Team
Ken Korach, one of the most respected broadcasters in baseball today, enters his 14th year in the A's radio booth and his fourth as the team's lead play-by-play voice.
Prior to joining the A's in 1996, Korach served as a member of the Chicago White Sox broadcasting crew from 1992-95, working mostly weekend games. During the same period, he also handled broadcasting duties for the Las Vegas Stars of the Pacific Coast League and served as the Stars lead play-by-play voice from 1989-91.
In addition to his baseball work, Korach has 22 years of experience broadcasting college basketball and 14 years of college football experience. From 1985-92, he was the radio voice for San Jose State football and basketball games and later served as lead play-by-play announcer for UNLV basketball (1992-2004) and football (1992-95). He has been in the booth for two California Bowls, a pair of Las Vegas Bowls, the 1993 Peach Bowl and the 1994 Senior Bowl. The Associated Press' Radio and Television Association voted his 1986 broadcast of the San Jose State-Fresno State football game the best radio broadcast of the year for California and Nevada.
Korach began his baseball broadcasting career with the Redwood Pioneers of the California League, providing radio description in both 1981 and 1984. In 1985, he was hired by KCBS Radio as a part-time anchor and voice of San Jose State football. He also was a member of the Triple-A Phoenix Firebirds broadcast crew from 1986-87.
In 2001, Korach was named the Nevada Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in addition to being named the best two-sport broadcaster and among the "Best 100 People, Place and Things in Las Vegas" by Las Vegas Life Magazine. In 2003, he was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
A native of Los Angeles, Korach attended San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara, where he graduated with a degree in social sciences in 1975. Ken's wife, Denise, serves as the manager of baseball administration for the Toronto Blue Jay's Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas, while his father formerly served as the head baseball coach at Verdugo Hills High School in Los Angeles and at Los Angeles Valley Community College.
Ken has also taken an active role in the community, initiating "Korach's Winning for the Community" program last year, which raised more than $27,000 for Oakland Athletic League high school baseball programs to fund equipment, uniforms and field maintenance in its first year. Korach personally donated $7,500 of the total, while the A's matched his donation and local businesses and individuals provided the remaining contribution.
In addition, Korach writes a regular newspaper column, entitled "Postcard from the Bigs," for the Las Vegas Sun.
Ken and Denise reside in Henderson, Nev. with their daughter, Emilee.
Vince Cotroneo begins his fourth season in the A's radio booth, where he again will work with broadcast partners Ken Korach and Ray Fosse in continuing the team's tradition of broadcasting excellence.
Prior to joining the A's, Cotroneo spent six seasons (1998-2003) as an announcer on the Texas Rangers broadcasts, where he partnered with Eric Nadel on the Rangers Radio Network. He also worked a handful of games on the television side during the 2002 season. Cotroneo joined the Rangers broadcast team in 1998 after spending seven seasons (1990-96) with the Houston Astros.
A 20-year broadcasting veteran, Cotroneo began his career with the Single-A Lynchburg Mets in 1984. He spent the next three seasons with the Double-A El Paso Diablos in the Milwaukee system before moving onto the Triple-A Iowa Cubs for the 1988 season. In his only season with Iowa, he was selected as the National Association's Minor League Announcer of the Year. Cotroneo joined the Astros organization the following season and was the radio voice of the Tucson Toros for two seasons (1989-90) before landing his first Major League job with the Astros in 1991.
A 1983 graduate of the University of Central Florida, Cotroneo and his wife, Veronica, have three children, Dominic, Olivia and Sophia.
Ray Fosse, former two-time major league all-star catcher and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, begins his 24th consecutive season on radio and his 21st season in the television booth as the A's game analyst.
Fosse, a 12-year major league veteran, played for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland A's, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers, compiling a .256 batting average with 61 home runs. A native of Marion, Ill., Fosse attended Southern Illinois University, and was Cleveland's No. 1 draft pick in 1965. He made his major league debut with the Tribe in 1967 and spent the next six seasons in Cleveland. Fosse enjoyed his most productive season in 1970 when he batted .307 with a career-high 18 home runs and 61 RBI. He was named the American League All-Star catcher, received the Rawlings Gold Glove as the best defensive catcher in the American League, and was voted Co-Man of the Year with Sam McDowell that season.
In 1971, Fosse was named started catcher for the American League All-Star Team and received his second Rawlings Gold Glove. He was traded to the Oakland A's in 1973, and played for the 1973 and 1974 World Champions in Oakland. In 2002, Fosse was voted one of the 100 greatest players in Cleveland Indians' history.
Ray and his wife, Carol, were married April 4, 1970, and reside in California and Arizona, where they are active in several charitable organizations. They have two daughters, Nikki and Lindsey, and one grandson, Matthew.
Glen Kuiper begins his sixth season in the A's television booth as the club's lead play-by-play voice.
