This information is from the Kim Komando web site:  www.komando.com/about_kim_bio.asp

Kim Komando is the host of The Kim Komando Show, a top-10-rated radio talk show with 7.8 million listeners every week. She is also a syndicated columnist, and the author of four books.

Kim began her businesses in 1992 after several years of selling computer and telephone systems for IBM, AT&T and Unisys. She started with a radio show at KFYI and a column in the Arizona Republic. Both are in Phoenix.

Today more than 400 radio stations carry her weekly show around the world. Kim also is a syndicated columnist, appearing in nearly 100 newspapers, including USA Today. In addition, she publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter that has more than 350,000 subscribers. Her radio show is still carried by KFYI; the column still runs in the Arizona Republic.

Kim's roots in computers go back more than 25 years. Her mother worked on the UNIX development team at Bell Labs in New Jersey.

"When I was sick, I went to work with her," Kim said. "I used to play a game called Hunt the Wumpus. Years later, I was writing an article about UNIX. Unknown to me, I had been beta testing the game."

Kim was raised under what she calls the "life acceleration program." Her father picked her up at school everyday. They would go home and have a bowl of soup or crackers and cheese.

"He would ask me what I had learned in school," she said. "If I said nothing, he would have me read a story in the Wall Street Journal. I'd have to tell him what I learned."

Her parents taught their four children self-reliance. Kim often went grocery shopping with her dad. She learned at a tender age how to select beef and why some ketchups were better than others. When the family traveled, she was expected to check in the entire family and handle the ticket purchase.

The acceleration paid off. She graduated high school at 15, and, a month later, turned 16 and moved out. That fall, she entered Arizona State University.

She started as an architecture major. But her father asked for some research on what various jobs paid. The research, and the report she produced, changed her life. She discovered that the computer industry paid very well. Being interested in money and in computers, she changed her major to computer information systems.

Kim graduated in 1985. She went into sales, but after seven years, she grew tired of the corporate grind. So on Jan. 1, 1992, she went out on her own.

Like most entrepreneurs, Kim struggled to get her business off the ground. The first project was an infomercial, with which she planned to sell an instructional video on using computers.

But only two months after starting, she suffered a devastating loss - her fiancé was killed in a plane crash.

"I was called by the Civil Air Patrol," Kim said. "I was in my office, writing a column. They said his plane was missing. I didn't really worry about it. I thought he had stopped for lunch."

Thirty minutes later, the CAP called again. The wreckage had been found near Prescott, AZ, and was burning. The Sheriff's Office told Kim, who was in Scottsdale, AZ, that there was no point in coming to Prescott. There were no survivors.

It took her two years to recover from the loss.

"I didn't know what to do," Kim said. "I was really depressed."

She saw two psychiatrists. The first wanted to medicate her; the other assured her that time would take care of her problems. Meanwhile, the second doctor said, get busy.

Kim threw herself into writing the infomercial.

"I would get up at 6 in the morning and go ride my bike," she said. "I would be at my desk at 7 and work till 4. Then I'd go to aerobics and come back and work some more."

It took a year to finish the infomercial. Kim was living on her savings, which were nearly depleted. Finally, the infomercial ran on late-night television. After the airing of the first show, she called to see if the tapes were selling. They were moving out the door, she was told.

"I was busted. My first check was for $26,000. I thought, 'Oh, my God, I've never seen so much money at once in my life.'"

After finishing the infomercial, Kim pitched America Online about taking over its computer section. AOL agreed, and Kim launched the effort on Thanksgiving 1994. She picked a holiday in hopes that her first day would be slow. It wasn't; the response was overwhelming.

"I called my parents and said, 'Oh, my God, I don't know what I've done.'"

The pact with AOL lasted several years, as did a stint with Fox News. During this period, in the middle '90s, she got her radio show off the ground. She first approached the networks, but they were uninterested. A CBS vice president told her computers were a fad, much like pet rocks.

Rejected by the big guys, she formed a partnership with Barry Young, who was a leading talk show host at KFYI in Phoenix. They formed WestStar TalkRadio Network and built a studio. Kim did the marketing; Barry kept the equipment running and formatted the show. Gradually, the show blossomed, as hundreds of radio stations signed on.

Today, Kim runs a radio and publishing company with 20 employees. She is preparing to launch a glossy magazine. Her business, which is still growing rapidly, brings in millions of dollars per year. But she hasn't forgotten those tough early days.

"I pay cash for everything," she said.

Kim and Barry married after dating for five years. Their son Ian was born December 28, 2000.