Television

Best On-air Anchor: Barbara Rodgers -Anchor, KPIX Eyewitness News at Noon and 4:30pm

Barbara Rodgers
Anchor, Channel 5 Eyewitness News at Noon and 4:30pm
Barbara Rodgers has been with Channel 5 Eyewitness News since 1979. She anchors Channel 5 Eyewitness News at Noon, and co-anchors Eyewitness News at 4:30pm with Kate Kelly. Prior to this, Rodgers anchored the weekend newscasts from 1987 to 2000.
Rodgers hosted Channel 5's weekly public affairs program, "Bay Sunday," for seven years. It included an eclectic mix of news, arts and community information all tossed up in lively conversation. Prior to this, she anchored Channel 5 Eyewitness News At Noon from 1984 to 1987.
In 1985, Rodgers was awarded the prestigious William Benton Fellowship in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Chicago. During her six-month leave of absence to participate in the fellowship program, she took courses in such diverse subjects as international relations, poetry writing and Meso-American pre-history. "It was," says Rodgers, "one of the most exciting and intellectually stimulating experiences of my life."
Rodgers has received numerous honors for her work and community service, including five Emmy Awards from the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences; four Excellence in Journalism Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists; and awards for reporting from the Associated Press, United Press International and the (San Francisco) Peninsula Press Club. In 1992, the San Francisco Chapter of the League of Women Voters chose her to receive one of its "Women Who Could Be President" awards. She has also been honored by the California Legislature, the National Council of Negro Women and the Golden Gate Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television. In 1993, she was chosen by the Freedom Forum and the National Association of Black Journalists as one of five journalists to participate in the South Africa Journalists Exchange Program. She spent a month in that country reporting on the changes taking place since the end of Apartheid. Most recently, Rodgers has been selected as among the "Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area" in 1999 by CityFlight NewsMagazine.
Rodgers joined Channel 5 after seven years at WOKR-TV in Rochester, New York. Prior to entering a career in broadcasting, Rodgers headed the Business Skills Department and was an instructor of English and communications at the Educational Opportunity Center in Rochester. She also worked as an urban affairs researcher and a computer programmer for the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester.
Rodgers holds a bachelor's degree in business from Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. She did additional studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Chicago. She is a member and co-founder of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association, has served on the boards of various organizations, including the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the Society of Professional Journalists, and has volunteered her time to scores of community groups. In June 1997, Rodgers was appointed to the Board of Directors of Walden House, a non-profit health and human services program specializing in substance abuse treatment for people of all ages.
Rodgers enjoys traveling and has been to countries on five different continents.

Best On-air Reporter: Laura Marquez - ABC7 News - Political Reporter

Laura Marquez has been a reporter for ABC7 News since 1989.
Marquez' primary focus for ABC7 News is political reporting. She's been on the campaign trail with California's gubernatorial candidates and the presidential candidates. Marquez traveled to Washington for ABC7 News to cover the impeachment hearings.
Her news reports have garnered awards, notably at the time of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake when ABC7 News won a George Foster Peabody Award and an Emmy for its team coverage of the earthquake.
Marquez received an individual Emmy nomination for her reporting on the devastation to San Francisco's Marina district, which included her own home. She also received an Emmy nomination for her investigative series on the College of Mortuary Science.
A San Francisco native, Marquez graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with honors, and interned at CNN in Los Angeles before moving to CNN in Atlanta where she worked behind the scenes as a writer, producer and assignment editor. She also worked as a reporter and anchor in Norfolk, Virginia and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Marquez covers the political beat in the Bay Area. If you have a news tip for her, e-mail Laura here.

Best Public Affairs Program: Bay Area People - KTVU - Rosy Chu

Rosy Chu, the Director of Community Affairs and Public Service for KTVU/Fox 2, also produces and hosts Bay Area People, a weekly, half-hour public affairs program.
Chu is also co-director of Family 2 Family, KTVU's award winning, public affairs project which stresses educational concerns and stories about people and programs that make an educational difference in children's lives.
Since joining KTVU in 1971, she has traveled to China and Australia to produce documentaries and has hosted and produced a variety of public affairs programs. Chu also spent nearly four years as a news and talk show producer.

