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Letter from Michael Isip,
President & Chief Executive Officer
Dear Friend,
I am pleased to share our 2023 Annual Report to the community, with highlights of our steadfast commitment to deliver on our mission to inform, inspire and involve.
We are living together through a moment of immense technological change, which is impacting how we access, process and share information and how we interact and relate with one another. Even more consequential are the forces impacting our social fabric. The media landscape is littered with disinformation and misinformation, as well as click-bait headlines and sound bites that inflame rather than unite. The results are deepening divides — economic, political, cultural — and declining trust in government institutions, public officials and the media.
In this incredibly challenging time, independent, noncommercial public media is more important than ever. I am proud to stand alongside my KQED colleagues, who demonstrate an unwavering dedication, passion and creativity in their service to you.
KQED’s journalism is a trusted source for information and truth. The impact of our work is reflected in our landmark legal victory to release Proposition 8 testimony tapes from the 2010 federal trial in San Francisco as well as by our investigative series Green Sage, which led to a shutdown of diesel generators polluting East Oakland.
Our storytelling is rooted in empathy, compassion and humanity with a focus on uplifting the voices and stories of diverse communities. We dedicated the year to covering the California Reparations Task Force to call attention to racism and inequality. We also provided a comprehensive, yearlong exploration of the history of Bay Area hip-hop with the multimedia project That’s My Word. We also found new ways to extend the reach of stories that celebrate our unique region. The publication of a Bay Curious book, based on the hit podcast series, captures hidden local stories. And, the social media video series No Crumbs reflects a part of the rich Bay Area food culture that does not often get the attention of restaurant reviewers.
Our educational services cultivate a new generation of active, responsible participants in society. Our sixth annual Youth Takeover featured a week of news stories and coverage cocreated by youth and KQED producers, editors and reporters. Our online video series Above the Noise capped off seven seasons with a body of work that includes more than 100 evergreen episodes that develop critical thinking and media literacy for youth.
Finally, we are building community and helping people connect with one another through civic and cultural experiences in our headquarters. In addition to more than 60 KQED Live events, we hosted our first KQED Fest. This all-day event enabled the public to immerse themselves in the very best of KQED, ranging from performances to live conversations to screenings and studio tours.
There are no shortcuts around the uncertainty and complexity of issues we collectively face as 2024 brings an election marred by legal strife and political polarization plus global events impacting us at home. KQED will never lose sight of our essential role of keeping you informed and connected with depth, context, analysis and stories about the human experience.
On behalf of everyone at KQED, thank you for your belief, faith, trust and support of our work. It means everything.
Michael J. Isip,
President & Chief Executive Officer
KQED By the Numbers
Nearly 250,000 members make KQED one of the largest local membership organizations in Northern California. KQED reaches nearly 2,000,000 people each week.
KQED FY23 STATS
Television viewers (weekly average cume, KQED 9 and KQED Plus unduplicated): 514,020
Radio listeners (weekly average cume, KQED 88.5 FM and KQEI 89.3 FM unduplicated): 568,029
Website users (weekly average): 305,800
Live radio streamers (weekly average): 408,015
Podcast listeners (weekly average): 87,866
Digital video viewers (weekly average): 938,223
PBS video-on-demand streamers (monthly average): 118,374
MOST-WATCHED TELEVISION PROGRAMS
MOST-LISTENED-TO RADIO SHOWS
MOST-READ STORIES
How to Play Mafia: An In-Depth Guide to the Perfect Party Game
California Officials Investigating Loss of 30-Ton Shipment of Explosive Chemicals
California COVID Sick Pay Has Expired. But if You Work in San Francisco, You Still Have Options — Until Feb. 28
The Current COVID Variants to Know, From Symptoms to Incubation Period
Are Zoos Good or Bad for Animals?
10 Free Online Educational Game Sites
Young adults are struggling with their mental health. Is more childhood independence the answer?
Here’s When and How to See the Green Comet Everyone’s Talking About
Why Are There Garages on Bay Area Homes Built Before Cars Existed?
