It was the late 80's; Bay Area TV was quite a scene. Big names like Van Amburg, (still at KGO), Evan White, Bob Jimenez, Pete Wilson, "Mac" over at PIX and Dennis Richmond holding court at Channel 2.
Gary Radnich was the new kid, making his presence known at KRON, even on the weekend. But he wanted more: the M-F weekday gig, (held by Tom Nettles)-- and he seemed to have an edge both with personality, style and quite the attention getter of a new Sunday-night highlight-show he helped evolve: "Sports Final." It was innovative, funny--even pre-ESPN prominence, Sports Final provided the Bay Area with an elite, quirky sports show that every known local athlete, pro and college, wanted to appear on.
Radnich hosted the show with fellow KRON anchor/reporter, Pete Liebengood. In spite of some in-show, (and later, off-show) tension, both Radnich and Liebengood provided just enough creative girth to give the show a load of buzz.
Curiously, Nettles never settled into the Sports Final show. Whether it was because he was busy and found no time, in addition to a growing lack of cohesion with Radnich, whom he saw as a potential threat at taking away his gig during the week. (He would later prove his intuition was right.)
Nettles never seemed to do anything for me, except for the fact that he drew in a lot of female viewers at KRON, (which ruled a few ratings blocks then) and was the big king of the hill in SF and the "it" on 1001 Van Ness Avenue.
Years later, Radnich took over. The tension between he and Nettles was far too intense. And Liebengood would soon move on later. It wasn't all Radnich-related, but it was evident that he'd taken the Bay Area by storm and had emerged as a major star in the San Francisco market.
Radnich never hid the fact that he intended to unseat Nettles. He'd make enough jokes both on and off the air that he was more savvy on TV while Nettles was more interested in his golf game and social life. Indeed the Sports Final viewers would sometimes tune in just to get the latest inside joke about the twosome, (told more so by Gary).
Nettles eventually left KRON and settled into a regular gig at the Golf Channel and a few San Diego TV/radio stations.
Liebengood had had enough too and simply couldn't handle the Radnich phenomena. Pete wasn't exactly Wayne Walker, and he failed to capture the attention of gary, who was soon GARY.
Radnich had not only emerged as the local TV sports star, but even eclipsed people like Sylvia Chase, KRON's heavily-wooed network star from ABC whose debut on KRON was after the 1986 Super Bowl. A story made the rounds that Chase was perplexed to discover that a local sports guy would, (and could), take the spotlight away her debut and was utterly dumbfounded. (Considering Chase turned out to be nothing more than a high-priced dud; no big deal, from this corner and beyond.)
Radnich' star power had begun to percolate around the entire Bay Area sports and social circuit. He got routine Herb Caen mentions, (some good, some not so good and even a notorious one). He was able to attract big-name athletes and even non-sports celebrities to appear on the Sunday night show. He also went everywhere. Sports, social-scene, entertainment, you name it, Gary was there to be there.
Moreover, he got the ear of station big wig, GM and VP of KRON, Amy McCombs, who was quick and eager to sign him on to record contracts and a big seven-figure deal. He was also well-liked by respected news director, the late Herb Dudnick.
One big happy family.
And a definitive time in Bay Area television.
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If you search on YouTube you can find some great sports final clips. Gary was new, fresh, and you could tell he wanted to become the king of the bay area sports scene. Some would say he now mails it in but it was obvious that he had to work his tail off to get where he is.
ReplyDeleteI still tune into Kron almost nightly at 645 to watch him get his 10 plus minutes of airtime that no station gives any other sportscaster.
How innocent we were about the Machiavellian Radnich. Just the other day,he was chit chatting with Fitz about somebody and taking sides..and Fitz calmy said about Radnich " Its well known you go with the money". Radnich got the irked look..but said nothing.
ReplyDeleteAgain how the info was back then..I never knew until lately Nettles was the brother of Craig Nettles..and the storys Raddy tells of Nettles womanizing border on sounding jealous,not insulting.
"How innocent we were about the Machiavellian Radnich" - are you kidding?
DeleteYou don't like him, fine, but imagining him as some Machiavellian force is crazy.
