Charlie Lapastora

Charlie Lapastora, originally from Michigan, makes his way to San Joaquin County with more than 11 years of experience in both broadcast news and sports. With stops in Traverse City, Little Rock, Phoenix, and Austin - he's covered a wide range of local stories with national impact, getting answers to the questions that affect local communities.

In his previous roles, he covered the public land debate in Montana as part of election coverage; Hurricane Dorian's devastation in Florida; border coverage in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas; and President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush's memorials. He also enjoys covering community stories, including a 90-year-old NASCAR Driver getting back behind the wheel to race with his son and a Navajo Nation family receiving electricity for the first time. Charlie has also covered local sports as producer/reporter with Fox 10 KSAZ in Phoenix, senior producer with a streaming start-up public space TV channel in Austin, and anchor/producer with The Media Gateway, covering seven different stations in four states from Little Rock.

As a graduate of Oakland University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a Minor in International Relations, Charlie also earned a Master of Arts in Sports Chaplaincy. He gave the commencement speech at Oakland's College of Arts and Sciences Commencement and was the recipient of the Keeper of the Dream award for promoting interracial understanding on campus.

Charlie is married to his "queen" and a proud dad to their precious one-year-old son. He is excited to land in Northern California as it's a full-circle moment for the couple as they first met at a journalism conference in the area. Charlie is a second-generation American Filipino and is honored to cover stories in the county where Little Manila began.