Peter B. Collins


Peter B. Collins is an American talk radio host, voiceover talent, entrepreneur, and media consultant based near San Francisco, California. Until March 20, 2009, he hosted The Peter B. Collins Show, a syndicated liberal talk show "infused with dangerous San Francisco values like compassion, justice, and a living wage" based at KRXA in Monterey, California, and his show now continues on the internet via listener-supported podcasts. Occasionally, Collins substitute hosts on KGO-AM in San Francisco.
He often teams with Sibel Edmonds to do interviews for her Boiling Frogs Post as well as making regular contributions writing pieces and producing podcasts for the WhoWhatWhy investigative media website.
Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Collins attended Northwestern University in Chicago. At age 19, Collins covered the Watergate scandal when he was 19 years old. He had a highly rated nightly talk show at ABC-owned WLS-FM in Chicago. In 1976, he went to co-owned KGO in California. KCBS-FM hired him away a few years later to host their morning show, and he remained even after KCBS flipped to an album-oriented rock format as KRQR in 1982.
In 1989, Collins returned to talk radio with an afternoon program on KNBR, where he also co-hosted a daily one-hour food and wine show, featuring many acclaimed winemakers and chefs. Rival station KSFO hired him in 1993, also for an afternoon drive, when that station adopted a talk format. Their billboard campaign back then endorsed his show as "a little to the left," playing on his politics and the station's dial position. ABC Radio, owner of KGO, purchased KSFO in 1994 and eventually converted it to an all-conservative talk format, dropping Collins' show.
Since leaving KSFO, Collins has produced other radio shows such as Childhood Matters on KISQ and began working as a political media consultant.
Collins has lent his voice to hundreds of radio and TV commercials, as well as station promos for television and radio, non-broadcast sales and training programs, CD-ROM's and voice mail systems. He is also the host of Behind the Wheel, a new-car review show that airs on radio stations and on the Internet.
In May 2003, Collins returned to talk radio as host of All-American Talk Radio, which was heard on I.E. America Radio Network and SIRIUS Left, as well as via webcast. The afternoon show evolved into the Peter B. Collins Show, which started airing when he and other investors purchased KRXA in 2005 and ended on March 20, 2009.
Since 1986, he has served as board president of the Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit based at San Quentin Prison, which provides legal and investigative assistance to allegedly wrongfully convicted inmates in California. He is an officer of the San Francisco Local of AFTRA, the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, and serves on AFTRA's national board.