Radio personality Carolyn McArdle splits her time between 98.1 The Breeze and Oracle Park Carolyn McArdle (B.A., ’94) has worked in Bay Area radio for more than 30 years, mostly as an on-air personality. As the industry changed, she wore more and more hats. She’s a morning show co-host, assistant program director and music director at iHeartMedia’s 98.1 The Breeze. Last summer, she added one more hat to the mix — and this one’s orange and black. McArdle was named the public address announcer for Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. This year will be her first full season with the Giants. She’ll work 81 home games, mostly at night. With a full-time job as morning show host, McArdle will have a packed calendar. “This is my dream come true. I don’t care if I’ve got four hours of sleep or five hours of sleep. I get to call the ballgame at Oracle Park for the Giants,” she said. “I’m so fortunate. This is the pinnacle team that I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be working for.” She credits San Francisco State University for her career in radio and Major League Baseball. An athlete herself, McArdle came to SFSU to swim on the Gators’ NCAA Division II team (which was disbanded at SFSU in 2001). After a challenging run studying real estate at SFSU, she switched to a program that didn’t require math or accounting: Radio and Television. Once in the program, she was blown away that this was something she could do professionally. SFSU taught her the basics of radio: editing, copy writing, audio production and sound mixing. “We were editing reel to reel, cutting tape and slicing tape and playing records off vinyl,” she said. “The teachers were so down to earth and so real and so helpful that that you just constantly felt supported.” One of her class requirements was to intern at a radio station, which gave her actual broadcasting experience. She shot for the moon and wound up at her favorite radio station, K101 (101.3 FM), working with a staff that included the legendary Bay Area DJ Don Bleu. Every day she worked, she’d bring him his daily prize sheet. Hearing him on the air the next day, she says she felt proud knowing she was the one to walk that piece of paper to his recording studio. SFSU helped make the jump to the professional world of radio seamless. “There was still a learning curve, but I was so well prepared based on what I had learned at State,” she said. Eventually, she found herself working alongside some of her former instructors. Then in 2012 her life came full circle when she became the co-host for “The Don Bleu Show” on 103.7 KOSF. After three decades in radio, she says she wanted a new challenge. “I love radio, but I do it every day and I could do it with my eyes closed,” she said. “I wanted to try something new ... and so, I thought, ‘What about announcing sports?’” Baseball was her first choice, so in 2019 she looked online for public address announcer positions. One popped up at the University of the Pacific (UOP) in Stockton for the softball team. From there she found other gigs. It was swimming and gymnastics at Stanford University, water polo at UOP, softball, volleyball, gymnastics and football at the University of California, Berkeley. She enjoyed what she was doing and people thought she had a talent for announcing, she says. “Now, of course, your brain naturally goes to, ‘How high can I go?’” she said. “And for me, the goal would be Major League Baseball. That would be the pinnacle, the gold star.” Her goal was quickly becoming a reality. She auditioned for the San Francisco Giants’ minor league farm team, the Sacramento River Cats, and was hired as a fill-in announcer in 2020. Eventually she became the team’s full-time announcer. Fast forward to 2024 when the San Francisco Giants were looking for a public address announcer. She auditioned against other people who were equally talented, she says. “It could have gone to anybody in that booth,” she said. “I’m extra humbled and grateful that the Giants selected me to be their new [public address announcer] going forward. … This is definitely something I worked for.” SF State Night with the Giants is Tuesday, April 8. Tickets can be purchased online.  

Housing for 2025 – 2026 is guaranteed for all students who complete an application by April 6 

Robin López and his family attend his mayoral swearing in ceremony at Albany City Hall in December.   Two alums sworn in as mayor, another as city council member Three San Francisco State University alumni made history in late 2024 after two were sworn in as mayors and another won a city council seat. Robin López (B.S., ’15) became the first person of Latino and mixed-Indigenous (Purépecha) ancestry to serve as the mayor of Albany. Eddie Flores (MBA, ’19) is the first Salvadoran immigrant mayor in South San Francisco and in the history of the Bay Area. Belle La (B.A., ’04) is the first Asian American elected to Pleasant Hill’s city council. Elected in 2022, López and Flores rotated into the mayoral seat of their respective cities in positions they’ll hold for a year. Meanwhile, La ran and won her Pleasant Hill city council seat. Getting involved in local politics, they said, was about more than just solving problems in their communities. It was also about showing future generations what’s possible. “If we don’t see people who have similar experiences or shared values and cultural experiences, it’s really hard to project ourselves into those spaces,” López said. The whole community benefits from a government that’s reflective of the community, López added. “It’s more than the color of someone’s skin, or their national origin. It’s bringing in different experiences, different cultural perspectives to that decision-making table,” he added. “Sometimes when we think about solutions, we don’t always consider the impact it may have on someone, the way they live or the way they go about their lives. Having this type of representation as a leader of a community can go a long way.” All three alums recently shared their journeys to public office with SF State News, offering advice to students interested in serving their communities.

Creative Writing major Theresa Thompson promotes literary excellence to children

SFSU Fine Arts Gallery showcases findings from grant-funded Office for the Study of the Ordinary