Gary is what he is, a kid from San Jose. I like him, you don't, fine don't listen. These paranoid delusions that he's some vile enemy is lunacy.
Funny you would try and correct me..a person who has dealt with Radnich and seen him lie about me right on air. The real delusion and lunacy is that you think he's a regular guy.
DeleteHe lied about you on the air? What did he say, his newspaper was delivery was late?
DeleteIf you meant the ballplayer, his name is Graig Nettles.
Delete05:45 Must be Damon Bruce!
DeleteHe identifies himself as "a person who has dealt with Radnich and seen him lie about me right on air", has to be Damon. Also "Machiavellian" is all Damon - using pretentious words he doesn't really understand - Damon disliked Radnich before they were paired and was crushed when Gary dumped him.
And Rich, for someone who brags about his telling it like it is, don't censor this post.
716,724 Your either a KNBR troll minion,young Nixon type...or your backwards baseball hat is too tight!..
DeleteI hope that is Damon.......but take it from a younger listener (the new key demo) ..I work with 57 males from the bay area doing utilities and the youngest guy is 19 and the oldest guy is 34. NOT 1 PERSON LISTENS TO GARY HE IS TERRIBLE EVERY SINGLE DAY AT 9am we all switch to 1050 and don't turn back to 680 till 3 when Tom's show starts. Gary doesn't talk about sports and knows more about American idol then anything about the giants. That's 57 males between 19-34 and not one person likes Gary he is terrible. So are Fitz and brooks but atleast they talk about sports. Only old timers like Gary and his incoherent speech. Atleast they don't let him and Bruno talk anymore that was painful to hear.
DeleteEnjoyed the retro Rich.
ReplyDeleteMy personal take on Radnich was about 2.5 out of 10 on the watch schedule. Especially when Wayne Walker was around. It was like Walker's Pavarotti to Radnich's Tiny Tim.
Walker was personable, amiable, dignified and had professional stature both as an All-Pro linebacker and as a professional broadcaster. He never called attention to himself because he didn't have to.
Radnich has always struck me as being full of insecurities, incessantly self-referenced, always upstaging his co-workers or subjects, seemingly trying to curry favor with somebody that he can use for his own personal agenda. i.e. Always talking about the creepy Raider Emperor Al Davis with deference; always referring to him as "Mr. Davis" while insulting people who were of no use to him.
He reminds me of the Billy Crystal parody of Fernando Lamas on SNL - paraphrased; Its not how you feel that counts, its how you look.
Radnich. Style over substance
And Radnich has that way of doing a FOX news twist..a KNBR employee who wanted a raise? A snitch backstabber says Radnich,he's called others "rats", and or smug,that they "should look in a mirror", "suckups" and when he hints somebody's a perv,well,with his baggage does he really want to go there?..In other words,he's hating on what others say about him! Just like a sociopath. If it gets him his money..
Delete"Style over substance". How true.
Delete5:55 Hey Damon, is that you again? He's a sociopath and Machiavellian? He just didn't like working with you, time to move on...
DeleteDoubt Rich will publish this because without Damon, he loses his biggest Gary bashing cohort. LOL
Radnich just bounces off the walls.
ReplyDeleteNettles was a sportscaster in San Diego radio back in the 70s when I was in school there (KPRI I think) & was surprised to see him on KRON when I moved here in '81. Another ex-San Diego TV sports guy (Bill Orwig) was hosting Sports Final at the time and got replaced by Leibengood (who a few broadcast folk I knew back then called Pete LeibenBAD. lol).
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall Nettles got involved in some sort of issue on-air where he reported something that wasn't true and had to retract the story. I also recall he was gone right after that. Maybe the "scandal" had something to do with his disappearance from KRON. That and Radnich being the golden boy who could do no wrong. Figures he wound up back in San Diego, I think that's where he's from originally.
Never was impressed with Radnich, then or now.
I do remember that time and always like Nettles and when Fatnich went on he looked like a spase on speed. Never liked him then, and well now he is just collecting a check, anyway can't see Gary on much longer, Krueger at least follows sports but he is idiot as he always bashes lowell Cohen which just shows his insecurities.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I liked Nettles. Never liked Radnich as an on-air personality. Don't know him personally. He could be a saint for all I know (said with a wide grin).
