It’s a Friday afternoon at 90.7 KFSR, and the waiting area outside of Studio B is filled with guests, a local school district superintendent, a volunteer from a local animal shelter, and a local city council member. From the long hallway that bisects the Speech Arts Building, (home to KFSR on the Fresno State campus), appears a young man, with a crisply pressed shirt, silk tie, and a beaming smile. At most radio stations, when the clock strikes 5:00pm on a Friday, the day done and the weekend has started. But for Sevag Tateosian, his day is just beginning, as a long taping session awaits.
Sevag is the host of San Joaquin Spotlight, a half-hour long local public affairs program that KFSR produces every week. Public affairs is a loose term, but in the case of San Joaquin Spotlight, listeners can expect to hear in depth interviews with a wide variety of guests, ranging from non-profit organizations to local politicians, authors, judges and much more.
“San Joaquin Spotlight” is our weekly chance to connect Valley listeners to what’s happening in their community, and let them know about some of the interesting stories that they don’t see on TV or read about in the newspaper,” says Station Manager Joe Moore. “We’re really excited to have Sevag as our host, because he’s extremely knowledgeable about what’s going on in the community, and loves to talk to people and get to know about their own particular story.”
Sevag’s career at KFSR didn’t begin with San Joaquin Spotlight however. In fact, to many listeners, he’s still probably better known as a longtime host of the station’s long running Saturday morning Armenian music program Hye Oozh. Sevag was one of three hosts on Hye Oozh from 2001-2005, while he was an undergraduate student at Fresno State studying criminology. “Hye Oozh taught me a lot about being on the radio and about the importance of working with the community,” says Sevag. He still fills in on the program on rare occasions, but left the weekly host’s chair when he enrolled in San Joaquin College of Law to pursue a juris doctorate degree.
For four years, Sevag worked as an assistant for then Fresno City Council member Tom Boyajian. “It was a great job, I got to help people in District One every day, and work on some major projects. It was a very rewarding experience.” After Council member Boyajian termed out, Sevag interned and was hired by the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office as a Student Professional/Certified Law Student. As a law student, Sevag argued countless motions in court and even prosecuted a defendant during jury trial. “It was an honor to work for the D.A. I learned a lot from some hardworking and intelligent individuals dedicated to public safety,” said Sevag.
Today, Sevag works his day job with the United Way of Fresno County as the Coordinator of the Bank on Fresno Initiative. Bank on Fresno is a joint effort of the Office of the Governor, Office of the Mayor, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, United Ways, local Financial Institutions, and Nonprofit Organizations. With United Way of Fresno County serving as the organizing agent, the coalition set a goal to start 10,000 unbanked Fresno residents on the path to financial mobility by helping them open a no or low-cost starter bank account and access the education necessary to manage it successfully.
During his tenure over the past two years as host of San Joaquin Spotlight, Sevag has featured a number of notable guests, including California Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter, California State Controller, John Chiang, Fresno County Supervisors Phil Larson and Henry Perea, and Fresno City Council members Cynthia Sterling, Henry T. Perea and Blong Xiong.
Sevag has also interviewed celebrity attorney Mark Geragos and movie stars Richard Keil and Sid Haig. But, in many cases, it’s the guests who aren’t household names that are most satisfying for Sevag. “I really like talking with the representatives of non-profit organizations. We have so many here in Fresno doing a lot of great work, but people don’t know about them. By talking with these organizations on the radio, we’re not only able to publicize their work, but also let listeners know about how they can get involved and help these organizations. Every one of them could use more volunteers.”
You can listen to San Joaquin Spotlight Saturdays at 1:30pm and Sundays at 11:30am. Audio archives of past editions of the program are available online at KFSR.org.
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