The Bay Area Radio Museum & Hall of Fame today announced the members of its Class of 2009. The 12 honorees include two current morning men (KSFO’s Lee Rodgers and KGO’s Ed Baxter), as well as two popular local sportscasters (Hank Greenwald and Joe Starkey) and the world’s first broadcasting station, KCBS (740 AM and 106.9 FM).
Rodgers, a veteran talk-show host on both KGO-AM and KSFO, received the highest overall number of votes in the public balloting. He has been the lead morning host on Hot Talk KSFO’s morning program since 1995.
Baxter leads a group of legendary KGO voices, which also includes retired morning news co-anchor Ted Wygant, pioneering traffic reporter Lu Hurley, and current KGO production superstar Mike Amatori.
In the sportscasting category, Greenwald and Starkey join a stellar group of previous BARHOF inductees that includes Lon Simmons, Bill King, Bob Fouts and Don Klein. Greenwald was the voice of the Giants on radio from 1979 through 1986, and again from 1989 until 1996.
Starkey has been the play-by-play voice of the UC Golden Bears since 1975, and broadcast the 49ers on radio from 1989 through 2008. He began his career as radio voice of the NHL’s California Golden Seals in 1972.
The Hall of Fame’s first Legendary Station award will be presented to San Francisco’s All News KCBS, which is celebrating its centennial this year. KCBS traces its roots back to 1909, when the station was founded by Charles D. Herrold in San Jose.
The Class of 2009 will be celebrated at a gala luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the Doubletree Executive Meeting Center on the Berkeley Marina. For more information and reservations, please see http://broadcastlegends.com/meeting.html.