Herb Kennedy spent many years as “the overnight guy” at KSFO during its self-appointed run as “The World’s Greatest Radio Station”. The versatile Kennedy was also part of the well-regarded KSFO news team.
Kennedy was born in Michigan. His family moved to California when he was two years old, settling in Oakland, where Herb Kennedy attended school through eighth grade. Another family move landed the Kennedys in Modesto, where Herb attended Modesto High School and Modesto Junior College.
Kennedy would circle the globe as a merchant seaman and then join a couple of musician friends, seeking gigs in the West and Midwest. Landing back in Oakland, he found work as a singer at KLX. A station history published in 1938 says that Kennedy became an announcer one day when the studio announcer assigned to introduce his singing segment failed to show up. Kennedy introduced his own songs, and from then on, “announcer” he was.
Kennedy served as a familiar news voice at KLX into the early 1940s. After World War 2, he shifted to KSFO, where he hosted a morning show into the mid-1950s, followed by several years working the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, making him the lead-in to the legendary Don Sherwood.