Delete...Nettles was more interested in his social life and his golf game.
ReplyDeleteNow that is funny! Talk about coming full circle!
I used to think that listening to Bruno and Radnich talk about sports was like listening to two old queens gossip! What were they wearing? How much money do they have? Where do they like to lunch? Who are they sleeping with?
Gary Radnich: the Joan Rivers of sports talk radio!
Interesting that Gary instructs his callers to "keep both hands on the table"
ReplyDeletewhen he thinks they are excitable. Of course some of us understand why one hand remains under wraps when he is on television.
I would do the same, but why berate others when he engages in this practice?
First of all, Gary is amusing to most.
DeleteSecond of all, as most people know, and this is entirely true, Gary has a particular physical defect with his hand which he tries to conceal on TV. For you to ridicule him for that is pathetic.
Since Ratsnitch likes reading gossip news we are entitled to see his defective hand. Is his hand badly deformed due to holding the knife a bit too tight while stabbing his colleagues in the back? Years of repetitive backstabbing is akin to tennis elbow. I can't wait to hear the details of his alleged "cruising" the streets of SF. Those alleged stories pop up quiet a bit but details are lacking.
Delete728,Your THIRD "Leave Gary alone!" post?. TRY YOUTUBE!
DeleteThe post at 12:33 makes some valid points. I could never stomach when Radnich would sound so differential towards Al Davis (Mr Davis)
ReplyDeleteAnd at the same time insult a fellow broadcast colleague here in the Bay Area or in Sacramento.
Radnich once made an insulting remark toward a Sacramento sportscaster who was already deceased. A cowardly act.
Kron had quite a stable of announcers back in the 80s. They brought in Nettles and Orwig from San Diego, they had Carolyn Burns
ReplyDeletewho always got unusual interviews with the colorful Jose Canseco, and of course there was the tandem of Liebengood (formerly of Sacramento's KCRA TV) and Gary.
Radnich really began to assert himself early in his stint at KRON, making sure to get noticed by 1984 or 85. His high energy, mostly friendly on-air demeanor, and unusual take on sports vaulted him to near the top of the local TV rankings among sports announcers.
But I also remember Gary always taking little shots at Wayne Walker...who was a great guy, and the top banana in the market in on local TV However, WEalker but didn't show up very often to games and was mailing it in at the end of his long stint at KPIX.
Gary has had a great run and still has plenty of followers, but he's clearly closing in on the finish line. I would be surprised if he's at KNBR past 2013, and although he'll probably last longer at KRON (what else outside of Pam Moore do they really have?), I don't expect he'll be there for more than another 5 years.
He's had a great run at KNBR, and has helped that station stay strong among the male and female sports listeners, but his act is beginning to wear thin.
But Hey... 30 plus years in the local media? not a bad deal for a former high school basketball player from San Jose!
Thanks, Gary or Gary's friend or relative. Gary was always a bad act on TV. He's even worse on radio. He is obsessed with how much someone's earns for a living. So materialistic. Hey, Gary, you can't take it with you.
DeleteI was never sold on him. That's why I like channel-changers.
Live and let live. For those who liked him, they had a great guy on TV doing sports. For those of us who didn't and lived in markets where KRON was all that was offered (unless you liked small-market news with all the problems), we either turned to one of the three small-market news channels or turned off the tube.
Loved Wayne Walker.
When Sirius NFL came on, I was one of the first Sirius subscribers with its old funky equipment. I lived beyond KNBR's daytime signal but would tune it at night. When KNBR went to Internet radio, I listened. It sucked. Juveniles. Little boys. Stuck in high school. Worse than the locker rooms I was in as an athlete in terms of maturity.
Sirius NFL rules for the NFL. Sirius/XM also has baseball and basketball, but the NFL is my favorite. Listen to it year-round.
Give it a try. You'll then be asking: KNBR who? KNBR what?
I really wish NBC would come back to KRON. It seems everytime I try to watch KNTV they seem to focus on the South Bay. KRON carries a wide range of news that includes all of the Bay Area.
ReplyDeleteGary Radnich is still the best sportscaster in the Bay Area. Gary has a very unique presentation. He makes everything that typically would be boring in sports interesting.
