Since 2006, the Bay Area Radio Museum has endeavored to recognize the people whose work on the air and behind the scenes built the vibrant Bay Area broadcasting industry.
The list of Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (BARHOF) inductees literally runs from A (Ken Ackerman) to Z (Gordon Zlot). Each year’s class of inductees is chosen by a balloting process in which current BARHOF members as well as members in good standing of the California Historical Radio Society select from a list of nominees.
So how is someone nominated? That’s easy: you can nominate any Bay Area radio industry figure you believe merits inclusion in BARHOF.
The criteria are outlined below, but the guiding principle of BARHOF has always been: Can you tell the story of Bay Area radio without including this person in it?
The official criteria, as adopted by the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Radio Museum and Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame:
- Nominees must have worked in commercial or non-commercial radio broadcasting as an on-air personality, manager, writer, producer, engineer, developer or in another capacity in which the nominee exhibited exceptional and extraordinary ability and/or attained significant and notable popularity or recognition for their work, and
- A nominee must have been born or raised in one of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties* and achieved national or international fame in radio broadcasting in the Bay Area or elsewhere, or
- A nominee must have relocated to the Bay Area and achieved his or her greatest fame or distinction in the Bay Area, and
- A nominee must have made an extraordinary impact on the broadcasting history of the Bay Area for which he or she received widespread recognition, or
- A nominee must have contributed significantly to the growth and development of radio broadcasting as an industry primarily through his or her work in the Bay Area; also
- Nominees may have been part of an ensemble cast (two or more performers) on a regularly-scheduled program for which multiple cast members may receive nomination. (For example, two members of a morning-drive broadcast team may be nominated either separately or jointly; or all regular performers of a serial drama may be nominated as an ensemble under the Program category, or individually as a Performer.) The program shall have originated primarily in the Bay Area, and shall have aired on a Bay Area radio station.
To nominate someone, please complete the nomination form. All nominations certified by the Bay Area Radio Museum/Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame to meet the above criteria will be placed on the next annual BARHOF ballot.