Bill King, the Voice of Oakland: RIP

Bill King, longtime Bay Area announcer, died yesterday. I think a lot of us grew up listening to games on the radio feel a kinship with our old local announcers, who before the age of cable TV and SportsCenter served as lifelines to a world that we only saw through their words. I pass along the thoughts of a friend who grew up listening to the man who ruled the radio airwaves in Oakland:

"I could, like so many people, talk about how growing up in the 70s and early 80s I would huddle with my transistor radio “watching” as Bill described Barry’s free throws, Purvis Short’s arching jump shots, or a Bernard King fast break drive along the sideline into the lane for a dunk . . . . Stabler’s scrambles and passes in the “House of Chills,” Ray Guy’s soaring punts, Otis Sistrunk’s steaming head . . . story telling with Lon Simmons during A’s games, describing Rickey’s record breaking steals, Canseco’s blasts, Dwayne Murphy’s wizardry in center, Stewart’s masterpieces against Clemons . . . . All the while wondering about what seemed like a glamorous and exotic life as Bill would interject literary references, what he had seen in his travels, restaurants he had been to in NYC, the opera and all that stuff that seemed so exotic and crazy but also eye opening to a kid . . . . And more than a few times needing a dictionary to look up a word I had never heard that Bill used to describe something (and then proudly using that words immediately there after).

But when I think about it, that is what is uniquely special about Bill King. No doubt people who love Chick Hearn or Vin Scully or Jack Buck or Lindsey Nelson love them because they evoke a season or their favorite sport . . . . But with Bill King it is that he personified the city of Oakland – even if he never actually lived there – especially the Oakland of the late 60’s to early 70’s . . . that somewhat hip, worldly in a understated and under-appreciated way, defiant of authority, counter culture, not image conscience – everything that Oakland was - somehow he was a perfect fit for a city and I don’t think anyone, with the exception of Herb Caen, personified a city and its people like Bill did.

We say it all the time; we think people will be around forever that we don’t take the time to appreciate them fully while they are here . . . . In the Bay Area I don’t think that was the case with Bill. I think people did appreciate him and were thankful for this wonderful gift we were given . . . we would have just liked to have had it for a little longer and been able to say thank you one more time."