Don Fass is
an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and online editor. He is the host of
the popular REACHING UP music and interview program heard on satellite networks,
shortwave and FM radio across the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and in 200
other countries, by millions of listeners each week and he is director of
Celebrate Radio network.. His listeners write that the program is ’unlike
anything else on the air,’ its music and interviews ‘unique and uplifting’
and that Don’s ‘heart shines through each week.’
Don is also
the founder of Streetcats Foundation for Youth and its One Heart for Kids and
National Childrens Coalition initiatives and of Teen-Anon 12-Step Recovery for
youth.
As a
journalist, Don’s career goes back to age 17, when he was the youngest
reporter ever credentialed to cover the White House, State Department, United
Nations and NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs and did numerous
entertainment interviews for magazines, radio and newspapers and UPI Audio News.
He was the
co-founder of American Radio News, one of the first two radio-only audio news
services, an editor at ABC Radio Networks, UPI Audio, Scholastic Magazines,
Prodigy Online and AOL.
A New York
radio news director at 19, he is also one of two broadcasters credited with
first establishing pop/rock
music on FM.
He spent years as an investigator reporter for major outlets.
Don has
covered events and personalities from the Kennedys to Apollo 11, The Beatles to
the U.N. Security Council, the Oscars and Grammys to Live-Aid, from 22 countries
and over 300 major market radio stations
In 1994, he
also created SC Metro Online, as the Internet began. It now has more than 40
award-winning web sites, including Youth and Children Net, Entertainment Network
News, Get-It Online, The Web Zones, Citys Central, Bizday, SF Today, Get2Music,
Cool-Email, City Women and many others.
His
journalism career has been featured in Broadcasting Magazine, Variety, The New
York Times, on Voice of America and the CBS Radio Network. and his youth and
social justice work in the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Francisco
Chronicle, NY Post, Sing Tao Daily, Oakland Tribune and numerous overseas
newspapers.
Don
embarked on a second, parallel career in the 1970′s, helping people,
particularly youth through sensitivity training, empowerment and 12-step growth
groups.
Each group
he founded is nationally known and serves thousands of parents,
kids and teens off the web and over 2 million more through its
youthandchildren.net (formerly child.net), kidsurfer.org, teensurfer.com and
teen-anon.com websites as well as the only national resource sites for
Asian-American, Latino and African-American youth and a Sixties history and
resource site used by thousands of high school and college teachers.
Don trained
with Jack Canfield (author of the best-selling Chicken Soup books), Bernard
Gunther, Will Schutz and other group leaders from Esalen Institute and received substance abuse counselor
training at the New School for Social Research in New York, UC-Berkeley, Western
Addictions Institute and UC-San Diego, La Jolla.
He has
lectured at Rutgers University, Queens College, Xavier University, New York
University and conducted workshops for the National Association of Social
Workers, Association for Humanistic Psychology, Generation One, Anthos and
numerous growth centers and been a group leader over 15-years for Al-Anon, Nar-Anon,
Cocanon and a counselor at Thunder Road Teen
Rehab and other youth centers.
He has
appeared as a guest on major TV and radio programs with Barbara Walters, Phil Donahue, Dr.
Joyce Brothers, Barry Farber, Hugh Downs and Tom Snyder and been written about
in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, San Francisco
Chronicle, Associated Press, Fox Health Network, Fox News, Parade Magazine, ANG
Newspapers (Oakland Tribune, Fremont Argus, others), Philadelphia Inquirer and
on numerous talk radio shows, KABC-TV New York, Midday-Live, Good Morning N.Y.
and many more!
He is
considered a prime human relations resource, particularly in the areas of youth
resources and behavior, about street kids and runaways and teen
substance abuse.
His videos
and podcasts are seen all over the internet including You Tube, he has begun a
reachingup blog at xanga.com, tweets at #reachingup and has just begun his first
book, On the Road to the Divine, a collection of interviews, anecdotes and
commentaries.