Ben Fong-Torres

Benjamin FongTorres 方振豪 Cantonese Fong Chan Ho born January 7 1945 is an American rock journalist best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine until 1981 and the San Francisco Chronicle from around 1982 Ben FongTorres was born in Alameda California in 1945 and raised in Oaklands Chinatown where his parents owned a restaurant He attended San Francisco State College from 1962 through 1966 majored in RadioTVFilm and served as a reporter and editor of the campus daily He began writing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1968 in its eighth issue He had a fulltime job at another publication Pacific Telephones employee magazine By night he was a volunteer editor at East West a bilingual Chinatown newspaper In May 1969 Ben joined Rolling Stone as news editor His interview subjects included Bob Dylan the Rolling Stones Ray Charles Paul McCartney Elton John Stevie Wonder Bonnie Raitt the Jackson 5 Linda Ronstadt Neil Diamond Diana Ross Marvin Gaye the Grateful Dead Ike Tina Turner Diane Keaton and Steve Martin The Ray Charles interview won the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974 Ben was also a weekend DJ on KSAN from 1970 to 1980 He wrote and narrated a syndicated radio special San Francisco What a Long Strange Trip Its Been which won a Billboard Award for Broadcast Excellence He was the host of KQEDFMs live weekly arts show Fog City Radio and in 2016 created Moonalice Radio an online station for the jam band He programs the music and does a DJ show 9 to 12 am and pm Ben has coanchored KTVUTVs coverage of the Chinese New Year parades since the Year of the Ox or 1997 He and coanchor Julie Haener have won four Emmys Also on television Ben did profiles on Evening Magazine in 1977 and in 1982 went to China as scriptwriter for a special Cycling Through China His most unique TV credit was his 1993 appearance on Wheel of Fortune Over three nights he won some 99000 in cash and fabulous prizes He also appeared on the nationally syndicated Your Big Break in spring of 2000 doing an impersonation of Bob Dylan Ben left Rolling Stone in 1981 and has since written for dozens of magazines including Esquire GQ where he was pop music columnist for three years Parade Playboy Sports Illustrated Travel Leisure American Film TV Guide Harpers Bazaar Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter He wrote the main biographies for People magazines tributes to Jerry Garcia and Frank Sinatra