What’s That Thing Off 280? The Flintstone House
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS WITH THE MOST ENGAGEMENT
KQED Releases Sealed Prop 8 Testimony Tapes After Landmark Legal Victory
In October 2022, KQED scored a major legal victory for LGBTQ+ and First Amendment rights when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider an effort to block the release of videotapes taken of the federal trial that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.
Perry v. Schwarzenegger was argued in 2010 in San Francisco. Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that prevented gay and lesbian couples from marrying. The trial, which KQED radio and TV covered, was videotaped. Yet the tapes of the trial remained sealed for more than a decade because Proposition 8 proponents blocked their release. The tapes likely would have remained sealed if not for the efforts of KQED. In 2017, KQED, led by reporter Scott Shafer, initiated a media coalition to unseal the tapes so future generations of law students and others could see how those legal arguments unfolded.
“If our systems work behind closed doors, with no press or public access, we have no idea how decisions are made, nor what arguments are leading to these decisions,” said Chief Content Officer Holly Kernan on the occasion of the Supreme Court’s decision. “KQED wants more sunlight on our legal system and we will fight on behalf of the public to get that access.” It took five years, but in October 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the tapes to be released.
A few months after the decision, KQED invited the two couples — Kris Perry and Sandy Stier and Jeffrey Zarrillo and Paul Katami — who sued to overturn Prop. 8 to come to KQED and watch clips of their testimony from 13 years earlier. We asked them to comment on that testimony and share why they took on that fight and what it meant to them to be able to marry.
KQED then pared down their interviews and added historical video and audio. The result: two videos, one for each couple, memorializing this landmark legal fight and their participation in it.
KQED is proud to take on this years-long legal battle to uphold the media’s First Amendment right to access these tapes, provide more transparency to the legal process and create the videos capturing what it all meant to the four plaintiffs.
The Fight for Marriage Equality Part 1: Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo
The Fight for Marriage Equality Part 2: Kris Perry and Sandy Stier
400+ Students Share Their Voices through the KQED Youth Takeover Program
KQED Youth Takeover is a unique, yearlong program that partners with high school classrooms from nine Bay Area counties to help students produce original media for KQED television, radio, podcasts and online programming — including shows such as Perspectives, Forum, Bay Curious, Rightnowish and other local favorites. The program culminates in the KQED Youth Takeover week at the end of April when young people take over KQED’s airwaves and digital outlets with the stories they’ve worked on all year.
In 2023, more than 400 students participated in onsite and virtual workshops to learn pitching and script development and attended field trips to KQED’s headquarters. On these trips, they trained in audio soundscaping, recorded their original scripts in our state-of-the-art studios and attended career panel discussions to learn how KQED’s editors, producers, hosts, writers and other professionals took different paths to land a career in public media.
Students told a wide range of stories, from cybersecurity to land stewardship for healing communities. Kaitlyn Nguyen’s piece about the AI art debate was the top-read Arts & Culture story for KQED during Youth Takeover week, with more than 13,000 page views. A three-student collaboration on an episode of Above the Noise about how social media impacts social conformity received hundreds of comments and began a dialogue for students to share their thoughts and experiences with one another. Co-collaborator Jacqueline T. said, “I have learned how to think of creative out-of-the-box ideas as well as how to produce media and the process of putting ideas out there for the world.” You can check out all the stories on the Youth Takeover homepage, as well as see more inspiring youth-created media from across the country on the KQED Youth Media Challenge showcase.
We surveyed Youth Takeover students and their teachers before and after they participated in the program during the 2022–2023 school year and learned that the number of students who said they were able to write effectively for a real, public audience tripled as a result of participating in the program. Teachers reported that the number of students who were able to use their words and voices to influence others quadrupled. In total, 908,000+ people in the Bay Area viewed or listened to the media pieces created by young people.
KQED’s Reparations Reporting Earns Praise
The California Reparations Task Force — the first statewide body to study and propose reparative measures to remedy the centuries of harm endured by Black people — submitted its historic 1,000-page report, which included more than 100 proposals, to the state legislature on June 29, 2023.
KQED’s reparations reporting team was formed to track the task force’s progress. A highlight of the team’s 2023 coverage was The Road to Reparations — a five-part video series that examined the historic harms of slavery and anti-Black racism in California. Produced by Manjula Varghese, the series included a mini-documentary on the nine task force members, the people whose work laying the foundation for lasting reparative justice in California is now being studied across the country.
