GOLDEN VOICE: Announcer Bob Davis is familiar to Kansas City listeners as the voice of the Kansas City Royals and the University of Kansas. Davis is a member of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
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Announcer Davis broadcaster for all seasons
Calling three sports split between college, pro levels nothing new for versatile booth veteran
By: Mark Dewar, Sports editor
An 11-time winner of Kansas Broadcaster of the Year honors, Bob Davis is working in his 12th season with the Kansas City Royals this summer and his first as a voice on the Royals Radio Network.
In addition to his duties with the Royals, Davis has served as the voice of the University of Kansas Jayhawks for 24 years.
This past school year Davis covered the 2007 football Jayhawks all the way through their Orange Bowl victory over Virginia Tech, then trailed the work of their basketball counterparts during the roundball version’s run to the national championship and dramatic win over Memphis in overtime in the national championship game.
Davis earned induction into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2004.
The native Topekan sat down with The Wednesday Sun during an appearance at the Overland Park Convention Center for the inaugural Royals FanFest earlier this year, where he talked about life behind the mike and lent a bit of friendly advice to aspiring broadcasters.
Davis, who resides in Lawrence with wife Linda, spent 16 years calling contests for Fort Hays State prior to joining the Jayhawks.
The couple’s only son, Steven, works as the play-by-play voice for the Royals AA affiliate in Northwest Arkansas and recently got hired by the University of Missouri-Kansas City to serve as the voice of Kangaroos men’s basketball.
Q. When you were an 8 or 10-year-old kid, Bob, were you bound and determined to grow up to be like Harry Caray or some other famous announcer one day?
A. I was in the eighth grade when I got the broadcast idea and the bug. I was living in Topeka at that time and I had a cousin who grew up in Kansas City who was in radio and he was working at a station in Topeka. I’d been to the station with him and that kind of got my interest going. My dad had been a sports writer and had done a little radio work. That’s when I started thinking that would be kind of a fun idea for me. Fortunately in the long run, it was able to happen.
Q. Tell me about the first job, the one where you said, “Wow, I’m kind of arriving here! I’m moving toward my dream a little bit.”
A. My first job was in Hays, western Kansas, and I was doing a little bit of everything at the station, although I had the interest in getting into sports. We had a news and sports director who was really good. I started in July, I guess, and then we got into football and I was going to help him with a little bit of the sports. About two months into football season he left for a job in Lansing, Mich. I applied to take over the sports, and they gave me a shot at it, and that’s really where it started.
Q. Clearly you are a man of motion. You cover KU football and basketball, Royals baseball. How do you keep it all straight?
A. (Laughing) Maybe I don’t. I try. It’s fun. Even in those days in Hays, I did football, basketball and baseball. I just went through the calendar that way and I always enjoyed the change in seasons and being able to do all the sports. I still enjoy it and I hope to do it for a while longer. I think it’s neat to have a job where it changes rather dramatically every few months.
Q. For the young guy or gal out there who wants to emulate Bob Davis, would you suggest watching a game while doing play-by-play into a recorder? What is the best way to get things going?
A. Yeah, I think that would be fun for anybody who has an interest. Now if you get into school a lot of high schools have broadcast curriculum now, and in college if you get a chance to do that kind of thing, get an internship when you are a little older. It’s a thing where you really have to go do it. You can take classes and talk and read books, but I think it’s a hands-on career. It’s something you need to go try and see if you really do like it or have any aptitude.
Q. Does your work continue to bring out the kid in you day to day?
A. Well, part of it that makes it fun is you are around young guys, whether they are college athletes or even the baseball players are younger guys. I think that gives you a younger perspective and it’s fun to be around them. But we go to the ballpark to work. It’s different from going to a lot of jobs, but it’s still a job and it’s still a profession. But yeah, I like that aspect of being around the guys who play games.
Q. Were there two or three broadcasters in your world growing up who inspired you, who made you think, “I want to be that guy in broadcasting.”
A. I don’t know if I wanted to be that guy so much. Growing up in Kansas, I certainly listened to all the guys who did baseball in Kansas City and St. Louis and then the KU and K-State announcers. I listened to those guys a lot growing up. Now I fortunately get to know a lot of those people. They were really heroes to me.
Q. You touch on a big key there. You do have to be yourself.
A. Oh, absolutely. You have to find out what your personality is. I don’t think you can fake the way you do broadcasting and particularly ballgames. I’ve talked to a lot of classes and colleges. They ask, “How do you do it?” and I say there are as many ways to do it as there are people in the profession. There is the spectrum of really excitable guys to almost totally unemotional and everywhere in between. There are homers, guys who are neutral. Everything you can think of. And you can find somebody in each of those categories who’s a big success.
