He’s a familiar name to many local readers and he’s now on KVPR. For nearly 28 years, Marek Warszawski was a fixture at The Fresno Bee. While there, he covered everything from sports to the environment, before spending the last eight years as metro columnist.
Now Warszawski is bringing his deep insights and journalism experience to the public radio airwaves in a new role as senior correspondent for KVPR. From covering the 2026 election to debates over the future of the San Joaquin River, Warszawski’s loyal readers will find his KVPR coverage familiar, while also fresh and engaging, both audio on KVPR and in written form at KVPR.org.
“I'm covering a lot of the same topics that I covered at the Fresno Bee, but I'm covering them in a new way. I'm learning a new form of journalism, audio journalism, using different elements to tell a story,” Warszawski said.
“But really what I found out is it's still telling a story. It excites me because I have something new to learn, but in some ways it's very familiar, because it's what I've done throughout my career.”
You’ll find Warszawski’s reporting in KVPR’s local newscasts, within shows like Morning Edition, All Things Considered, on the Central Valley Daily podcast and at KVPR.org.
While he might be a new voice behind the microphone, he has a strong reputation as one of the Valley’s top journalists. “Marek is someone local residents trust and respect, and we’re thrilled to have a veteran reporter like him on the KVPR team,” said KVPR President and General Manager Joe Moore.
"It's still telling a story. It [moving to public radio] excites me because I have something new to learn, but in some ways it's very familiar, because it's what I've done throughout my career." - Marek Warszawski
“He knows local politics, local issues, and local stories better than almost anyone in the region. He brings an enthusiasm for imparting accurate, reliable information to the public and in crafting a compelling story. We’re excited that he is now bringing his insights and deep reporting to the KVPR airwaves,” Moore said.
Warszawski also knows how to find a good story. “There's just a buzz that goes off in your head when you find out something and then the more you find out, the more you get excited about it,” Warszawski said.
“Sometimes it can be an interview, someone you talk to that makes you think about an issue or a topic that you haven't thought of before. [And then] a light bulb or electricity goes off in your head and you say, ‘Wow, I didn't know that. This is interesting. I can make that interesting.’ ”
Warszawski grew up in the Bay Area community of Los Altos, and first moved to Fresno in 1997. He said the Valley’s proximity to the Sierra Nevada and outdoor recreation activities were a big draw. “I had actually been familiar with our area even before I moved here, because when I was a teenager, I worked at Camp Oljato, which is a Boy Scout camp up at Huntington Lake. And I was so I was familiar with the mountain areas of Fresno County,” Warszawski said.
That interest in the outdoors led him to start a new beat at the Bee in the 2000s, covering the region’s national parks and forests, and various outdoor activities. “I covered everything from rock climbing in Yosemite to people paragliding over the Sierra and river rafting, hiking, all those things that make our region kind of unique and wonderful,” Warszawski said.
"I covered everything from rock climbing in Yosemite to people paragliding over the Sierra and river rafting, hiking, all those things that make our region kind of unique and wonderful." - Marek Warszawski
His interest in the outdoors also led him to pursue coverage of an outdoor story closer to the Valley’s urban areas: the San Joaquin River. “I noticed that unlike a lot of other cities that are situated along major rivers, Fresno didn't have access to its river. There weren't trails and parks along the river, places where people could walk and enjoy and stroll and kind of just take in nature or ride their bikes. There was very little public access and I started kind of questioning why that was.”
When he began at the Bee in the late 1990s, Warszawski originally covered sports. He reported on the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers during the Steve Young-era, and later Fresno State football during the era of David and Derek Carr. His career then took a turn into outdoors coverage before being an enterprise reporter and metro columnist.
Warszawski said while he may be new to public radio, telling a compelling story and imparting good information to the public is the most rewarding part of his job.
“Getting feedback from those readers or listeners telling you, ‘Thank you for what you do. You've informed me, you've enlightened me, you've entertained me, and you've made me feel something about an issue that I didn't know before.’ So just feeling that connection is really the most important part.”