With nearly 30,000 views, the video series was the top-performing long-form, original content uploaded to the KQED News YouTube channel in 2023. Bay Area teachers praised the series, with many commenting that it would now be incorporated into their history units, and multiple local libraries requested opportunities to show the video series and hold discussions. The series is being developed into a curriculum that will be available through PBS LearningMedia in February.
In observance of Juneteenth, KQED presented a reparations radio takeover on June 17. During the takeover, lawyer Lisa Holder, who is president of the Equal Justice Society, an Oakland-based nonprofit, and a member of the California Reparations Task Force, recounted that they, “…held listening sessions all over the state of California that were facilitated by community-based organizations capturing the stories of Californians. The stories were profound. They were profoundly disturbing, profoundly emotive. And people made themselves very vulnerable in this process in terms of sharing their personal experiences with racism and discrimination and the legacies of inequality.”
Throughout the year, we aired audio and digital stories on California’s connection to slavery, on how civil rights leaders inspired Japanese Americans to push for reparations and on how the state has denied reparations for some survivors of California’s period of forced sterilization, to name a few.
Reparations project editor Otis R. Taylor Jr., KQED’s managing editor of news and enterprise, wrote a column that featured work by Above the Noise, KQED’s award-winning video series for teens. The resultant episode, “America’s Highway System Is a Monument to Environmental Racism and a History of Inequity,” won an award for commentary from the Society of Professional Journalists — Northern California.
First KQED Fest Draws 5,500 Visitors, Puts Spotlight on Local Vendors
On April 29, 2023, KQED hosted the first KQED Fest — a milestone event that celebrated the transformation of the station’s newly renovated headquarters into a vibrant center of community engagement for San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. This free, all-day open house and block party showcased the diverse array of programming that KQED offers to inform, inspire and involve its audiences.
The event activated every corner of the building and its surroundings. Guided newsroom tours, studio recording sessions and fireside chats with staff provided unique behind-the-scenes experiences, while media-making workshops allowed participants to step into the shoes of producers and reporters. Live onstage presentations of KQED shows such as Forum, Check, Please! Bay Area and All Things Considered gave attendees the opportunity to hear from program hosts and local cultural trailblazers such as filmmaker Boots Riley, as well national public media figures like Ailsa Chang. Other programs such as MASTERPIECE, Deep Look and Bay Curious offered occasions for interactivity with trivia games, a creature photobooth and book signings. Partner organizations, including the California Academy of Sciences, Precita Eyes, SF Zine Fest, the San Francisco Zoo, the Bay Area Children’s Theater and the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, added a fun, all-ages educational dimension with art and science activities.
KQED Fest exceeded our expectations in both attendance and representation from our community. More than 5,500 people attended with a majority representing new, younger and more diverse audiences to KQED. Of those who registered, 52 percent were new contacts; the 35–44 and 22–34 groups represented the largest age demographics respectively; and a majority identified as BIPOC or non-white. Meanwhile, the programming provided a platform for more than 100 local speakers, artists and performers and for 21 community organizations.
Overall, KQED Fest showcased the vibrancy of the Bay Area itself by pulling back the curtain to reveal how and why we do what we do. The event made public media truly more public, leaving attendees with a renewed sense of appreciation for the station’s abiding commitment to serving our community.
Bay Curious Podcast Connects with New Audiences as Best-Selling Book
KQED’s Bay Curious podcast launched in 2016 with a simple premise: We would invite KQED listeners to ask questions about the San Francisco Bay Area, and KQED’s journalists would answer those questions in thorough and delightful ways. The show was a quick hit and has remained one of KQED’s most popular podcasts. Over the years, Bay Curious has also created a monthly newsletter, event series, weekend radio specials and regular social media content. In 2023, Bay Curious continued to find new ways to reach audiences and published a book Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area.