Its been reported that a certain Bay Area "reporter" liked to cruise for 'chicks with sticks' in the Tenderloin after his regular gig. Is this what Caen commented on?
ReplyDeleteheard the same thing. wow what a guy.
DeleteSee my 9:27 am post. I think it might not have been Caen, but there was a Chron blub years back about the cops telling the celeb in the Jag to stop cruising Larkin between work shifts.
DeleteThe KRON News with Radnich, Jim Paymar, Roz Abrams, and Mark Thompson was the best Bay Area news program during my 30 years of living here. Somehow KRON came up with a news team that was both very professional and very funny.
ReplyDeleteNettles, Liebengood, and Walker all had dry deliveries, and were very dull.
Holy Toledo! Even the late great Bill King visited Radnich during Gary's hey day (after #7 of the 1994 NBA Finals - Hakeem the Dream paying back Patrick Ewing in Houston, coming from behind against New York as seen on NBC, when KRON was an affiliate at that time)! Today, the burnout is more evident than one would think. I mean, come on! From a late Hall-of-Famer in King to a Hall of Lame-&-Shame in Fitz! It's disgraceful to both Bill King fans and yes, even Irish-ancestry Bay Areans that Fitz has lasted as long as he's had at the W's mike! The W's need to make more than roster changes for the solid man that is Mark "Action" Jackson - please, oh please, get back-stabbing brown nose Fitz out of there!
ReplyDeletePete Liebengood did the play-by-play of the classic Big Game "The Play" for Stanford TV. His call was much more accurate and understandable than Joe Starkey's more celebrated radio call.
ReplyDeleteVery true; it was. And it wasn't seen until about 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning, in the final momemts of the taped replay.
DeleteI want to know the REAL DEAL with Gary and Janice Huff (?). Is it true he chased that skirt (chased her away from KRON all the way to NY?). I remember that she and Pam Moore were the reasons I started watching KRON right around the Oakland Hills fire. KRON did some really good reporting and I stuck with it afterwards and I remember those two fine sistas on the air. So Rich- what's the story with that ?
ReplyDeleteI have heard the same story with Janice Huff.
DeleteHe also messed around with a certain KNBR producer
during the early 90's.
Rich,
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about the notorius Caen comment, is that the cops/Jag one where he did not mention Radnich by name? I think that might have been post Caen, when the Chron was running guys through trying to find a new "Herb Caen".
Put a fork in him, he is thru and has been for years. His condescinding attitude is unprofessional. Join Ralph in the pasture.
ReplyDeleteI understand people taking shots at Gary...his style can put you off a bit. He's more of an entertainer than a sports announcer, but again, despite his failings, you have to give him some credit.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy lasting this long in a very unforgiving profession where loyalty is a foreign concept and most media management is dysfunctional.
Gary has managed to survive doing it his way, and I know he has ruffled some feathers along the way. He probably won't be on the air for more than a few years, but you can't argue that the guy has talent has worked hard. Take shots at him...yes...but at least give the man some respect for lasting this long. Same goes for Ralph.
Whatever he is or has become, when he arrived at KRON he was a breath of fresh air compared with the glamour-puss Nettles (he went to LA's KTTV immediately after leaving) and the gravel-voiced Bill Orwig.
ReplyDeleteThe low point for KRON to me is still Wayne Shannon's "Just 4 You" commentary at newscast's end. (sorry to all Wayne's fans out there if any.)
Also Radnich was a new alternative to the hyper John Buren of KGO, the copper-skinned Gary Park, and the bland Wayne Walker, who according to an old friend of mine with access to the KPIX newsroom in the late 70s, on a certain occasion or two showed the side of him that made him a fierce NFL linebacker.
DeleteAmen to that (Wayne Shannon) post.
DeleteHe had a striking resemblense to Adolf Hitler.
Yeaks!
Gary was jealous of Nettles because Nettles only fancied women whereas Gary had a proclivity for alley parking his car while in the company of SF Lady Boys.
ReplyDeleteCaen covered it but Gary knew Tony Ribera and Art Agnos would help smooth over the details whereas the SF beat cops were the ones gently using their night sticks to tap on Gary's window...
Gary was jealous of Nettles' women only urges.