Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame Names Class of 2007

The Bay Area Radio Museum has announced the sixteen newest members of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.

More than 6,000 votes were cast during the public voting, and a stellar group of legendary broadcasters has been chosen for induction as the Class of 2007:

• Don Barksdale (KROW, KWBR, KDIA)
• Don Bleu (KYUU, KIOI)
• Mike Cleary (KYA, KNBR)
• Frank Cope (KJBS)
• Belva Davis (KSAN, KWBR, KDIA)
• Jerry Dean (KJAZ)
• Jim Eason (KNEW, KGO, KSFO)
• Aaron Edwards (KSFO)
• Bud Foster (KLX, Oakland Oaks, San Francisco 49ers)
• Bob Kieve (owner of KLIV, KARA, KRTY)
• Ron Lyons (KEWB, KNEW, KNBR, KCBS)
• Franklin Mieuli (KHIP, Warriors, Giants and 49ers)
• Don Mozley (KCBS)
• Ronn Owens (KGO)
• Carter B. Smith (KRE, KSFO, KNBR, Magic 61, KABL)
• Ernie Smith (pioneer sportscaster, KYA, KFRC)

This year's honorees join the 37 members of the Hall that were inducted last year.

The Class of 2007 will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during a special ceremony that will take place on Wednesday, December 12, at the Doubletree Inn on the Berkeley Marina in conjunction with Broadcast Legends. The event is open to the public, but advance reservations are required.

Please click here to make your reservation.

Bill King, Hall of Fame Finalist. Again.

Bill King has been selected as a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It's the second year in a row that he has been selected as a finalist. That he wasn't selected for the honor last year and had to have his name tossed back in the hopper is an even greater travesty considering the talentless hack that was chosen instead.

(Sorry, Jerry Coleman. I'm in a crummy mood. You're a great guy, but I've sat through enough of your inane Padre broadcasts to know that as a play-by-play man, you were a pretty good shortstop.)

(And don't get me started on the impossibly bad Harry Kalas, who made it into baseball's Hall of Fame based on his work ... reading scripts for NFL Films.)

But I digress.

Sure, Bill did lots of work as a football broadcaster. He also did a lot of work as a basketball play-by-play man. Perhaps that pales his work with the A's and Giants. You can't punish him because he was "local" — the Hall of Fame is littered with local hacks that made it in — and you sure can't punish him for being good at what he did.

Read the press release at BaseballHallofFame.org. (And thanks for reminding me to add the link, Mike.)