This is alist of Athletics broadcasters. Broadcasters for theAthletics, a baseball franchise based inWest Sacramento, California, include three broadcasters for radio (Ken Korach,Vince Cotroneo, andRoxy Bernstein), three broadcasters for television (Jenny Cavnar,Dallas Braden,Chris Caray), and one stadium announcer (Amelia Schimmel). There are also many past broadcasters, dating back to at least 1938 whenByrum Saam became the Philadelphia Athletics' first radio voice.
Athletics' games inSacramento are broadcast onKSTE;[1] in the Bay Area, they are broadcast onKNEW, which had been theOakland Athletics' flagship from 2020 until 2024;[2] whileKWNR's HD2 subchannel airs games in the Athletics' forthcoming home of Las Vegas.[3] Outside the Bay Area, the A's radio network of 18 stations (three of them nights and weekends only) reach baseball fans in Northern California and Nevada. The team also has an in-market online radio station branded asA's Cast which is available oniHeartRadio.
As of 2022[update], the Athletics' radio broadcast team consists ofKen Korach,Vince Cotroneo andRoxy Bernstein. Korach, A's play-by-play announcer since 1996, moved up to the lead position with the death ofBill King. Cotroneo has had 13 years of major-league experience, most recently with theTexas Rangers. King, who died on October 18, 2005, was the lead radio voice of the Athletics for 25 years, from 1981 through 2005, the longest tenure for an A's announcer since the team's games were first broadcast in 1938 (they were the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1954, and the Kansas City Athletics from 1955 to 1967, before owner Charles O. Finley moved them to Oakland). King was paired in the booth withLon Simmons from 1981 through 1995. Former A's catcherRay Fosse served as the broadcast team's analyst from 1986 to 2021. For several years starting in 2001,Steve Bitker served as a back-up play-by-play announcer, averaging about 20 games per season. He had limited appearances in 2006, filling in when Korach was on vacation.
Robert Buan held the position of Athletics' broadcasting manager from 1995 to 2010. He also hosted the "Extra Innings" postgame radio talk show, which fans called to talk about the A's with Buan or a guest. The show often emanated from the stadium or in a studio, and certain select ones were broadcast from local bars or restaurants before a live audience. He also did Internet-only play-by-play of spring training games. He was succeeded by Chris Townsend and Rick Tittle.
King, a native ofBloomington, Illinois, was perhaps the most well-known sports announcer in theBay Area, having previously handled play-by-play work for football'sOakland and Los Angeles Raiders (1966–1992) and basketball'sSan Francisco and Golden State Warriors (1962–1983). His trademark catchphrase "Holy Toledo!" was familiar to Northern California sports fans for over forty years. King and his fellow Athletics radio announcers,Ken Korach andRay Fosse, were ranked as the second-best broadcast team in theAmerican League byUSA Today in 2005.[4]
A's games are telecast onNBC Sports California, with 15 games simulcast onKVVU-TV in Las Vegas in preparation for the team's move.[5]
From 1986 to 2021, former major league catcher,Ray Fosse analyzed the games. When not doing so in the television booth, Fosse added to the radio broadcast team. Chris Townsend hosts "A's Cast Live", the A's Radio Network pre- and postgame shows, and is an in-studio host for NBC Sports California for select broadcasts.[6]
In August 2021, Fosse announced that he battled cancer for the past 16 years, and that he would 'take a step away' from broadcasting effective immediately in order to concentrate on his fight against the disease.[7] Fosse died on October 13, 2021.[8]
In 2024, the Athletics hiredJenny Cavnar to be their play-by-play announcer, making her the first female full-time play-by-play announcer in MLB.[9]
As of March 9, 2021[update],Amelia Schimmel is the Athletics' official stadium announcer atRingCentral Coliseum.
