Ken Wilshe has worked in the television industry in San Diego since 1972 when he was hired at KPBS-TV.  A San Diego native, his first exposure to television came through several closed circuit TV classes at Madison High School.

He is a graduate of SDSU’s Telecomm and Film department. He was awarded a NATAS Hollywood chapter internship, spending the summer working on the Cher Show at CBS Television City, where he had the opportunity to work with many celebrities including Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, Jim Hensen and of course Kermit the frog.

In 1977 Ken was hired at then, KCST-TV and has worked as a floor director, lighting director (3 Emmy® awards), studio camera, lead evening audio operator for the past 28 years and more recently directing the evening newscasts.

Ken served as a Governor of the local San Diego Chapter of NATAS in the 1980’s.

Ken is very grateful to all his mentors and co-workers at KNSD-TV for a truly rich and fulfilling experience. They are the best crew in the business.

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Donna M. Stewart’s 30 year career in broadcast was completely accidental. She grew up in suburban New York watching the Channel 7 Eyewitness News with Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel. She listened to Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram on her red Toot-a-Loop radio™. She developed a love for jazz and big band music listening to William B Williams and Jonathan Schwartz on WNEW-AM with her dad. Scott Muni and Alison Steele “The Nightbird” taught her how having passion for music can lead to success in broadcasting. She was inspired to major in Communication but because of her varied academic experience it took her over 30 years to get a four year degree. After so many years in the industry, a Journalism or Communication degree didn’t make much sense so in 2009 she acquired her BS in Information Technology from University of Phoenix.

Donna moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1982. While attending community college classes, she obtained an internship at a small cable station called the Newspaper Channel. Her experience with the internship led to a part-time editing job at KTSP, the CBS affiliate. After a two year stint there, she moved across the street into a full-time editing role at the NBC station, KPNX. It was there she developed her skills for producing year-end retrospectives. In 1988, Donna was hired at KNSD (then KCST) in San Diego. The station encouraged to enter her 1988 year-in review for Emmy® award consideration. That story received her first of many Emmy® award nominations.  She has received three Emmy® awards, a Golden Mic, an NPPA award, as well as several Press Club awards.

Donna began a transition from editing into a management role in 2005 when she became the Supervising Editor. Another promotion to News Operations Manager in 2009 expanded her role to overseeing a staff of nearly 25 photographers and editors. She also serves as the liaison between the News and IT/Engineering departments.

Donna has been a member of NATAS, SPJ, NABJ, and is currently the treasurer of SDABJ. She has served on the NBC-Universal Diversity Council. On a personal note, Donna loves to travel with her partner, is an avid tennis fan and mediocre player. She enjoys still photography and has a fondness for cats and penguins.

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Rose Pfanner began her career in TV answering phones at KNSD (at that time KCST) in 1983; a different time, a different world.  In 1984, Rose moved into the newsroom where she answered phones again, this time for the news director, who also needed filing, typing (yes, typewriters!) and expense reports done. By 1985 Rose was anxious to do something, anything else… so she became a “feed roomer”…. taking in news satellite feeds from NBC (C-band, anyone?) and logging them for the producers and editors.  Later that year Rose moved into producing and writing. During the next 15 years she worked all different shows, all different times, all different days, through several different station owners, GMs and many, many news directors.

By 2000 Rose decided to move into freelancing where her education turned from newsgathering to production.  Suddenly she had to learn things like “Composite”…”Green Screen”…  and “Audio sweetening”.  It was a quick and dirty education, but she learned so much including the game saving “fix it in post”.

Rose returned to TV news as a producer in 2007 at Fox 5 (at that time CW/KSWB) where she produced a public service weekly program called “Take 5”.   When KSWB became Fox 5, she moved into writing for the early morning news broadcast.  She stayed for 5 years before joining the creative services department to produce “San Diego’s Most Wanted”.  When the show ended its run, Rose began another series of free-lance writing/producing assignments for government clients, production companies and marketing interests.

Most recently she returned to her roots in TV News by taking a job as an on-call writer/associate producer for CBS News 8 (KFMB).  After almost 31 years in broadcast TV, she can honestly say it’s been an experience…In fact, a lot of them!

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Marianne Gerdes established Gerdes Creative with Michael Gerdes in 1989 with a singular focus: to create short and long form productions in the documentary genre. This passion grew directly from their interest in the arts, architecture, design, gardens, and history.

Marianne has 20 (and counting) documentary producing credits; for her efforts she has earned four Pacific Southwest Regional Emmy® awards and 14 additional nominations for her producing and writing work. She is the winner of a Press Club Award for Specialty reporting for her current television show, “A Growing Passion”. Also an IRIS Award from NAPTE (National Association of Professional Television Executives) for informational programming, a People In Preservation Award from SOHO (Save our Heritage Organization) for contributions to the historical documentation of San Diego history, and an IABC Business Communicators Award.  She was recently elected to NATAS’s Silver Circle for 25 years of outstanding contribution to the broadcast community.

She is also a 2013 nominee for San Diego Magazine’s Women Who Move The City, Woman of the Year  for her work with the non-profit Ilan-Lael Foundation that preserves and promotes the work of renowned San Diego artist James Hubbell.

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