Joe Starkey

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Joe Starkey was the sports director of KGO radio for many years in San Francisco, California. Starkey is best known for serving as the play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco 49ers, and the University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears college football games since 1975. He has also broadcast for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos, the USFL's Oakland Invaders, and the first telecaster for the NHL's San Jose Sharks.

Previous assignments include the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Rockies of the NHL, and basketball games for the NBA's Golden State Warriors and the University of California.

When the 49ers moved their broadcasts to rival station KNBR in 2005, executives at KGO radio elected to dismiss Starkey from his duties at the station. Although Starkey is still the broadcaster for the Cal Bears on KGO radio, he is paid by the school, not the station as had previously been the case.

Starkey is most famous for his frenetic call of The Play in the 1982 Big Game between Cal and Stanford: "The band is out on the field!". Starkey nearly lost his voice during and after this event, which he hailed as "the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!"

[edit] External links

• Transcript of Joe Starkey's call of the Play