Chu is a member of many local Bay Area non-profit agencies and committees working on various community concerns. Past board memberships include the National Academy of Arts and Sciences; Asian American Journalists Association; Oakland Chinese Community Council; the New Oakland Community; and Berkeley Visiting Nurses Association. She is currently on the advisory board of the Ethnic Health Institute for Summit Medical Center in Oakland.
Winner of a Northern California Emmy award, she has also been recognized by numerous community groups and national organizations including: the Take A Bigger Role Life Savers Video Excellence Award; the National Broadcasters Association Children's Television Award; N.Y. Film and Video Festival Awards, California School Boards Foundation Documentary Media Award ,and the California Teachers' Association Media Excellence Awards.
A native San Franciscan, Chu graduated from San Francisco State with a B.A. in Broadcast Communication Arts. She and her husband, Richard, are parents of a daughter, Jody.

Best News Program: KTVU - 10 O'Clock News

Best Daytime News Program: KTVU Mornings on 2

Best Non News Program: Wine Country Living - Mary Orlin Producer

Radio Category:

Best Morning Drive Time: Alisa Clancy "A Morning Cup of Jazz"
What makes a great morning Jazz air personality tick ... especially in a land where only .8% of all music stations in the United States identify themselves as Jazz radio stations? In our quest, we spoke with KCSM-San Mateo's Alisa Clancy, who hosts Morning Cup of Jazz every Monday through Friday from six until ten in the morning. Alisa can be categorized as a very "down home" personality on the airwaves-never too intellectual, and certainly more lively and animated than your stereotyped laid-back, super cool, aloof Jazz deejay. Unlike boorish shock jocks and loud mouth "morning zoo" teams on the commercial side of the FM dial, Alisa's Morning Cup of Jazz is the only one-woman drive time show in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She's exceptionally knowledgeable about Jazz, and her taste is exemplary. You may hear an innovative new piano piece by Jessica Williams or a gliding version of Louis Armstrong's "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" performed by Paul Desmond in a breezy, Brubeck "Take Five" vibe. Her show (as well as her shtick) can also be brassy and bold, at least by Jazz Radio standards. In this Z Train interview, we spoke with Alisa about waking up Jazz fans on the West Coast and how KCSM programs beyond the "Seven-Percent Listeners."

KCSM's morning drive personality Alisa Clancy. Let's talk about your role as a radio personality hosting Jazz in the morning in a Top Five market.

It's been ten years, and I'm the only lone woman doing morning drive Jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sure, there are women doing morning drive radio, but only as sidekicks or they do weather and traffic. I think I'm still alone in that distinction, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area anyway.

Do you have a producer helping you put together the components of your show, i.e., giveaways, interviews, features, and music sets?

No. I pull my own music.

How do you distinguish each hour of Morning Cup of Jazz based on feel and flow?

We don't use a whole lot of research, although there is some good data available. I do know that seniors are getting up earlier, walking the dog and starting their day, so between six and eight o'clock, my audience skews towards older, more straight-ahead Jazz. I'll play more early, traditional jazz at seven-thirty, but if it's Bob Dylan's birthday, I will wait until after nine o'clock to do a Jazz salute to him.

"I do have many loyal listeners. They feel confident that I'm not going to mislead them and play sub-standard Jazz. It may be something they don't like, but they know I'm not going to lead them down the garden path with music that represents bad craftsmanship.

How do you picture in your mind the composite listener of KCSM's Morning Cup of Jazz?

The person who is probably our demo and the person I would like to be our composite demo may be two different people. He's probably forty-five years or older, a white male, college educated, and is still in the work force, maybe in some high tech capacity, being that we also broadcast in Silicon Valley. However, I would prefer our composite listener to be beyond that person, like, say, a black woman, educated, working in the public sector and is forty-five years of age or older.

There is no music scheduling or computerized rotations at KCSM.

Correct. I love it the way it is. We pull our own music. It's absolutely about keeping within the mission of what Jazz is really about. If you're going to be a premiere Jazz radio station, you need to have the freedom to improvise your programming.

Chuy Varela [KCSM's Music Director] will put out all the new releases and we have those in one particular area, just as we have reissues in its own area.

Some of the new releases I've heard on your show include Jessica Williams, Wayne Shorter, Arturo Sandoval and Medeski, Martin & Wood. Are you adding more current selections into the morning music flow?

Usually I wait until after eight o'clock to bring in the new stuff. But then again I played the new Renee Rosnes before seven o'clock the other day. It had an exotic Indian tabla sound to it, which I thought sounded really well for a morning show. During a four-hour span, from six until ten, I will probably play a dozen new releases.

Do you feel you have the freedom to be more lively and funny during morning drive? Is there a directive from programming to be more clever and funny in the mornings?

