Sean O’Callaghan was known to Bay Area radio listeners and television viewers for a career spanning more than fifty years on stations from Santa Rosa to San Jose.
Born in the small town of Redwood Falls, MN, O’Callaghan attended the University of Minnesota before beginning his radio career at stations in Redwood Falls and Mankato. When a friend told of him of an opening at Santa Rosa station KJAX, O’Callaghan leaped at the opportunity in 1960. As he would later say, ”I was freezing my buns off in Minnesota.”
HIs career took him to Spokane, WA before he returned to the Bay Area, working at KYA, KLOK, and KKSJ. The versatile O’Callaghan was a disc jockey, music and news director, news reporter, and talk show host. He was a familiar figure on television, hosting numerous shows and telethons including the Bay Area segment of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) telethon for 24 years.
O’Callaghan served as the stadium announcer for the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team in the 1980s and may be best remembered as the voice of a long-running series of commercials for the Western Appliance retail chain.
Sean O’Callaghan died in 2019 at the age of 83.