SF Giants quietly delay ceremony honoring beloved ex-PA announcer 

Oct 4, 2024

Now that the 2024 season has come to an end for the San Francisco Giants, the biggest storyline is the change at the top of the front office and the return of franchise icon Buster Posey. While Posey is back in an everyday role with the orange and black, the voice who called his career at 24 Willie Mays Plaza is not. 😔

High School Football: The P.A. Professional

When he was a student at Tulare Union, Harry Kargenian often barged into the counseling office to talk about Redskin athletics to anyone who would listen to him.

Kargenian found an ideal conversation partner in the late Art Williams, a legendary Tulare Union administrator and counselor.

Kargenian loved to bend Williams’ ear about the comings and goings of what was happening with the Tulare Union athletic department.

Williams would oblige Kargenian, until he had enough.

“Harry, get the hell out of here,” Kargenian said of how Williams often ended their frequent talks.

Williams valued Kargenian’s enthusiasm, knowledge, and his communication skills, though.

So Williams found the perfect forum for Kargenian to talk sports in front of a captive audience — he made Kargenian, then a high school senior, the public address announcer of Tulare Union football in 1971.

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Oregon Athletics accepting applications for Volleyball Public Address Announcer

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon Athletics is now accepting applications for the position of volleyball public address announcer for the 2013 season.

Interested applicants should submit a resume and .mp3 sample of player introductions, announcements or sponsor reads to athletic@uoregon.edu by Monday, Aug. 5. A sample script can be provided by UO upon request for those who do not have a sample mp3. Any questions regarding the position can be directed to that address as well.

The selected announcer must be available to announce each of the 18 regular-season home matches as well as potential post-season play hosted by the university.

From the pool of candidates, two will be selected by Oregon Athletics personnel to take part in a live audition at the Green and Yellow exhibition match, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. Fans will then have the opportunity to choose which announcer they want to hear during the 2013 season. After collecting fan votes, an official announcement will be made via UO social media accounts, Aug. 19  courtesy goducks.com

Welcome to PA-Guy.com!

Thanks for visiting!  My page for PA Announcers was created 14 years ago.  I started announcing in 1992 at the high school level.  What I've tried to bring to the announcing fraternity worldwide is a site that can be informative, current, and provide a networking conduit for PA people at all levels.  I also have a Group on Yahoo! where we have a membership of over 750 PA Announcers---job listings in our industry are posted, opinions are offered on our sister site "The Best and Worst of PA Announcing"and subjects vary from the salary ranges for PA to how our group members got their dream job.  Stop by a few times a month and consider joining the Group.

My Top PA Announcers:

Bob Sheppard-NY Yankees-Robert Leo "Bob" Sheppard (October 20, 1910 – July 11, 2010) was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the MLB New York Yankees (1951–2007), and the NFL New York Giants (1956–2006).  

Sheppard announced more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years, including 22 pennant-winning seasons and 13 World Series championships; he called 121 consecutive postseason contests, 62 games in 22 World Series, and six no-hitters, including three perfect games. He was also the in-house voice for a half-century of Giants football games, encompassing 9 conference championships, 3 NFL championships (1956, 1986, 1990), and the game often called "the greatest ever played", the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore.




John Condon-MSG-Mr. Condon, who was as much a part of the history of New York professional basketball as any player or coach, had a trademark greeting: ''Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Madison Square Garden.'' Those words echoed through two Gardens for more than four decades before Mr. Condon's announcements of the starting lineups at Knick and college basketball games. Started Job in 1947 Mr. Condon began sitting in the announcer's seat in 1947, 21 years before the Garden moved from 50th Street and Eighth Avenue to its present site and one year after the Knicks were created. While attending a game between the Knicks and the Boston Celtics, he was asked to try out for the public-address job. He never left the scorer's table after that.

Claude Mouton-Canadiens-Claude Mouton OC ( 20  September  1931 in Montreal , Quebec - 30  March  1993 ) is a public address announcer of ice hockey in the NHL, certainly considered one of the most popular bilingual commentators to have have worked for the NHL.
In his first season with the Montreal Canadiens in 1968 , he was noted for his statement style and warm voice. He became the first announcer in history to work more than eight consecutive seasons for the same venue . He was the director of public relations for the Montreal Canadiens from 1973 to 1993.
Mouton was also the pa announcer for the Montreal Expos from 1969 to 1973, when the team played in Jarry Park , his pronounciation of player "John Boccabella," is famous in Montreal baseball lore.

