Dean Maddox was a popular personality and sportscaster from the 1930s to the 1950s on several stations, including KYA, KFRC and KGO.
A British Columbia native, Dean Maddox graduated from the University of Indiana and joined the British Army, transferring to the US Army during World War I. After the war, Maddox spent time working in vaudeville and on Broadway in New York City. He served for a time as the chief announcer at Madison Square Garden and in 1929, went to Asia to become chief announcer for the government radio station of the Republic of China (Nationalist Chinese).
By 1934, Maddox was heard on KYA, wandering San Francisco’s Market Street with a backpack transmitter, choosing random passersby for interviews. His “Man About Town” segments would expand to include a series of live broadcasts from departing and arriving Dollar Line passenger ships.
In 1935, KYA owner William Randolph Hearst asked Maddox to develop an “Amateur Hour” show. In the summer of ’35, Maddox left his post at KYA and joined rival KFRC, where the “Marin Dell Dairy Amateur Hour” would go on to run for 21 years. His popular amateur hour show had made the transition to television just a year before his death.
Maddox picked up the nickname “Buddha” (more often spelled “Budda” in station publicity) when he asked an early amateur hour contest what she thought he looked like. The young girl eyed the husky radio man and said, “Buddha”.
Maddox performed as the “Owl Drugs Reporter on the Street” for 17 years on KFRC. The role saw him set up shop at busy locations such as the Powell Street cable car turnaround in San Francisco and the corner of 13th and Broadway in Oakland to seek out “man on the street” interview subjects. Along with his Saturday amateur show and Sunday live broadcasts from the Cliff House, Maddox was on the air seven days a week.
In a 1951 column, San Francisco Examiner radio/TV writer Dwight Newton tabbed Maddox as his radio “Man of the Year”, noting that Maddox’s busy schedule allowed him to “dominate local radio with no challengers”.
Maddox was the play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Oaks from 1939-1942 and on those broadcasts was known as “Dizzy” Dean Maddox. Some of the Oaks broadcasts were re-creations during which Maddox would receive updates from a distant game and extemporaneously provide a play-by-play account.
Rain delays or failed communication links could challenge a re-creation artist, and Maddox once misplaced his wire copy for the home half of an inning during an Oaks road game in Seattle, erroneously moving ahead to the top of the next inning. When calls began to come into the station asking about the missing half-inning, Maddox told listeners that Seattle had such a healthy lead that it waived its at-bat, allowing Oakland to hit again.
Maddox also played bit parts in several movies and was deeply involved in charitable work.
Dean Maddox died in 1955 at age 59.