Rebecca Corral

Like most journalists in Northern California, Rebecca Corral has been a faithful KCBS listener from the very beginning. (Where else do you think those TV people get their story ideas?) But it would be nearly a decade before her love affair with radio truly began…

Rebecca started her career in television in 1979, writing news for San Francisco’s KPIX-TV. She eventually joined KRON-TV, where she first produced the 11pm news, then later, hit the streets as a General Assignment reporter…  learning the ropes and winning awards for her coverage of everything from crime and campaigns, to pedagogy and pileups.

Cut to 1988, when Rebecca decided to try her hand at radio. How was she to know they make you set up your own interviews, edit your own tape, carry your own equipment, and produce at least four times as many stories as you produce in television news on any given day?  She thought she’d never make it, particularly after her managing editor sat her down, looked her in the eye, and asked “Do you have any pants? Or flats?” In spite of these extraordinary challenges, Rebecca’s radio career blossomed at KCBS. Soon she was filing two reports an hour, breaking more big stories than ever before, and applying her own mascara.

Like everyone else in the KCBS newsroom, Rebecca’s work has been recognized locally and nationally, with The National Headliner Award,  honors from the Northern California Radio & Television News Director Association, the Associated Press Television & Radio Association, and the John Swett Award for Media Excellence, among others. Yet, corny as it sounds, the privilege of working as a broadcast journalist in San Francisco is the biggest reward of all for Rebecca. Seriously, it is. Even though she’s been in the news biz for her entire adult life, she still gets a happy feeling when she walks into the controlled chaos of the newsroom.

Rebecca is mother to a grown son and almost grown daughter, both of whom she considers the finest people she’s ever met. A Bay Area native, she makes the rounds of local movie houses, theatres, art galleries, dance productions and anything else that assists in her objective of absorbing art and dodging housework.  She loves to watch the demolition of large structures, and the manufacture of almost anything. Rebecca is a seamstress and a wannabe designer, who makes altars, pillows, and lovely baby blankets for children and grownups. Sleep, however, is a bit of a problem for Rebecca, as she is afraid she will miss something if she closes her eyes.

Ever the eager-beaver, Rebecca was named Sigma Delta Chi’s “Outstanding Young Journalist” for 1986. She is hoping to nail the Society of Professional Journalists “Outstanding Old Journalist” award sometime in the next twenty years, before she retires.