Photo from Los Angeles Daily News
For more than three decades, Cal State Fullerton alumna Lisa May ’86 (marketing) has been a familiar voice to millions across the Los Angeles region, serving as traffic reporter and in-studio sidekick on KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show before her ouster in 2015 and then joining KLOS’ Frosty, Heidi and Frank show as the voice of traffic and news before signing off for the last time on Dec. 13, 2019.
Looking ahead to a new chapter as a fitness studio owner in the Palm Springs area, the beloved Inglewood-born radio professional looks back on her past – including her sudden departure from KROQ – and examines her future in an article in the Los Angeles Daily News.
May recounts that, as a teenager in Costa Mesa at Estancia High School, she excelled in speech club, but lacked a clear career focus, which brought her to Cal State Fullerton’s business school.
Post-graduation, May tried her hand at sales for a few years before turning to radio, inspired by her years of listening to news and the public radio stations she listened to while commuting to CSUF.
Her first radio role would be as an off-air producer at KIK-FM, a country music station in Orange County, where she soon landed an on-air gig.
During her prime with KROQ, May was a traffic reporter, a role that morphed into morning show sidekick on the Kevin and Bean show.
“That part really made it a lot more fun,” she says. “It was kind of freeing to be able to do that.”
KROQ’s sudden decision to fire May during President’s Day weekend in 2015 came about when the station’s management was advised to quit their traffic roundup and hire a new female sidekick, Allie McKay.
May recalls that the friendship and positivity she received at KLOS helped her recover. “They were so welcoming; it made getting fired not so bad,” she says. “And they gave me the opportunity to do more than I did at KROQ, with the newscasts, which I have loved doing.”
Read more on May’s life, career and future in this Daily News article. Or read more of our articles about Mihaylo College’s many and diverse alumni.
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