Peter Cleaveland

Peter was born in San Francisco, and raised and educated in Burlingame. He attended the University of Oregon and San Francisco State University.

Peter's first reporting job as a sports stringer for the old Burlingame Advance in 1955, writing articles about Burlingame High School sports teams. That same year, he worked as a page at the United Nations Tenth Anniversary Celebration at the San Francisco Opera House.

He began his broadcasting career at KNBC (now KNBR) doing traffic reports and other background work for on-air personalities Doug Pledger and Dick Stewart in 1961. He subsequently worked for radio and television stations in San Jose and Fresno from 1965 to 1967, then was hired to do the summer boating reports for KGO Radio in San Francisco in April 1967, a job he did for the next five years.

That weekend job evolved into a 19 year (1967-1986) career with ABC at KGO Radio, KGO-TV and the ABC Radio Network as a reporter and correspondent, during which he covered virtually every major news story in the Bay Area during that time, from the student disorders of the '60s and '70s to the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. He was also involved in the coverage of the first five space shuttle missions, the return of the Iranian hostages, the Mexico City earthquake, the fall of Philippine President Marcos and the Presidential campaigns of 1980 and 1984.

During that period, Peter received numerous awards from, among others, the United States Coast Guard, San Francisco Press Club, Radio-Television News Directors Association, Associated Press, Overseas Press Club of America and the National Education Association.  He was also honored with a Northern California Emmy for his television work.

When ABC was purchased in 1986 and his broadcast position was eliminated, he joined the national staff of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the labor union that represents broadcasting professionals. In that capacity, he negotiated and administered radio and television station contracts in a number of American cities. He retired in December of 2002.

Peter has been married to Lynette since 1965, and has two children, Scott and Maria, as well as two grandchildren, Olivia and Lola Cleaveland.

He currently serve as the Vice President of the Broadcast Legends, and is on the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Press Club and the Burlingame High School Alumni Association.