For the past 20 years, morning commuters on their way to work in the San Francisco-Oakland area have gotten, as one writer put it, “an added caffeine rush and some measure of confidence to face the day” listening to Alisa Clancy, one of the Bay Area’s premier radio personalities, on her 6-10am “” weekday program on Station KCSM-FM.
Now after two decades of getting up at 3:50 am to head to the studio, she has retired as morning hostess and station program director to take a breather before moving on the the next phase of her multifaceted career.
Growing up in San Diego, Alisa comes from a jazz family. She cites her grandfather, Bill Nye, who played piano with territorial bands in Ohio in the 1930s, as her greatest influence. “He used to say, ‘Listen to this, listen to that’ as he would put records of Ella Fitzgerald, the Big Bands, or Billie Holiday on the turntable.” She played the drums and piano in her junior high school band and has always had an interest in pop culture, the theater, classical music and film.
College and Radio
She was able to combine all these interests while in college, working at radio stations in Bowling Green, Kentucky while attending Western Kentucky University, and at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, while getting her Master’s degree under a Fellowship grant. Following graduation, she worked in professional th