Roy Steele was the Athletics' official stadium announcer at the Coliseum every year since the team's move to Oakland in 1968. His booming baritone voice has earned him theVoice of God moniker among A's fans, although it was first bestowed upon him by sports announcerJon Miller after a visit to the Coliseum as a fan sitting in the stands. Steele had been an independent Baptist minister for 17 years before being named stadium announcer and finds the name "a little overpowering". From 1968 through 2004, Steele had missed fewer than ten home games, but in September 2005, an illness (achalasia, a rare disorder of theesophagus) prevented him from announcing several games including most of the final homestand. The 73-year-old Steele was ill for most 2006, and remained at his home inAuburn while recovering. His interim replacement wasDick Callahan, who also announced for theGolden State Warriors. Steele returned behind the microphone beginning with the A's exhibition game vs. the Giants on April 1, 2007. However, health issues sidelined Steele for the entire 2009 season, with Callahan returning to the post. Steele made another return on his own Bobblehead Giveaway Day on April 17, 2010, with the A's facing theBaltimore Orioles, announcing every inning (with the exception of the visiting half of the first inning) and throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
Steele died on May 28, 2020.[10] Callahan continued as the Athletics' stadium announcer through the 2019 season. He sat out the 2020 season due to health concerns, with Amelia Schimmel taking his place.[11] He planned to return for the 2021 season, but he died on January 29, 2021.[12] On March 9, 2021, the A's announced Schimmel as Callahan's permanent successor.[13]
In 1938, a young Texan namedByrum Saam became the first radio voice of the A's. Saam, later joined byClaude Haring, broadcast all the Athletics’ home games on stationWIBG. Because Saam and Haring also broadcastPhillies’ home games as well, A's road games were only broadcast when there was no conflict with a Phillies home game. Even so, the team's road game broadcasts were what were called "ticker tape games" in that era. Saam and Haring would broadcast from studios inPhiladelphia, reconstructing the game from telegraphic feeds brought in by assistants. Beginning in 1950, the Athletics began broadcasting all games, home and away, on WIBG with Saam and Haring accompanying the team on road trips. (The Phillies hired their own announcers in 1950 and broadcast their games on a different radio station.) Their tenure as A's broadcast announcers came to an end after the 1954 season, when the team was sold and moved.
When the Athletics moved toKansas City for the 1955 season,Merle Harmon andBilly Ray were hired as play-by-play announcers. Harmon remained the voice of the A's until 1962, when then-ownerCharles O. Finley replaced him withMonte Moore, an Oklahoma native along with George Bryson a veteran announcer from the Cincinnati Reds. On September 16, 1964,Betty Caywood, previously a television weather analyst, was hired by owner Finley to join the broadcasting crew, becoming the first female play-by-play broadcaster in major league baseball. She finished out the 1964 season, but did not return in 1965.
Moore came west with the team's move toOakland in 1968, remaining the team's principal radio/TV voice through the 1977 season. He was hired byNBC to announce the SaturdayGame of the Week with Wes Parker and Maury Wills. He also was the announcer with Parker on theUSA Network'sUSA Thursday Game of the Week. He came out of retirement in 1988 when the A's asked him to be the announcer on the A's telecasts with Ray Fosse as analyst. Moore broadcast those games through the 1992 season, commuting from Porterville, California, where he had moved his family and purchased the radio stations KTIP/KIOO.
The last year the A's were in Kansas City, there was an incident on a plane trip involving some players and a complaint by a passenger to a hostess. Moore was accused of telling about it to Finley, but years later, at a memorial service for Finley at the Oakland Coliseum, Moore was the emcee and following the program, Finley's youngest son, Paul, who was travelling with the A's on that trip, admitted to Moore and some others around there, that it was he who told his dad about the incident and that he had felt bad all these years that he knew Moore had not been the one who told Finley, and he wanted to apologize for the misery caused.
During Moore's tenure, he had a number of co-announcers with him in the booth, includingHarry Caray,Bob Elson,Al Helfer,Red Rush, andJim Woods, all of whom had achieved fame as major-league broadcasters elsewhere before joining the A's, andJon Miller, who went on to success with theOrioles andGiants. Former major league playersCurt Flood,Reggie Jackson,Harmon Killebrew, andJim Piersall served as A's announcers at one time, as did former player and managerBill Rigney.
As noted above, the lateBill King announced the A's games on radio from 1981 to 2005. He partnered on A's broadcasts for 15 years with future Hall-of-FamerLon Simmons, with Ken Korach replacing Simmons for the 1996 season. Simmons had previously been an announcer for the Giants, the National League "crosstown" (actually cross-Bay) rivals of the American League A's, for many years (since their 1958 arrival from New York); Simmons rejoined the Giants broadcast team on a part-time basis from 1996 to 2002.
From 2006 to May 2023,Glen Kuiper providedplay by play for the A's onNBC Sports California.
*Babitt substituted for Fosse for several games during the 2014 season.
**Chavez substituted for Fosse for several games during the 2015 season.
***Hatteberg substituted for Fosse for several games during the 2012 and 2013 seasons.