Karen E. Lile is a third generation San Franciscan and second generation boat owner, who had half her family in Hollywood (Tony Terran – LA Session Musician and Willard Kirkham – director/producer) and the other half in San Francisco Bay Area. She wrote her first article, as a young journalist, for the News Herald and Journal in Los Angeles in the 8th grade, attended University of California at Berkeley and graduated in 1982 from the University of Texas at Austin in English with Highest Honors. Over the years, she contributed research and contacts behind the scenes to journalist/producer stories in the London Times, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Examiner, People Magazine, Dateline, 20/20, Dan Rather’s 48 Hours and others.
The water has always been part of Lile’s boating family, with her Dad having various power yachts up in the Delta since she was a little girl. In 2008, she discovered sailing on the San Francisco Bay, and she became passionate about learning to sail. Since that time, she has put in thousands of hours on the water as an adventure sailor, sailed the Pacific Coast, in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. Karen is equally at home in the delta in a boat which her dad humorously says, “keeps his gin level”, sailing a Dhow in Zanzibar, a keelboat along the Pacific Coast, a Tall Ship in the San Francisco Bay, a Catamaran in the BVI, or on her monohull Sandpiper.
As a Commodore of the International Yachting Fellowship of Rotarians (IYFR) – San Francisco Fleet and a Past International Bridge Member of IYFR at the International level (over 109 Fleets in more than 36 countries). She is currently an honorary member of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and a delegate to the Pacific Inter-Yachting Association in the San Francisco Bay for IYFR-SF.
Karen has ancestors that date back to the Vikings and later to the Tall Ships that traveled from England to America in the early 1630’s where they founded a few of the original 13 New England Colonies. Frankly if a subject has anything to do with boats and ships and how they are made, race, sail or cruise or what is on or under the water, Lile’s avid curiosity has led her to listen to and ask questions of many fascinating people on the water. Stepping into a role as a broadcaster and President of Sail Sport Talk, to bring sailing as a sport into International 24/7 Sports Talk, has been a natural progression of her interests.
As a side note, Lile produced records and did voice over recordings at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley periodically from 1987 to 2018 and produced the last music album to be recorded at Fantasy Studios in Sept 2018 as a benefit for KCSM Jazz Radio. Many of the songs used in the Sail Sport Talk Show come from that album, thanks to the 60 musicians who are part of the project. Karen co-owns a piano rebuilding and brokerage company called Piano Finders, which restores vintage pianos and handles the brokerage of high-end celebrity pianos and private collections.