The California Report Turns 20

On Oct. 2, 1995, The California Report (or TCR as we call it around here) made its statewide debut.

Twenty years ago, David Wright hosted our report on Monday mornings and Maia Krache steered the weekly newsmagazine.

Our first magazine show featured a discussion about race, an interview with an outsider who shook up presidential politics (remember Ross Perot?) and a look at border issues and immigration. Two decades later, we're still covering all of these topics.

What started with KQED and a handful of station partners and freelance reporters around the state has grown to a news service hosted weekday mornings by Queena Kim and weekly by 17-year veteran Scott Shafer, with bureaus in Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento, and in-house reporters specializing in education, science, arts, government and politics.

So yeah, we're all grown up. And some of the people who grew up with us, including former interns, are familiar names on public radio today -- folks like Tamara Keith, Kai Ryssdal, Rachel Martin and more.

But there are others whose names you don't hear much on the radio, people without whom we wouldn't even be here: KQED's Jo Anne Wallace, founding Senior Editor Sally Eisele and founding Executive Editor Raul Ramirez, who died in 2013. It was their vision and passion for building a statewide news operation that got us launched and kept us going.

Like any 20-year-old, we pretty much feel like we're just getting started. But as we leave our teenage years behind, we wanted to acknowledge and thank those who helped us get here. And thank you for joining us on the ride.