

    Steve Centanni

    Television correspondent

    This national correspondent for the FOX News Channel has reported on numerous global news stories and events. His first on-air gig was at KBRG Radio, "giant 88 at San Francisco State."

  • Elaine Corral

    Elaine Corral Kendall

    News anchor/actress

    This Emmy-winning alumna brought us the news for nearly 20 years on KTVU but gave it all up for her first love, acting. She has appeared in nine films.

  • Photo of Lisa Davis

    Lisa Davis

    Investigative reporter

    This winner of the prestigious George Polk Award has never forgotten the advice she got from one of her journalism professors: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

  • Photo of Nguyen Qui Duc

    Nguyen Qui Duc

    Radio host/producer

    Former host of Pacific Time on KQED public radio, he remembers his Radio and TV professors as serious, not stuffy -- especially Rick Houlberg, "a fun professor with an easy attitude but tremendous knowledge of the industry."

  • Dina Ruiz Eastwood

    Dina Ruiz Eastwood

    News anchor/TV host/stay-at-home mom

    Best known as a news anchor for KSBW in Salinas, this radio and television grad acted in the movies "True Crime" and "Blood Work" and hosted "Candid Camera" before she starred in the E! reality TV show "Mrs. Eastwood & Company."

  • Ben Fong-Torres

    Ben Fong-Torres

    Rock journalist

    One of rock's premiere journalists, he edited the Daily Gater during the Summer of Love era, when the campus was alive with political protest and psychedelic sounds of groups like the Jefferson Airplane.

  • Photo of Mike Galanos

    Mike Galanos

    News anchor

    As news anchor of CNN's Headline News Now, this BECA grad brings national and world news reports into living rooms across the country.

  • Ted Griggs

    Ted Griggs

    Television executive

    The winner of several Northern California Emmys, he was a sophomore at SF State when he landed a job as a sports producer at KRON. Today he is the President of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

  • Photo of Kimberly Hunt

    Kimberly Hunt

    News anchor

    A former researcher for Peter Jennings and associate producer for ABC's Monday Night Football, Hunt is an Emmy-winning news anchor at San Diego's KGTV.

  • Sterling James

    Sterling James

    Disc jockey

    The sultry-sounding Bay Area disc jockey, known for sassy one-liners and interviews with some of the biggest names in music, cut her broadcast teeth during a weekly on-air slot at campus station KSFS.

  • Photo of Cheryl Jennings

    Cheryl Jennings

    News anchor

    This KGO news anchor has won the prestigious Gracie Allen Award and four Northern California Emmys.

  • Adair Lara

    Adair Lara

    Author/teacher

    An award-winning San Francisco Chronicle columnist for 12 years, now a writing instructor, she marks her students' strongest sentences in highlighter so that "everybody has some lemon-striped passage to feel proud of." She got the idea from former Professor Leonard Wolf.

  • Al Martinez

    Al Martinez

    Newspaper columnist

    This Golden Gater editor had to leave SF State before graduating to fight in the Korean War, but it hasn't seemed to hurt his career any. He has earned three Pulitzer Prizes as well as the moniker, "The Bard of LA."

  • Photo of Dave McElhatton

    Dave McElhatton

    News anchor

    He got his first job in broadcasting two weeks out of SF State and went on to become one of the Bay Area's best-loved TV newsmen, anchoring the evening slot at KPIX for many years.

  • Eric Newton

    Michael Moss

    Journalist/author

    This reporter at The New York Times earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his investigation of the dangers of contaminated meat.

  • Eric Newton

    Eric Newton

    Senior adviser to the president, Knight Foundation

    This journalism grad was managing editor of the Oakland Tribune when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize. He went on to create and coordinate the content for the Newseum, the nation's first museum of news.

  • Photo of Malou Nubla

    Malou Nubla

    TV host

    This energetic Bay Area TV personality broke into the broadcast business after telling an interviewer, "If I don't get this job, my dad's going to kill me." The two-time Emmy Award winner hosts "The Malou Show" on KTVU.

  • Carter B. Smith

    Carter B. Smith

    Radio personality

    When DJ Carter Smith was studying radio and television broadcasting in the late 50's, TV was so new SF State didn't even own one yet. That didn't hold him back. He appeared on every television station in the Bay Area during his 50-year career.

  • Photo of Frank Somerville

    Frank Somerville

    News anchor

    This broadcasting major shocked a television audience by proposing to his girlfriend live on Oakland's KTVU, where he has worked for more than a decade and currently co-anchors the evening newscasts.

  • De Tran

    De Tran

    Newspaper publisher/editor

    In 1975 he left Vietnam for the U.S., where his first job was selling the San Francisco Examiner on a street corner. After graduating from the journalism department he established Viet Mercury, the first Vietnamese newspaper published by a U.S. media company. He is currently the publisher and editor of VTimes.

  • Jose Antonio Vargas

    Jose Antonio Vargas

    Journalist

    This political science graduate was just four years out of college when he won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of reporters at The Washington Post that covered the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.

  • Gregory Vistica

    Gregory Vistica

    Journalist/author

    The reporter who broke the Tailhook sexual abuse scandal and exposed ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey's role in a Vietnam war massacre got his start in journalism editing the Golden Gater.

  • Jan Wahl

    Jan Wahl

    Film critic

    Vancouver Magazine called this radio/TV grad "San Francisco's sharp-witted solo answer to Siskel and Ebert." On KRON she sports a new hat each week as she serves up show-biz scoops and film critiques. The two-time Emmy winner first worked at the station as an undergrad.

  • Photo of Annie Wells

    Annie Wells

    News photographer

    Her photography professor, Ken Kobre, advised her to arrive early, stay late, run fast and jump high. His advice paid off. In 1997, she won a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography.

  • Linda Yee

    Linda Yee

    Reporter

    This journalism graduate and reporter at CBS station KPIX 5 has earned six Emmys for news, including a National Emmy for her coverage of the 2009 Oscar Grant protests and riots in Oakland.

  • Kim Yonenaka

    Kim Yonenaka

    TV host

    This on-air reporter and former co-host of "49ers Total Access" is no stranger to athletic competition. She holds the sixth-place record for career points for Gator women's swimming.