Author Amaury Pi Gonzalez (left) and broadcast partner Evelio Mendoza (right) as Oakland A’s Spanish broadcast partners during the 1989 World Series part of the Memories of Oakland number 10 in a series (photo provided by Amaury Pi Gonzalez)
By Amaury Pi Gonzalez
During the mid to late 1980’s the Oakland Athletics Spanish radio broadcast took place on the airwaves of KNTA 1430AM Radio, Santa Clara whose format was all in Spanish. Today KNTA 1430 is KVVN 1430AM, and is the only Vietnamese radio station in America owned and operated by a Vietnamese-American. So goes, the ever changing scenery of radio in one of the most diverse areas in the US.
Mr. Gene Hogan was the General Manager of KNTA Radio Spanish, a station represented by Lotus Communications. Hogan was a seasoned General Manager for one station and handled all the business as well as programming for his station. He was always accessible. Gene Hogan was not fluent in Spanish but he understood more than he let everybody knows and he was a hands on manager, Gene knew radio inside and out.
With a great sense of humor, Hogan could sell ice to an Eskimo. Like most General Managers at that time, he came from a sales background. It was there at KNTA in Santa Clara that I met Erwin Higueros, who was a disc jockey at the station during the Graveyard shift (midnight to sunrise) live on radio those days.
Mr. Hogan told me he had this young man working for him and he (Erwin) was interested in baseball. Erwin came along and joined our broadcasts, first as engineer and later on the air would join Evelio and yours truly for an inning or so.
Evelio Areas Mendoza was my broadcast partner at KNTA 1430 radio, the home of the Oakland Athletics in Spanish at the time, doing most home games and selected road games. The road games we would broadcast from their main studio in Santa Clara by watching a television monitor.
Not to miss a play, I usually had a transistor radio listening with my earphones and when Evelio was doing the play by play I would listen to Bill King, so we could not miss anything that was happening when the team was playing abroad.
We had the authorization from the Athletics and the broadcast went very well. During that time we broadcasted home games at Oakland right behind the plate (in front of the backstop, at field level) under a canopy with the KNTA 1430 AM identification letters written on the side.
I enjoyed broadcasting games at that unique location, however, later the A’s told us they would have to remove us from there, because, “some scouts for other teams thought we were stealing signs in favor of the A’s”. Which it was totally ludicrous and I would happily testify in front of a judge if it came to that. It never did. We went back to the press box level inside a regular broadcast booth.
In my many talks with Gene Hogan, like I said before, he ran every facet at the station, I always would speak about sports, he was not really a sports fan, but he understood radio and the importance of major league baseball broadcast for a local station, he would mention the prestige and possible magnet for other advertisers when a station can secure a contract to broadcast professional baseball.
One occasion I told him about the importance of covering Spring Training, and after we went back-and-forth in a meeting he understood that would be good for the station. It was the 1980’s and radio still played a big part in our culture, especially local radio stations.
A few days later he called me into his office and told me he had approved a trip for us to go to Spring Training. So, Erwin and I rented a car and drove to the Phoenix area to cover A’s Spring Training. KNTA 1430 AM is where the 1989 “Earthquake Series” won by the A’s, was broadcast in Spanish for the Bay Area as well as the previous World Series against the LA Dodgers in 1988.
KNTA Radio 1430 was popular radio, famous for doing lots of remotes from different community events in the San José area, decades before San José became the home for Silicon Valley, home to many start-up and global technology companies. Apple, META and Google among the most prominent. Today a lot of this history is at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San José.
KNTA Radio Days in Spanish was a legendary time when San José was still into a “growing spurt”, and Gene Hogan, RIP, was one of great characters I had the pleasure of meeting in the broadcast business.
Famous Radio quotes: “It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on” – Marilyn Monroe
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish Network at 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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