After more than 36 years in the gig—and speaking neither Mandarin nor Cantonese—KTSF news and public director Rose Shirinian is retiring from her lengthy career heading the San Francisco-area’s Chinese-language TV station.
The former dental hygienist, who started as an English-speaking part-timer in 1976, is credited with making the Lincoln Broadcasting-owned independent a leader in producing local news in Chinese.
Shirinian has overseen the growth of the station’s local Chinese-language news offerings, which started in 1989 with a 9 p.m. newscast in Cantonese and has continued to grow through October, when KTSF launched a morning show.
The station airs local news at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. in addition to its 6 a.m. morning show, as well as locally produced public affairs programming in Cantonese and Mandarin.
Director of content development Geoff Roth will take over as news director on Jan. 2.