With 49 entries — inspired by the famous 49-Mile Drive — the Bay Curious book was published by Chronicle Books and included a combination of updated popular episodes from the podcast and brand-new, never-before-heard stories researched for the book, plus fun illustrations and trivia sidebars. With subjects ranging from Marin’s redwood forests to the Winchester Mystery House, from the Black Panther Party’s school program to the invention of the mai tai, the book offers entertaining and informative, weird and wonderful true stories of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Published in May 2023, the first 20,000 copies of the Bay Curious book sold out in months, necessitating a second print run to support a robust series of book events! KQED launched the tour with a sold-out KQED Live book launch celebration. Host Olivia Allen-Price traveled around the region on a nine-stop book tour — meeting with longtime fans of the show and people only just discovering Bay Curious. Listenership of the long-running Bay Curious podcast has grown since the book’s launch, and the team is looking forward to more opportunities to connect with book audiences in 2024.
Students Expand Critical Thinking and Media Literacy Thanks to KQED’s Above the Noise Educational Video Series
KQED wrapped the seventh and final season of its video series Above the Noise in July, successfully achieving the show’s mission to support middle and high school students in developing critical thinking and media literacy skills. The series amassed more than 10 million views on YouTube and PBS LearningMedia, tackling more than 130 real-world issues ranging from mental health to the electoral system to the environment and more. From the beginning, the show’s producers prioritized investigating topics that matter to teens so that teens would feel this series was for them when their teachers brought it to the classroom or when they found it on YouTube. To do this, the producers collaborated with the KQED Youth Advisory Board, which is a group of Bay Area teens who support our youth media efforts while they learn about different career paths in public media.
With nearly 2.3 million views in 2023 alone, Above the Noise videos resonated with KQED’s audience and garnered accolades. The program won two prestigious awards in 2023: the Northern California Area Emmy® 2022–2023 Award for Education/School-News or Short Form Content for host and producer Myles Bess’ episode, “Why Are People Banning Books in Schools?” (its second Emmy win since the show launched in 2017) and its first award from the Society of Professional Journalists in the Commentary/Analysis category for its episode “America’s Highway System Is a Monument to Environmental Racism and a History of Inequity.”
Now that Above the Noise has ended, we’re trying something new: Nine young creators will join a team of seasoned KQED producers to design a show from the ground up and pilot it for a youth audience. We’re excited to develop an intergenerational, collaborative production and to continue our innovation in youth programming.
That’s My Word Makes a Case for the Bay Area’s Place in Hip-Hop History
That’s My Word was a yearlong, multimedia project to celebrate, preserve and make a case for the Bay Area’s rightful and important place in the evolution of hip-hop. Extensive in presentation, the project included 53 feature stories, 12 videos, 11 playlists, eight live events, a special podcast series and a video series, plus radio stories and public appearances. An educational timeline of key events in Bay Area hip-hop history featured more than 200 entries. The series spotlighted the multicultural, multigenerational aspect of the Bay Area’s hip-hop culture and put legendary rappers, dancers, DJs, illustrators and others at the center of our platform, with an extra emphasis on inclusivity of underground artists and women in hip-hop.
That’s My Word helped to keep the Bay Area’s hip-hop contributions in the spotlight. After KQED’s extensive coverage of under-recognized female hip-hop artists the Conscious Daughters, Mystic, DJ Black, Pam the Funkstress and Traci Bartlow, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao recognized these women with an official proclamation. An episode of The Bay about producer Traxamillion won a San Francisco Press Club Award, and a joint episode of Bay Curious and The California Report Magazine about rapper Mac Dre and the use of rap lyrics in the courtroom won a Society of Professional Journalists award.
Online, the impact was major. That’s My Word stories reached 285,000 unique visitors, who spent a cumulative 22,642 hours learning about Bay Area hip-hop. Over 1,400 people attended live events, and thousands of social media posts, likes and comments attested to the project’s reach, especially among young people of color.
That’s My Word project editors Gabe Meline, Pendarvis Harshaw, Nastia Voynovskaya and Eric Arnold made multiple appearances at schools, events, documentaries, universities and podcasts to spread the word of the project, which will continue to add new stories as well as develop educational curriculum in 2024.
