George Kiriyama

Three-time EMMY nominated journalist George Kiriyama brings more than 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism to his Senior Editor position at LAist 89.3 FM. He has spent his entire career in local TV News with the past nine years in management. Before moving back to Southern California, he was the Managing Editor at three stations: KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area, KTNV in Las Vegas and KCOY/KEYT in Santa Maria/Santa Barbara. Before making the move into management, Kiriyama was on-air for 21 years in various television markets around the country including more than eight years as a general assignment reporter for KNTV, the NBC owned station in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his time at KNTV, Kiriyama is most proud of the EMMY nomination he received for a documentary he worked on with his colleagues called “Dreams to Dust: Americans Interned”. Kiriyama interviewed his mother and two of his uncles who were incarcerated along with 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.

Kiriyama was inducted into the Cal State Fullerton College of Communications Wall of Fame in May 2006. He finished his college career winning the Maxwell Award, the College of Communications top journalism award. Kiriyama is also active in the Asian American Journalists Association where he served as the National Vice President for Broadcast (2009 to 2012). AAJA awarded him the 2013 Outstanding Leadership Award and the 2007 Member of the Year Award.