Ben Fong-Torres

Benjamin Fong-Torres (; pinyin: Fāng Zhènháo; born January 7, 1945, in Alameda, California) is an American rock journalist, author, and broadcaster best known for his association with "Rolling Stone" magazine (through 1981) and the "San Francisco Chronicle" (from around 1982).

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Fong-Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres (born Fong Kwok Seung), changed his surname to Torres and posed as a Filipino citizen in order to emigrate to the United States. His family later adopted the hyphenated surname, "Fong-Torres". [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868570/bio IMDb biography for Ben Fong-Torres] ] He is the brother of Shirley Fong-Torres.

He was portrayed in the 2000 film "Almost Famous" by actor Terry Chen. The fictional version of Fong-Torres was character William Miller's editor at "Rolling Stone".

In real life, Fong-Torres was a writer and senior editor of "Rolling Stone" from almost the magazine's inception. He conducted interviews for "Rolling Stone" of entertainment figures including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, comedian Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt's first cover story in 1975. A Fong-Torres interview with Ray Charles was awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974.

Fong-Torres was also a rock DJ for San Francisco radio station KSAN-FM in the 1970s. On television, he is the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of the Chinese New Year Parade broadcast on KTVU (Fox) in San Francisco. In recent years, he has published "Hickory Wind", a biography of Gram Parsons; "The Rice Room", a memoir; "The Hits Just Keep on Coming", a history of Top 40 radio, and two compilations of past articles, "Not Fade Away" and "Becoming Almost Famous" (published in May 2006). His book with The Doors ("The Doors By The Doors") was published by Hyperion in November 2006. Since July 2005, he has written the bi-weekly column "Radio Waves" in the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Datebook. He is also a contributing editor to "Parade" magazine, and the music editor for TONEAudio, a web-based audio publication. He is now the host of "Backstage" which is aired from 7-9 am and 7-9 pm on San Francisco's KFRC-FM.

References

External links

* [http://www.benfongtorres.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.benfongtorres.com/biography.html Official biography] , retrieved 2005-10-30. "This article makes use of information from this source."
* [http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_fongtorres.cfm Interview with Ben Fong-Torres -- October 2001] , JournalismJobs.com, retrieved 2005-10-30. Includes photograph.
* [http://wwww.jetli.com/entertainment/columns/ben.fong.torres/ Ben Fong-Torres' Monthly Column] , at "Asian Connections". Last updated 2003-01, retrieved 2005-10-30.
* [http://www.postcardsforyou.com/shirleyintro.html Ben's sister Shirley offers an explanation of the hyphenated surname "Fong-Torres"]
* [http://www.sfgate.com/columns/radiowaves/archive/ Archive of Ben Fong-Torres' column "Radio Waves" from San Francisco Chronicle]
* [http://blogs.tvland.com/blog/Ben_Fong-Torres Ben Fong-Torres blog on tvland.com]