Pete Franklin

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Pete Franklin (1928 - November 23, 2004), nicknamed "The King", was an American sports talk radio host who worked in San Francisco, Cleveland and New York.

The zenith of Franklin's career came when he hosted Sportsline on 50,000-watt Cleveland AM station WWWE from 1972 to 1987. Arguably the most popular host on the mainly-MOR oriented station, Franklin was popular based on his gruff demeanor and his rude banter toward callers. Among his trademarks were playing the sound of a flushing toilet after hanging up on a caller, and his running series of the winner and the loser of the day.

His caustic personality was a partial reason why WWWE lost its status as the flagship station of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in 1981 when he developed a feud with Cavs owner Ted Stepien. Franklin and Cavaliers radio voice Joe Tait started to openly question Stepien's ability to operate the team due to poor trades and a depletion of talent. (Ultimately, the NBA itself agreed with this assessment, seizing operational control of the franchise from Stepien on the grounds he was destroying its financial viability.)

Stepien retaliated both by cancelling WWWE's radio contract, and firing Tait. While Tait was rehired by the team in 1983, the games were carried on the radio by WBBG 1260-AM, and later WRMR 850-AM before returning to WWWE in the late 1980s.

Franklin stayed at WWWE until 1987, then joined upstart all-sports station WFAN in New York. He later worked at KNBR in San Francisco, where he ended his career in 2000. He briefly worked again at WTAM in 1998, hosting Sportsline again, this time from a studio in his California home.

When Pete Franklin first joined KNBR, he hosted his own show. He put together bits such as Winners and Losers of the Day for daily sports happenings and Pigskin Pete Predicts during football season. He later joined Bob Fitzgerald on The King and The Kid.

Franklin was the author of a 1988 book, You Could Argue But You'd Be Wrong.