KQED has been an important part of my life since childhood. It remains an important part of my life today.

I was honored to become a KQED employee in the 1980’s, leaving KQED in the late 1990’s to earn my MLIS and become a librarian for a county government library system. I have worked in University, College and City library systems, where serving students and the public, from all socio-economic levels, allied closely with my values while employed in the KQED Television Programming Department, and later, during my employment in KQED-FM Administration under JoAnne Wallace. Providing reliable, fact-based information and entertainment serving the public interest, remained key factors in my choice of careers.

Like many KQED staff members, I donated my time after work and on weekends while volunteering on KQED productions. Working at KQED, for many of us, was a passion and avocation, it was far more than a daily job for a paycheck.

During my years in KQED TV Programming, I worked on the annual KQED Auction at the Cow Palace, Opera in the Park at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell, and assisted with live Pledge Breaks. During my work week I tracked television programming purchases and air rights, as required by our KQED TV Programming budget, then expensed those programs in our budget as they aired. I pulled Nielsen ratings and wrote a column for our KQED staff monthly newsletter, AIR.

During my years at KQED FM, I wrote Public Service Announcements for nonprofit groups who sent our radio station Press Releases, hoping for on-air mention of events on our daily KQED FM Community Calendar. I volunteered with FM production staff and helped volunteers for Sedge Thompson’s West Coast Weekend two-hour programs broadcast live on Saturday mornings from Ft. Mason Center and later, at The Top of the Mark, Mark Hopkins Hotel. (That program is now Sedge Thompson’s West Coast Live.)

Working at KQED was very rewarding and I have many fond memories of staff and KQED productions from my time there. As staff, we worked together, socialized together and volunteered together after hours at the station and on location.

I wrote about my experiences while working at KQED during the Loma Prieta Earthquake, then volunteering in house for the subsequent 1989 Earthquake Relief Concert: It’s Everybody’s Fault, hosted by Bill Graham and KQED, at the old KQED 8th and Byrant studios. The Sunday “rockathon” fundraiser featured Bob Hope and a kaleidoscope of musical talent from Rock, Jazz and Soul, who donated their talents at three concert venues to support Bay Area Earthquake recovery efforts. That event alone, demonstrated what KQED can do today, to fully engage with Bay Area viewers, members and potential new donors. The three concerts were a powerful, televised, collaboration with KQED, which allegedly raised over $2 million that Sunday.

I had been a KQED donor and Sustaining Member since 1982. I ended my Sustaining Pledge in October 2025, after reading on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, whose collection of tax filings for KQED online, alleged that former CEO John Boland received $984,444 from KQED in 2020, that current CEO Michael Islip received $493,570 in 2020, with alleged 2020 KQED Management salaries (if my math is correct), totaling $5,182,892, when the station allegedly had a 2020 NET income of $11,429,521. This was the same year KQED alleged a projected $7.1 million budgetary shortfall, to justify a 5.5% staff layoff.

You can compare 2020-2024 KQED management compensation with the same period of time, at PBS Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, at WGBH in Boston, at WNET in New York, and at other large market PBS stations, using a Nonprofits search on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.