S-F Radio: KCBS PD/ND Ed Cavagnaro Retiring

Ed Cavagnaro

KCBS 740 AM / (KFRC) 106.9 FM San Francisco Director of News & Programming Ed Cavagnaro has announced his retirement, effective in early April.

"37 years after I first arrived at KCBS as a foot-in-the-door promotion assistant, I've been lucky to work at KCBS for so long, and it's been an honor to be the news and program director at such a great radio station working with so many talented people" said Cavagnaro.

"Ed Cavagnaro built and led KCBS into its status as the Bay Area's number one radio station. He did this by hiring and managing an intelligent and capable news staff and empowering them to do their very best. Personally, I'll greatly miss working with Ed. He's truly an inspirational leader and one of the best news people on the planet" said Senior VP/Market Manager Doug Harvill.

Cavagnaro is a San Francisco native who received his Masters degree in 1975 from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and worked for the Medill News Service in Washington, DC, as a capitol correspondent for stations in Omaha, Salt Lake City and Springfield, MO.

After returning to the Bay Area, Cavagnaro worked for a year as an aide to a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors prior to joining KCBS Radio as a promotion assistant in 1977. Six months later he moved to the newsroom as an editor, and worked as Assistant Managing Editor, Managing Editor and Assistant Director of News and Programming before being named KCBS Director of News and Programming in 1988. In 1990, Cavagnaro supervised the KCBS transition from a mostly-news station to Northern California's only all-news station and now heard on both 740 AM and 106.9 FM.

Since 1990 the KCBS news staff has won numerous local, regional and national honors for news coverage, including a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, five Sigma Delta Chi medallions and 23 national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association. RTDNA named KCBS the national Murrow Award winner for Overall Excellence in Broadcast Journalism six times -- in 1990, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2012.

"I'll be 63 in February, around when I'll become a grandfather for the first time. There's a lot more to do and see, and I didn't want to wait too long to try new things" said Cavagnaro.

KFRC 106.9 FM (80 Kw) Red=60dBu Coverage Area