Howard Finkel-WWE-Finkel, a native of Newark, New Jersey, is the WWE's first employee after having been hired in 1975 by Vince McMahon, Sr. for what was then known as the WWWF. Finkel debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17, 1977. By 1979, he had become the organization's lead ring announcer for the their biggest events. Throughout his career, Finkel's distinctive voice was sometimes used in the title sequence for the company's

various television programs. Finkel's signature call was his announcement of a new champion following a title change, in which he would place extra emphasis on the word "new", in order to draw the greatest reaction from the crowd. Finkel came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname. In 1984, Finkel became WWF's lead ring anouncer for TV tapings, replacing the retired Joe McHugh.

Chip Monck-Woodstock 1969-Chip Monck (born Edward Herbert Beresford Monck) is a Tony Award nominated lighting designer, most famously serving as the Master of Ceremonies at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
In 1969 he did the concert that would define his career and make him a public figure.
Monck was hired to plan and build the staging and lighting, ten weeks of work for which he was paid $7,000. Much of his plan had to be scrapped when the promoters

were not allowed to use original location in Wallkill, New York. The stage roof that was constructed in the shorter time available was not able to support the lighting that had been rented, which wound up sitting unused underneath the stage. The only light on the stage was from spotlights. He was drafted just before the concert started as the master of ceremonies when Michael Lang noticed that they had forgotten to hire one. He can be heard (and seen) in recordings of Woodstock making the stage announcements, including requests to "stay off the towers" and the warning about the "brown acid".
“ The warning that I’ve received, you might take it with however many grains of salt you wish, that the brown acid that is circulating around is not specifically too good. It is suggested that you stay away from that. But it’s your own trip, be my guest. But please be advised that there’s a warning, okay?  "

Jack E. Lee-Roosevelt Raceway-Jack E. Lee (May 29, 1936 - July 30, 2009) was a track announcer who called several major harness races at the now-defunct Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island (Westbury, NY) in the 1970s and 1980s, and is considered by many to be the "Golden Voice" of that era in harness racing. In addition to his stint as the track announcer at Roosevelt Raceway (1968–1985) and Freehold Raceway (1966, 1990–1998), Lee also called quarter horse races at Suffolk (Parr) Meadows on Long Island from 1986-1987. In addition to Roosevelt, Lee occasionally substituted for Bob Meyer at Yonkers Raceway.   

Known for having a mellow voice and a descriptive style of announcing, Lee was considered by many to be the top racecaller in all of harness racing during the 1970s and 1980s. His calls were heard nationwide on the superstation WOR-TV, where he co-hosted the show "Racing from Roosevelt" with Stan Bergstein and Spencer Ross. Aside from announcing at Roosevelt and Freehold, Lee was the PA announcer for the New York Mets at Shea Stadium and for a time in the 1970s, was the ring announcer for the World Wide Wrestling Federation at Madison Square Garden.
Jack E. Lee died on July 30, 2009. Lee was retired, living in Florida.

Tom Durkin-Belmont Racetrack-Tom Durkin (born November 30, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American sportscaster and public address announcer specializing in Thoroughbred horse racing. He was the race caller for NBC Sports from 1984 through 2010.
Durkin studied drama at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. In 1971, he was hired as a race caller at Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred races at county fairs in Wisconsin. He did this each summer through 1975, then the following year was employed by the Daily Racing Form as a call taker responsible for documenting the comments and statistics used in the official charts of the races at Cahokia Downs and Thistledown Racecourse.

He went on to work as a race caller at Florida Downs in Oldsmar, Florida, Miles Park Race Track in Louisville, Kentucky, Quad City Downs in East Moline, Illinois, Balmoral Park Racetrack in Crete, Illinois, Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida, Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, and in 1990 was hired to call races at the New York Racing Association's Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. Durkin served as the Breeders Cup's chief TV voice from its inception through 2005 and was a longtime broadcaster on NBC as part of the network's sportscasting crew for horse races, providing analysis, commentary and features in addition to the descriptions of races.
On April 26, 2011, Durkin announced his decision to not to renew his contract with NBC Sports, citing stress.