An Evening with Doug Sovern, Former KCBS Radio Political Reporter
About this Event
Ditch digger; barista; line cook; New York City messenger, who once had a briefcase with $1 million handcuffed to his wrist; and someone who copied wiretap recordings for the FBI. Stints on road crews for U2, Dire Straits, Bonnie Raitt and the Ramones and years of playing bass in a dozen rock-and-roll bands. These are not the typical experiences that would lead to becoming an acclaimed journalist. But then, not much about Doug Sovern is typical.
He retired in April 2025 after a 40-year career, most of which as an indomitable reporter for KCBS Radio. He broadcast from New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attack, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. He also covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the 1991 East Bay Firestorm, and the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, where he was shot at.
For the last half of his career, Doug was the KCBS political reporter. From 2020 to 2025, he hosted a new weekday politics program “State of California.” He has interviewed major presidential candidates — and a lot of minor ones — except Donald Trump.
At Arts & Culture on Wednesday, September 2, at 7 p.m., Doug will “report” the highlights of his illustrious career. He’ll explain what drew him to radio news and the challenges of producing both eyewitness broadcasts and daily commentary. He also will share his thoughts about the upcoming elections in California and beyond and the state of America’s media.
Tickets for Doug’s talk are $5 for club members and students and $10 for non-members.
When Doug is not in front of a mic, this Rockridge resident writes songs, poetry, and short stories and has made several short films. His work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines and has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes. He also still plays bass, since 2006 as part of Eyewitness Blues Band, composed of broadcasters from KCBS and CBS-5 TV. “I have a short attention span,” he says.
In 2011, Doug wrote a first-of-its-kind novel called , consisting only of tweets. Under the handle SovernNation, he still is a prodigious poster on X, commenting on breaking news, politics, sports, and more. He is finishing his first conventional novel, All Great And Precious Things, a political thriller.
From 2015-2020, Doug also hosted THERE, a monthly literary salon in an Oakland cafe. It showcased some of the Bay Area’s most famous writers as well as some of the most promising.
Raised in New York City and Racine, Wisconsin, Doug graduated with a degree in history from Brown University in 1984 and got hired as a copy boy at The New York Times. “Turned out that I didn’t like my job or my girlfriend at the time,” he recalls, “and a rock band in Berkeley kept calling me to come out.” He moved to California to play bass for The Nice Boys From New York. “After hundreds of gigs and one Indie album that failed to make me a rock star, I returned to journalism.”
Doug went to work for several radio stations before he joined KCBS in 1990. He finally had found his calling. Over the decades, he won more than 250 broadcast journalism awards, including 12 of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Awards. He was the first three-time winner of the AP's Best Radio Reporter of the Year Award and eventually won two more. The Society of Professional Journalists honored him for Best Investigative Reporting six times, more than any other journalist in any medium.
“KCBS listeners know what Doug did on the air all those years,” says former KCBS morning anchor Stan Bunger, “But one of the things that he also did was to be our conscience.”
Reserve your seat early to hear — and see — the multi-talented, fascinating, far-from-retired Doug Sovern.
Where is it happening?
USD 5.00 to USD 10.00
