Asian Pacific America with Robert Handa

Asian Pacific America with Robert Handa is a weekly half hour show covering Asian newsmakers, events, community accolades and youth perspectives. Join us every Sunday on NBC Bay Area channel 11, cable 3 & 703 at 5:30AM and on COZI TV channel 186 at 6PM.

   

(Pictured Above: The Far East Dragon Lion Dance Association)

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Did you know one in four residents in the Bay Area are Asian? Asian Pacific America serves as a platform for people to spread the word about the great things going on in Asian communities around us.

We're always looking for new topics, interesting guests that explores our diverse pan-Asian communities that make-up what we call home in the Bay Area. 

Are you interested in promoting your event or cause? Share information about a significant award presented to a Bay Area Asian? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at lance.lew@nbcuni.com with some background information e.g. press release, flyer, photo and we'll contact you immediately if we can schedule you into an upcoming show.  Please note guests are generally scheduled at least 6 weeks prior to their event date. Check us out on social media to find out what's going on in the Bay Area:

About the Host:  

A South Bay native, Robert Handa attended DeAnza College and won a journalism contest for an internship at KNTV Channel 11 – a moment that he describes as the first real step to a broadcast journalism career. That internship eventually turned into a part-time job while he attended San Jose State University. Later, he became the station’s first Asian-American reporter– joining a small group of other Bay Area television reporters who had earned the same distinction.

At just 22, Handa videotaped, produced, and edited a five-part documentary series on gangs that won a Peninsula Press Club award for Best Documentary News Series. He also helped launch KNTV’s very first weekend newscast.

Some of his most memorable assignments have been flying with the Blue Angels, the 49ers' Super Bowl victory, being an in-court reporter for the Scott Peterson trial, reporting on the Maverick’s surf competitions from a boat, and the Queen of England and Prince Philip’s visit to Hewlett Packard. He’s also interviewed some notable newsmakers throughout the years; President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, civil-rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, Giants baseball great Willie Mays and former 49ers head coach Bill Walsh.

Handa has won several national journalism awards, including two top awards from the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) as well as a first place award from the National Association of Black Journalists. He’s also received several Emmys including the award for outstanding achievement in investigative reporting, and an Associated Press Award for best documentary. In 2010 he was named to the AAJA’s Honor Roll of Pioneers in Journalism.

He has also been honored with distinguished alumnus awards from Sunnyvale High School, De Anza College and SJSU.

Handa is an active member of many Bay Area organizations, including AAJA, KIMOCHI, Self-help for the elderly, Yu Ai Kai Japanese American Community Senior Service and Asian American’s for Community involvement (AACI).

Most recently, Robert was KTVU’s South Bay reporter for the last 16 years. He’s also worked as a reporter and fill-in anchor at KPIX in San Francisco and reporter/documentary producer for KQED-TV.

He currently lives in Morgan Hill with his wife and two children.

You can reach out to our host at Robert.Handa@nbcuni.com

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