Southern California native Ken Korach started his broadcasting career in 1980 at KTOB in Petaluma, where he covered high school sports. In 1981, he became the voice of the California League’s Redwood Pioneers, based in Rohnert Park. The baseball team’s games were carried on Santa Rosa station KSRO.
Korach was heard on KCBS later in the 1980’s, covering San Jose State University football and men’s basketball. He spent several seasons in Triple-A baseball, calling games in Phoenix and Las Vegas, before joining the Oakland Athletics in 1996 upon the retirement of Lon Simmons (BARHOF 2006). The A’s job saw Korach working alongside Bill King (BARHOF 2006), whom he had considered a childhood hero, and former MLB catcher Ray Fosse.
Korach became the Athletics’ lead announcer after the 2005 season, following King’s death. He would later write about his relationship with King in the book Holy Toledo – Lessons from Bill King: Renaissance Man of the Mic. In 2023, he was nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award, given to broadcasters.