Doug Sovern

Doug began his career as a copy boy at the New York Times, and then moved to California to play in a rock band. After hundreds of gigs, an Indie album and a whole lot of session work failed to make him a rock star, Doug returned to journalism, working for Associated Press Radio and San Francisco station K-101. He did a brief stint at KGO before joining KCBS in 1990. Doug covers politics for KCBS, and also does special features and investigations. He also reports occasionally for KPIX-TV Channel 5 and has written for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has won more than 175 journalism awards, including ten National Headliner Awards, five national Edward R. Murrow Awards, and a record seven Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the national Society of Professional Journalists – more than any other reporter in history. The SPJ has honored Doug for Best Investigative Reporting in America five different times, more than any other journalist in any medium. Doug was also the first three-time winner of the AP TV/Radio Association’s Reporter of the Year Award and has won it four times overall.

Doug has reported for KCBS from such places as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake and New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the 1991 East Bay Firestorm and the Los Angeles riots in 1992. He has covered countless elections and interviewed every major presidential candidate (and a lot of the minor ones) since the late 1980s. He has also done award-winning specials for KCBS from China, Africa, Mexico and the Tour de France. An avid outdoorsman, Doug has chronicled some of his adventures on KCBS, including expeditions to Everest and Kilimanjaro and bike rides across California, Alaska, Texas and Vietnam for AIDS and cancer charities.

Doug was born in New York City, raised in Manhattan and Wisconsin, and has a degree in History from Brown University. He lives in Oakland with his wife, Dr. Sara Newmann. And yes, he still plays music! He is the bass player for the increasingly legendary Eyewitness Blues Band, made up of broadcasters from KCBS and CBS-5 TV, and for two other bands as well. Doug also writes songs, poetry and short stories, and has made several short films (he has a short attention span). In 2011, he wrote a first-of-its-kind novel on Twitter called “TweetHeart,” which is archived at www.tweetnovel.com. He tweets about news at twitter.com/SovernNation. You can also read his political blog, Sovern Nation, at sovernnation.blogspot.com. Doug’s other passions include art, theater, cooking and travel.