Announcing Guest Podcast Host Leslie Stoval

2020 Guest Podcast Host
Bay Area Radio Personality

LESLIE STOVAL

BlackFemaleProject is excited to announce 2020 podcast guest host, Bay Area radio pioneer Leslie Stoval.

Leslie was the first ever solo female morning show host in the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout her career in radio, jazz has always been her musical love. She currently works at Bay Area jazz station KCSM; you can hear her on Tuesday night from 6pm to 9pm on The Jazz Oasis.

We began collaborating with Leslie after meeting her at the Theopolis Vineyards annual harvest party in October of 2018. After hearing about BlackFemaleProject and doing her research about our work, Leslie was moved to contribute her talents to help us expand the reach of our podcast and, in turn, support us in carrying out our mission and amplifying the voices of Black women. In addition to adding great value to our podcast work, she and her team have also provided documentation of BlackFemaleProject events to develop content that captures our message and identity.

Leslie is from Cleveland, Ohio. While she was living in Columbus, Ohio, she would escape the humdrum of the Midwest via nightly AM radio broadcasts from legendary outlets WLS, Chicago; WABC, New York; and CKLW, Windsor (Detroit). These nightly broadcasts gave Leslie a thrill and exhilaration she had never felt before, making it clear to her that radio was her calling.

While enrolled at Stanford University in the 70s, Leslie announced news at KZSU. After receiving her Communications degree from Stanford, her first professional radio gig came in the form of DJing at WVKO in Columbus, where she hosted a very popular overnight Jazz-Fusion program to the Ohio State University listening audience. Just six months later, she ended up in Berkeley, CA, where she became an announcer, programmer, and curator at KRE-AM/FM, which morphed into KBLX, where Leslie helped to introduce the “Quiet Storm” format and show that are still holding strong today. Along with many other talented individuals, she also helped introduce crossover radio at KMEL.

The podcast season hosted by Leslie Stoval will be released in April 2020 and will continue throughout the year until all 20+ episodes have been shared. At her request, the episodes were captured on camera, so this season you will have the option of video or audio-only to enjoy listening and being inspired by members of BlackFemaleProject who were willing to share their stories.

Click Below to Watch Episode 1. Leslie interviews BlackFemaleProject founder, Precious J. Stroud about how the Project got started and why after five years she still believes the mission is important.