Kuiper has covered the Bay Area baseball scene for Comcast SportsNet since 1992, serving as pre-game host and fill-in play-by-play announcer for both A's and Giants telecasts. He has also worked on Comcast SportsNet's Golden State Warrior and San Jose Sharks telecasts, along with numerous collegiate assignments. He has also handled sideline reporting duties for select National Football League games on Fox. Kuiper has won seven Northern California Emmy Awards for his coverage of Bay Area Sports teams.
Glen is the youngest brother in a talented broadcasting family. His oldest brother, Duane, is a longtime member of the San Francisco Giants announcing team while older brother, Jeff, produces the Giants Comcast SportsNet Bay Area telecasts.
Kuiper graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor's degree in broadcasting. He also attended the University of New Orleans and spent three years in the minor leagues. A native of Racine, Wis., Kuiper resides in Danville, Calif. with his wife, Amanda and two children, Jack and Annette.
Robert Buan returns for his 10th season as the host of the A's "Extra Innings" post-game show after taking over the duties on a full-time basis in August of 2000. In addition to his on-air responsibilities, he also holds the position of broadcasting manager in the A's front office, where he has been employed since the 1995 season.
Buan has been a fixture on the A's broadcasts for each of the last 13 seasons, hosting various features such as "The A's Road Report," "The First 100 Years of A's Baseball" and the "A's Minor League Report," to name a few. He has also worked as a local correspondent on various national networks, including ESPN, SportsFan and One-on-One Sports.
In addition to his duties with the A's, Buan is the principal owner of GT2 Entertainment, which produces "Country Fastball". The two hour nationally syndicated country music program is hosted by Buan and features interviews with personalities from baseball and the country music industry. The show was awarded "Best Radio Program" honors at the 2008 Electronic Media Awards in Las Vegas.
A native of Spokane, Wash., the 36-year old Buan graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in political science and minors in philosophy and French. He lives in Alameda, Calif. with his wife, Alex and children, Hannah, JD and Ethan.
Amaury Pi-González, a pioneer in establishing Spanish baseball radio play-by-play in the Bay Area, will serve as the "Voice of the A's" for all Spanish broadcasts.
Well-known and respected in both English and Spanish media circles, Pi-González enters his 31st season in Major League Baseball in 2009. He began his career in 1977 with the Athletics, and has also broadcast for the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels.
During his tenure, Pi-González has called the 1986 World Series for CBS Hispanic Network, the 1988, 1989 and 1990 Series for the A's, and the 2002 Series for the Giants. The Fremont, Calif. resident previously served five years as sports anchor for Telemundo TV48 in San Jose and was the Spanish voice for the NBA's Golden State Warriors from 1992-98. In addition, he was the English voice for the Carribean World Series for Fox Sports International in 2001 and 2002.
Born in Cuba, Amaury was inducted into the Cuban Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum in 2004 and since 2002, has been nominated each year for the prestigious Ford C. Frick Broadcasters Award in Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Manolo Hernández-Douen is in his first season as the Athletics analyst for the Spanish Béisbol Network. He has over 37 years of experience in journalism, and has covered a variety of sports during that span.
A graduate from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in his native Caracas, Hernández-Douen has covered the Olympic and Panamerican Games, world championship boxing matches and winter league baseball, including the Caribbean Series. He was Venezuela's Sportswriter of the Year in 1979 and for 5 seasons was the basketball radio analyst for the Caracas Liga Especial de Baloncesto team.
Since moving to California in 1982, he has covered the NBA (Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers) and Major League Baseball (Dodgers and Angels) for several of the highest circulation Spanish newspapers in the United States including La Opinión in Los Angeles. Most recently he was the Sports Editor for El Nuevo Herald in Miami from 2000 to 2007, and since the 2008 season he has covered feature stories as a free lance writer for lasmayores.com (MLB in Spanish).
A Lifetime Honorary member of Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), he was the Los Angeles-Anaheim chapter chairman in 1997.
A proud father of two, Franklin and Cristina, Manolo resides in San Francisco.
The Oakland Athletics and KTRB Radio 860 AM have agreed to terms on a one-year contract for the station to serve as flagship of the A's Radio Network for the 2009 season. KTRB, a San Francisco-based station featuring a daily talk format, will broadcast all 162 regular season games, plus 17 Spring Training games. The 50,000-watt signal will provide a clear and consistent broadcast throughout the Bay Area. One of the oldest radio stations on the West Coast, KTRB 860 AM served Modesto and the surrounding area for 73 years before moving to San Francisco on Feb. 1, 2007. The station is owned and operated by Pappas Radio of California, LP, an affiliate of Pappas Telecasting Companies, America's largest privately held television broadcast company in terms of household coverage.
The Oakland Athletics and the Spanish Beisbol Network (SBN) have agreed to terms on a five-year contract to broadcast all 162 regular season games in Spanish on KDIA (1640 AM) and KDYA (1190 AM) radio stations, beginning this upcoming 2009 season. It marks the first time in club history the A's have featured Spanish broadcasts for every regular season game, home and away. SBN, a premier sports media broadcasting and content company founded in Boston in 2001, currently has contracts with the Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals and the Caribbean World Series.