No, but I think that's the way traditional morning shows have evolved over time. People use morning drive radio in certain increments. You enjoy more leeway and you can be a more polarizing character during that time slot and management won't fire you. [Laughs] They'll hate you and you may receive nasty e-mails. For instance, after I did a Bob Dylan set with Bill Frisell and Nina Simone, some listener called me on the phone and he whined, "When are you gonna play some real Jazz?" Personally, I thought I had put together a rather nice set, and I do have many loyal listeners. They feel confident that I'm not going to mislead them and play sub-standard Jazz. It may be something they don't like, but they know I'm not going to lead them down the garden path with music that represents bad craftsmanship.

Vocals are the rage right now.

Yeah. We try to keep a standard, pardon the pun. What to play hasn't changed in a long time; it's very free. But I believe you should only play two or three vocals per hour. If listeners want to hear vocals, they can go to another commercial radio-God forbid-like an Urban Contemporary or Smooth Jazz station. Vocals can be polarizing for our listeners. They either love them or they hate them. You have to be careful and be a really good programmer. A vocal can come in and just kill a set. Personally, I usually start or end a set with a vocal. Usually, when you put one in the middle, it ruins the groove, unless it's a stylized Cassandra Wilson piece, for example, that has some special Brazilian thing going on and she doesn't sing for a while.

The labels are releasing lots of contemporary vocalists because they want to sell records.

Norah Jones, and singers like that. I have not played her yet. That record doesn't work in the morning at KCSM because it's too mellow and folkie for our listeners.

What about Anne Hampton Calloway?

She's a former cabaret star now doing big band pieces. She's very good and I like her. I've played her on my show. Her last two records are very good. She does a great version of "Bluesette." It's fabulous and she uses her entire three-octave range. It's very compelling.

What kind of Jazz works well for Morning Cup of Jazz?

Contemporary writing and modern standards. If somebody hears a strain of a melody from a Prince tune or a Peter Gabriel song, it helps me to broaden and lower my age demo and skew more towards females. Jazz has to do this to compete in the marketplace. What songs did we listen to in 1978, and what are the melodies of the popular songbook from that era? That kind of song works for me. Also, I'd much rather hear Uri Caine playing solo piano in the morning with a nice groove to it. Anything that has melody works well for me. If it's a beautiful, warm weather day, I love to play a gorgeous song like "Wilderness," a Tony Williams/Michael Brecker/Pat Metheny piece, even though it's in a minor key.

What doesn't work for you these days?

I don't play as much traditional Jazz, Swing or that Nouveau Swing that was so hip a few years ago. I don't play as much LaVay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers anymore.

I can't play Jazz in the morning that people don't have access to quickly. Who wants a big cloud covering their morning routine with some harmonically dense piece?

People don't drink martinis at eight o'clock in the morning.

Some people don't. [Laughs] But I might sneak in Ornette Coleman early in the morning if I set it up right. There's one song called "Old Gospel" on the Atlantic label, and it features Jackie McLean on saxophone. Ornette plays trumpet and he's floating free over Billy Higgins' drumming.

How many listeners tune into your show at any given time?

We're over 200,000 now and the numbers have held pretty steady.

Where do you draw the line between mood and challenging listeners? Many listeners and shopkeepers complain that commercial radio sounds so repetitive and cookie cutter. The media and the press are really playing up this observation lately. But Jazz often loses the average listener. So should you play it safe in the morning, and air lots of Wes Montgomery-style mood Jazz and Dave Brubeck hits?

You have to draw the line. We have what we call "the Seven-Percent Listeners." They really love Jazz and will enjoy almost anything. But I'm not really playing for those people, although they are the huge "Time Spent Listening" types who tune into the station eight hours per day. You can't pander to the loyal followers all the time or you will die in the San Francisco Bay Area radio scene. On the other hand, I'll never compromise and just play soothing Jazz. When you start doing that, and the creative element is absolutely dead, the listeners will know when you don't believe in it. They will know it. I need to move ahead and take the listener with me.

Best Mid-day Host: Mary Ellen Geist - KGO

Mary Ellen Geist joined the KGO NEWSTALK 810 news department as a full time reporter on July 6, 1992. Since she has been at KGO, she has won dozens of awards from the Associated Press and the Radio and Television News Director's Association, including Best Investigative Reporting for a team investigation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway called "Dangerous at Any Speed," an Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of the Polly Klaas case, Best Spot News for coverage of O.J. Simpson and for her live reports from Port-au-Prince on the Occupation of Haiti, as well as Best News Reporting for "Epitaph," an investigation into the arrest, conviction, and an eye-witness account of the execution of David Mason.

