Fred Swift is a native San Diegan and graduate of Mount Miguel High School. He attended Santana ROP Electronics/Broadcast program in his junior and senior year of High School and obtained his FCC Element 9 Operators Permit at 16-years-old.

Fred’s first job was at Conic Data Systems. An associate in the Test Equipment Lab told him of a job in television at KCST-TV.

In 1979, Fred applied for the “Video Operator/Maintenance Engineer” position at then KCST-TV. He learned video on GE-250 4 Channel television cameras. Fred setup and shaded the Bob Dale afternoon movie and the evening newscasts as well as the film chains since some of the news content was still on 16mm film.

Fred met Richard Large at KCST-TV. Richard was the second employee hired for KUSI-TV in 1981 and he built and put KUSI on the air. Richard hired Fred in June 1984, and his long career at KUSI began. Fred had met his wife (Sammie Jo Cuevas) at KCST and shortly after his hiring at KUSI, they got married. 1984 was a very busy year!

In 1990, KUSI moved locations to start a News Operation. Fred helped move the entire operation within 30 days! 12 hours a day, 30 days straight through, everyone pulled together as a team and got it done.

While at KUSI, Fred started working freelance jobs. He worked several Los Angeles Marathons, 10+ New York Marathons, The Chicago marathon, and Tour of California Bike Race. During the 1996 Summer Olympics(NBC), he was on duty when the bomb went off in Olympic Park. He dialed in the first live shot from Richard Jewel’s house (suspect in the bombing). In addition, Fred has worked as Freelance Tech manager for NBC Sports NFL, NBA, and WNBA, RF supervisor for two Super Bowls(NBC), wireless camera engineering for the Oscars Red Carpet show(ABC), countless ESPN Baseball shows, and many Golf shows including two U.S. Opens. The remote experience was invaluable for his technical expertise.

Fred is the volunteer SBE frequency coordinator for greater than 1 GHz. He monitors the various microwave allocations for the local broadcasters and looks out for broadcast interest as far as spectrum use above one Gigahertz goes.

From the time she was a little girl, Geni Cavitt knew she wasn’t interested in becoming a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher. Her sights were set on the world of radio and television.

Geni Cavitt

Fast forward to 1979…Geni Cavitt began her broadcast career as a board operator at Magic 91 in El Cajon, back when AM radio was still radio. After getting caught sneaking her voice on air in the middle of the night, her program director suggested she make a demo reel, which is “radio-speak” for “look for a job elsewhere.” She did, and it led immediately to midday radio shows at KOGO-AM, then KFMB-AM. Along the way, she took over television. As a job counselor might say, “Easy-peasy.”

The television takeover began when Radio Personality Geni was asked to co-host, in order, several telethons including Easter Seals, the San Diego Humane Society, Children’s Hospital, and The Muscular Dystrophy Association. She also was one of the regulars who filled in on “Sun-Up San Diego,” Channel-8’s popular live morning show. Soon, Geni realized that KFMB-TV was looking for a weathercaster to join the early morning news team and she learned what being a “morning person” was all about. Then, one morning, the phone rang…“CBS This Morning” chose her to fill in when their regular weathercaster was on vacation. Twice. From New York.

Then, one day, the phone rang again, only this time it was KGTV calling and this time she didn’t have to make a demo reel. They hired Geni for their weekend weather position and as a news reporter during the week. Since the opportunity to learn to shoot and edit her own stories came with the offer, she jumped at the chance.

And then, all of a sudden, thirty years had passed and here we are today…