Andrea Lewis - KPFA journalist - dies
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 18, 2009


Andrea Lewis had the kind of rich, deep voice that was made for radio, her vocation for the last decade of her life, or for singing, her lifelong passion.


Ms. Lewis, a program host and news anchor at KPFA-FM in Berkeley and a contributor to the Progressive magazine and other publications on the political left, died of a heart attack Sunday at her home in San Francisco. She was 52.

Ms. Lewis, a native of Detroit, came to KPFA in 1999 without radio experience, having worked as an editor for Mother Jones magazine, Pacific News Service and other Bay Area media organizations for 16 years. She was hired as co-host of the station's main public affairs program, a two-hour weekday morning show.

"She was a natural fit for radio, calm and thoughtful," said Lisa Rothman, the show's executive producer. "If someone said something she disagreed with, she would reflect and figure out how to talk about it. And she had that amazing deep, warm, compassionate voice."

Ms. Lewis took a year off in 2007-08 for a Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford, then returned as evening news co-anchor and host of a two-hour Sunday morning interview and call-in program, which she called "Sunday Sedition."

"If there were some difficult issues on race and gender that needed to be talked about, on the air or off the air, she was the one who was going to bring them up, always in a very pleasant way," said KPFA's co-news director, Aileen Alfandary.



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