Ron Barr’s path to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame started with a newspaper job at the Washington Post. He broke into radio as a freelance reporter with ABC Radio Sports.
Ron then moved to television, anchoring nightly sports segments in Boston and doing play-by-play work for the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots. Later, he moved to Seattle where he became the Sports Director for KIRO television. While in Seattle, he was the play-by-play announcer for Seattle Sonic NBA basketball and University of Washington football.
Barr’s Bay Area broadcasting life began at KRON-TV, where he served as sports anchor. His resume includes play-by-play of Stanford and Cal football and basketball.
In 1988, Barr launched “Sports Byline USA.” This national, 3 hour, nightly sports talk show was the first national sports talk show. Ron’s first interview for Sports Byline USA was with the legendary Willie Mays. The U.S. Library of Congress has acquired more than 4,000 recordings of interviews by Ron, broadcast between 1988 and 2003.
The Sports Byline USA Network, still carrying Ron’s show as well as many others, is now heard on 200 U.S. radio stations, Armed Forces Radio, and the Sirius XM satellite service.