The multimedia initiative also spawned a successful short-run podcast series. In the four-part Rightnowish Presents Hyphy Kids Got Trauma series, host Pendarvis Harshaw uses interviews and anecdotal stories to explore how the hyphy movement was a balm for the pain he and others in his community were experiencing during the aughts.
The series caused a 145 percent spike in downloads and a nearly 200 percent jump in unique listeners for the Rightnowish podcast. Throughout the course of the series, people commented on social media and shared personal experiences, connecting to the music and expressing the impact of trauma in the Bay Area’s unique way.
KQED’s First Vertical Video Food Series Gets Massive Views by Unlocking Bay Area Food Mysteries
Ever wonder why there are two different Oakland hot dog chains with different spellings of the same name (Casper’s and Kasper’s)? What exactly makes a Mission-style burrito different from California-style? (Spoiler alert: it’s the fries.) In No Crumbs, host Josh Decolongon delivers foodie field reports on everything from local urban legends to sampling signature neighborhood dishes to uncovering the histories of beloved Bay Area culinary institutions.
No Crumbs is KQED’s first vertical video food series, meaning it is filmed in a vertical rather than horizontal format, optimized for viewing on mobile phones across social platforms popular with Gen Z audiences like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
For Pride month in June, No Crumbs created a guide linking Castro neighborhood cocktails with astrological signs, bringing in more than 64,000 views and more than 1,200 shares. During Latinx Heritage Month, host Decolongon teamed up with KQED Latinx Engagement Producer Paloma Abarca to drop in on her favorite street food vendor in the Mission to sample creamy and spicy esquites, a travel-friendly version of elote. Other popular episodes included the Bay Area origins of Bob’s Burgers, which received 535,000 views and 19,000 shares; recreating San Francisco’s iconic It’s-It ice cream sandwich at home (especially useful for Bay Area ex-pats); and a dos and don’ts guide to San Francisco’s preeminent special-occasion spot, The House of Prime Rib.
Since launching in 2023, No Crumbs has received an incredible 2 million video views. As KQED looks to rapidly grow its digital offerings, this video series will play an important part. It is quickly establishing KQED as a go-to destination on social platforms for entertaining and informative Bay Area food content.
KQED’s Investigative Reporting Leads to Shut Down of Diesel Generators Polluting East Oakland Air
In early 2022, KQED got an email from residents of The Cannery, an artists’ live-work community in East Oakland, whose lives had been turned upside down. Their Denver-based landlords, operating under the name Green Sage, were converting their building and a neighboring warehouse into a cannabis production complex. Because the buildings didn’t have enough electricity on-site to power the energy-hungry indoor grow rooms, Green Sage had installed as many as a dozen giant diesel generators to run the facility.
Residents suffered from exposure to diesel exhaust and the nonstop roar of the semitrailer-sized machines, which operated around the clock. KQED’s investigation, led by editor and reporter Dan Brekke, found that Green Sage and its owners had been sued dozens of times by tenants, investors and contractors and that the city of Oakland had failed to shut the generators down despite compiling a long list of code violations.
KQED’s reporting led to a series of actions that resulted in the generators being shut down and removed. The Bay Area Regional Air Quality District obtained an order directing Green Sage to cease operating the generators. An East Oakland advocacy group, the Environmental Democracy Project (EDP), brought a pair of complaints against Green Sage for violating state and federal air pollution laws. That effort led to a federal injunction against Green Sage. The EDP also filed suit against the city of Oakland for exempting large cannabis growing operations from environmental reviews and failing to require operators to show they had adequate electrical capacity available to power their facilities. In December 2023, the city settled the lawsuit and agreed to take a series of steps to prevent the use of diesel generators for indoor cannabis growers.