Contact Mark Dewar at (913) 385-6061 or mdewar @sunpublications.com.
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In addition to his duties with the Royals, Davis has served as the voice of the University of Kansas Jayhawks for 24 years.
This past school year Davis covered the 2007 football Jayhawks all the way through their Orange Bowl victory over Virginia Tech, then trailed the work of their basketball counterparts during the roundball version’s run to the national championship and dramatic win over Memphis in overtime in the national championship game.
Davis earned induction into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2004.
The native Topekan sat down with The Wednesday Sun during an appearance at the Overland Park Convention Center for the inaugural Royals FanFest earlier this year, where he talked about life behind the mike and lent a bit of friendly advice to aspiring broadcasters.
Davis, who resides in Lawrence with wife Linda, spent 16 years calling contests for Fort Hays State prior to joining the Jayhawks.
The couple’s only son, Steven, works as the play-by-play voice for the Royals AA affiliate in Northwest Arkansas and recently got hired by the University of Missouri-Kansas City to serve as the voice of Kangaroos men’s basketball.
Q. When you were an 8 or 10-year-old kid, Bob, were you bound and determined to grow up to be like Harry Caray or some other famous announcer one day?
A. I was in the eighth grade when I got the broadcast idea and the bug. I was living in Topeka at that time and I had a cousin who grew up in Kansas City who was in radio and he was working at a station in Topeka. I’d been to the station with him and that kind of got my interest going. My dad had been a sports writer and had done a little radio work. That’s when I started thinking that would be kind of a fun idea for me. Fortunately in the long run, it was able to happen.
Q. Tell me about the first job, the one where you said, “Wow, I’m kind of arriving here! I’m moving toward my dream a little bit.”
A. My first job was in Hays, western Kansas, and I was doing a little bit of everything at the station, although I had the interest in getting into sports. We had a news and sports director who was really good. I started in July, I guess, and then we got into football and I was going to help him with a little bit of the sports. About two months into football season he left for a job in Lansing, Mich. I applied to take over the sports, and they gave me a shot at it, and that’s really where it started.
Q. Clearly you are a man of motion. You cover KU football and basketball, Royals baseball. How do you keep it all straight?
A. (Laughing) Maybe I don’t. I try. It’s fun. Even in those days in Hays, I did football, basketball and baseball. I just went through the calendar that way and I always enjoyed the change in seasons and being able to do all the sports. I still enjoy it and I hope to do it for a while longer. I think it’s neat to have a job where it changes rather dramatically every few months.
Q. For the young guy or gal out there who wants to emulate Bob Davis, would you suggest watching a game while doing play-by-play into a recorder? What is the best way to get things going?
A. Yeah, I think that would be fun for anybody who has an interest. Now if you get into school a lot of high schools have broadcast curriculum now, and in college if you get a chance to do that kind of thing, get an internship when you are a little older. It’s a thing where you really have to go do it. You can take classes and talk and read books, but I think it’s a hands-on career. It’s something you need to go try and see if you really do like it or have any aptitude.
Q. Does your work continue to bring out the kid in you day to day?
A. Well, part of it that makes it fun is you are around young guys, whether they are college athletes or even the baseball players are younger guys. I think that gives you a younger perspective and it’s fun to be around them. But we go to the ballpark to work. It’s different from going to a lot of jobs, but it’s still a job and it’s still a profession. But yeah, I like that aspect of being around the guys who play games.
Q. Were there two or three broadcasters in your world growing up who inspired you, who made you think, “I want to be that guy in broadcasting.”
A. I don’t know if I wanted to be that guy so much. Growing up in Kansas, I certainly listened to all the guys who did baseball in Kansas City and St. Louis and then the KU and K-State announcers. I listened to those guys a lot growing up. Now I fortunately get to know a lot of those people. They were really heroes to me.
Q. You touch on a big key there. You do have to be yourself.
A. Oh, absolutely. You have to find out what your personality is. I don’t think you can fake the way you do broadcasting and particularly ballgames. I’ve talked to a lot of classes and colleges. They ask, “How do you do it?” and I say there are as many ways to do it as there are people in the profession. There is the spectrum of really excitable guys to almost totally unemotional and everywhere in between. There are homers, guys who are neutral. Everything you can think of. And you can find somebody in each of those categories who’s a big success.
Contact Mark Dewar at (913) 385-6061 or mdewar @sunpublications.com.