Geist came to KGO Radio from KFWB News 98 in Los Angeles, where she was the morning drive "CAR 98" reporter for three years. Prior to that, she served as a fill-in news anchor/reporter for KRTH ("K-Earth") FM in Los Angeles. During her years with KFWB, Geist won dozens of Radio and Television News Association "Golden Mike" awards for an investigation into the abuse of the homeless called "Homeless and Wet," as well as for her coverage of the Southern California Flooding of 1992 and for anchoring during the Persian Gulf War. In 1991, Geist was a finalist for the California/Nevada Associated Press "Reporter of the Year" Award.

A Native of Michigan, Geist holds a bachelor's degree in English from Kalamazoo College in Michigan. She lives in San Francisco.

Best Public Affairs program: Sunday Magazine - Live 105 KITS/ALICE Harry Osibin
Sundays 6-8am: LIVE 105 Public Affairs featuring Way Too Early and The Green Hour with Harry O -- join LIVE 105's award-winning Public Affairs Director Harry O for two solid hours of community & environmental topics.

Best News Program: Afternoon News with Rosie Allen - KGO

Rosie Allen is a local radio celebrity on KGO every weekday from 4:00-7:00 pm with co-anchor Greg Jarrett, as well as, during afternoon news breaks. Over the years, Rosie has received numerous community service awards, but her most treasured honors are the many "best Newscast" awards she received in the past 16 years. In 2000 she was honored with the Kudo Award as "Best News Anchor" from American Women in Radio and Television. Rosie says "It is so exciting to be able to get up every day and go to a job that I absolutely love, with people that I actually like, and in a very nurturing environment. I know that all sounds so sweet, but it's the way I feel.
Rosie Allen was born in Louisiana, and she spent 3 years in the US Army. Allen is passionate about books. As a child, she read under the covers with a flashlight when she was supposed to be asleep. Although she usually picks fiction, she also reads biographies.
An award-winning journalist, Rosie began her stint with the News-talk leader in 1983 as a Weekend Talk Show Host and Part-time News Reporter/Anchor. In March of 1984, she was tapped to co-anchor the KGO Afternoon News, which she continues to do with Greg Jarrett weekday afternoons from 4pm - 7pm.

Best Music Programming: Sean Demery - Live 105
Bay Area listeners have embraced the new format at Live 105 as evidenced by the huge jump in their latest Arbitron ratings (from 2.1 to 2.4!).
By expanding the input of his team of jocks, Sean Demery has taken the programming at KITS/Live 105 in a 360 - from a rather generic male-dominated Active Rock position to a more user friendly alternative rock, giving female artists like the Donnas, Evanescence and No Doubt a chance to shine at the top of Live 105's playlist.

Best Talk Show Host: Angie Coiro - Forum KQED

Host, Friday Forum
Angie Coiro is a native of South Bend, Indiana. She contributed her first radio interview pieces to student-run WETL, and volunteered as a voiceover and auctioneer for the local public television station.

During a six-year stay in Honolulu, she worked as a traffic reporter on KGU Talk Radio, eventually hosting a weekly discussion show on women's issues, and a daily feature on art events.

Her San Francisco work has included more traffic reporting and news anchor work. In 2001, she was named the host of Friday Forum on KQED Public Radio.

Angie's work in the voiceover arena includes training tapes, internet tours and tradeshow pieces for a long list of clients. Her outside interests include film history, crafts, and working with her husband to restore their 1923 cottage, which they share with too many cats.

Other Categories

Best Media Website Award: TechTV.com

TechTV is the cable network that showcases the smart, edgy, and unexpected side of technology. By telling stories through the prism of technology, TechTV intrigues viewers with everything from help and information to cutting-edge documentaries to outrageous late-night fun. TechTV viewers are highly interactive and passionate about engaging in the television experience, while TechTV.com logs a monthly average of 1.5 million unique visitors. Owned by Vulcan Inc., TechTV is currently available in nearly 40 million homes in the United States and distributes content to more than 70 countries.
Our website expands on our television shows' content. We take the issues and interests found on the shows and add information and resources. If your interest is sparked by something you see on television, you can satisfy that curiosity on the website. To that end, we offer in-depth stories, video features, and links to other resources on our site. You can start at our homepage, where we highlight the best of the day's content. Or you can go directly to the pages for each television show. Explore our site. We're sure you'll find something that captures your imagination.

Community Leadership Award: KGO AM