Total Operating Financial Information FY2023
Awards & Recognition
National Edward R. Murrow Award: Large Market Radio, News Documentary
“BURNED: As California Wildfires Threaten Rural Communities, Forest Service Prevention Efforts Stall”: Scott Rodd, Emily Zentner, Caleigh Wells, George LeVines and Vicki Gonzalez; Mike Kessler, editor; CapRadio (in partnership with KCRW and The California Newsroom)
Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards
Excellence in Sound
“Audible Cosmos: Voyager 1 and the Interstellar ‘Whistle,’” Amanda Font and Lowell Robinson
Feature Reporting
“‘Welcome Black to the Land’: Inside Sonoma County’s First Afro-Indigenous Permaculture Farm,” Ariana Proehl
Excellence in Innovation
“KQED 2022 Voter Guide”: Erin Baldassari, Adhiti Bandlamudi, Maria Fernanda Bernal, Bryan Bindloss, Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Anna Carollo, Jason Cater, Kevin Cooke, Suresh Eluri, Duke Fan, Annelise Finney, Pamela Gilmour, Ted Goldberg, Matthew Green, Vivek Gunnala, Sahila Jorapur, Venkateswara Kasagani, Erika Kelly, Marisa Lagos, Ethan Toven Lindsey, Kimberly Low, Haricharan Madduru, David Marks, Sarah Marks, Guy Marzorati, Vanessa Merina, Lesley McClurg, Holly McDede, Julia McEvoy, Chante Owens, Attila Pelit, María Peña, Lisa Pickoff-White, Noah Piper, Olivia Allen Price, Vanessa Rancaño, Rahul Raparti, Kervy Justo Robles, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Caroline Sarkki, Carly Severn, Katrina Schwartz, Scott Shafer, Kevin Stark, Ki Sung, Otis R. Taylor Jr., Vinnee Tong and Danielle Venton
Northern California Emmy® Awards: Arts/Entertainment — News or Short-Form Content
“Transgender Dancer Sean Dorsey Dreams of a Limitless Future for Trans and Queer Communities”: Lindsay Gauthier, producer/director; Masha Pershay, Kelly Whalen, producers; Elie M. Khadra, director of photography, editor; Sean Dorsey, featured artist
Northern California Emmy® Awards: Human Interest — News or Short-Form Content
“Indigenous Enterprise Brings Powwow Dancing to the World Stage”: Manjula Varghese, producer/director; Adam Conte, director of photography; Creo Noveno-Najam, editor
Northern California Emmy® Awards: Science/Technology
“Deep Look: Barnacles Go to Unbelievable Lengths to Hook Up”: Joshua Cassidy, producer/cinematographer/writer/editor; Craig Rosa, series producer; Gabriela V. Quirós, coordinating producer; Lesley McClurg, writer/narrator; Mike Seely, post-production coordinator; Kia Simon, editor/motion graphics; Teodros Hailye, animation; Seth Samuel, composer; Dina Maria Munsch, sound mix
Northern California Emmy® Awards: Science/Technology
“Deep Look: Honeypot Ants Turn Their Biggest Sisters into Jugs of Nectar,” Gabriela V. Quirós, producer/writer/editor; Craig Rosa, series producer; Lesley McClurg, writer/narrator; Joshua Cassidy, cinematographer; Mike Seely, post-production coordinator; Seth Samuel, composer; Kia Simon, editor/motion graphics; Shirley Gutierrez, sound mix
Northern California Emmy® Awards: Education/Schools — News or Short-Form Content
“Why Are People Banning Books in Schools?,” Myles Bess, producer/host
PMJA Award — Collaborative Effort
“The California Newsroom Election 2022,” Molly Solomon
Hearken Editorial Award
Bay Curious episode “Go Where They Are,” Darren Tsu, producer
Hearken Collaboration Award
Bay Curious episode “Bay Curious Golden Gate Park Walking Tour”: Lance Gardner and Sarah Rose Leonard, event producers; Becca Kao, design; Amanda Stupi, Katrina Schwartz, Suzie Racho, Jessica Placzek, Ryan Levi and Brendan Willard; producers
Hearken Honorable Mention, Creative Community
Bay Curious episode “Russell City Blues,” Spencer Whitney and Katrina Schwartz
Hearken, Honorable Mention, Creative Community
Bay Curious episode produced in partnership with Youth Takeover, Amanda Vigil
Writers and Contributors
Director of Marketing & External Communications, Peter Cavagnaro
Senior Editor, Elyce Berrigan
Designer, Jeffrey Edalatpour
Creative Director, Zaldy Serrano
Software Engineering Manager, Jason Cater
Lead Product Designer, Kimberly Low
*Cover photo by Estefany Gonzales.