News A New Voice on KQED Morning Radio If you are a weekday morning radio listener, you’ve heard a new voice during Morning Edition on KQED 88.5 FM. That’s Brian Watt, the newest member of the KQED News team. Before joining KQED in April to anchor the local morning news, Brian was a reporter for Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) in Los Angeles, on the work and entrepreneurship beat. Prior to that, he was a producer for the Marketplace Morning Report. His work has won several awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, the Radio Television News Association of Southern California and Public Radio News Directors Incorporated. “This is the work that I’ve always wanted to do, in a place where I’ve always wanted to live,” Brian told KQED. “I’m very proud of my accomplishments as a reporter, but my ultimate goal in public radio has always been to host or anchor, to tell listeners things they need to know and bring them stories that they want to hear.” Brian has deep ties to the Bay Area. “I am lucky to have married a woman from San Francisco, whom I met two decades ago in Paris,” he says. “After years of making numerous visits, we’re bringing our 4-year-old son to live closer to his grandparents and a huge Bay Area family.” And for what it’s worth, sports fans, Brian says he became a Golden State Warriors fan “the day they drafted Steph Curry. He’s from my home town [Charlotte, NC] and played college ball at Davidson, where some of my closest friends and relatives earned their degrees.” Go Dubs. Welcome, Brian.
Astute afternoon KQED Public Radio listeners have noticed that Sasha Khokha began in April as host of The California Report’s weekly magazine program. Sasha joined KQED in 2004 and had been The California Report’s Central Valley bureau chief for the past 11 years. In that role, she covered a vast geographic beat, including the nation’s most productive farm belt, some of California’s poorest towns, and Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks. She reported on environmental justice issues, including air and water pollution, as well as bringing the lives and concerns of rural Californians to listeners across the state. “The California Report is the only public radio show that brings a statewide perspective to this huge, diverse place,” says Sasha. “It allows listeners on the freeway in San Diego or brushing their teeth in San Francisco to hear stories from Fresno, Mendocino and Sacramento. It brings us the stories of real people, the intimacy of their voices, and helps knit together our diverse state.” Sasha’s reporting has helped expose the hidden price that immigrant women janitors and farmworkers may pay to keep their jobs: sexual assault at work. Her Rape in the Fields series, produced in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, helped change California law with regard to sexual harassment training for farm supervisors. Her work has also won a national Public Radio News Directors Inc. award for investigative reporting, as well as multiple prizes from the Radio Television News Directors Association and the Society for Professional Journalists. Please join us in congratulating Sasha on her new role. 4
The Califonia Report’s magazine airs Fridays at 4:30pm, 6:30pm and 11pm on KQED 88.5 FM.
Photos: (top to bottom) courtesy Brian Watt; courtesy Sash Khokha.
The California Report Names New Host