Talk:Bill King

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Date of birth?[edit]

We'll all miss Bill. He was truly the best.

Does anyone have a definitive date of birth for him? All previous news stories, today's obituaries, and this article until today, all did not have an age or DOB for him, which I guess he was sort of reticent about. An editor added "he was 78", but I'm curious about the source, and would like to find a DOB for the article. Nothing in Google. The reference in a Googleblurb to Bill being born on July 1, 1927 is actually a reference to Bill Keene, according to [1], and I think that is the source of the unverified "age 78", so I am reverting it pending verification. A lot of people, including the media, run to Wikipedia when someone famous dies, and I don't want an incorrect personal fact propagated unless we can confirm it. MCB 23:11, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry. I can't count! It is of course 27 or 28, SqueakBox 04:44, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Removed ", after the team's move to Los Angeles"[edit]

The Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982 and back to Oakland in 1995, making ", after the team's move to Los Angeles" irrelevant. A friend in media at the time of Bill's separation from the broadcast informed me that Bob Speck Productions, who had bought the Raiders radio rights, tried to severely cut the salaries of the on-air personalities. Bill was (rightly) insulted, and left the broadcast. Rich Marotta, who had joined in the broadcast when they did move to LA, remained as color commentator, when Bob Speck hired a guy whose name I cannot recall and whose play-by-play I detested (I do think Greg Papa, who currently calls the Raiders play-by-play, does a fine job.)

Anyway, since I saw no connection between the separation of the Raiders Broadcast with Bill King and the move to Los Angeles ten years earlier, I removed the reference.

There is relevance, because Bill would have to travel to LA while still covering the Oakland A's. The man you probably detested was Joel Meyers.

My understanding is that when the salaries were cut that Al Davis offered to make up the difference between King's old and new salary but King still decided not to come back.

Disambiguation[edit]

Since I want to start an article on Bill King the former Royal Navy submarine commander and single-handed sailor, would anyone mind if I renamed this article and made "Bill King" a disambiguation page?

As for the new name for this article, how about "Bill King (sports announcer)"? — Johantheghost 00:26, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I would mind. Who the hell is Bill King the sailor? Bill King the broadcaster certainly made his mark in the world more than this other Bill. So list your Bill King as the former Royal Navy submarine commander. Bill is one of the greatest broadcasters ever and has been a candidate for the basketball, and baseball hall of fame as an announcer. Sportsmedia 03:06, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject class rating[edit]

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot (talk) 18:08, 5 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Picture needed[edit]

This article is badly incomplete without a picture of, in my opinion, one of the most photogenic broadcasters in sports history. Anyone? Jusdafax (talk) 20:53, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Revised second lead paragraph[edit]

Removed “best known as” before “the radio voice of the Oakland Athletics” and moved the Raiders and Warriors references up to that same sentence. One of King’s outstanding hallmarks was his versatility in all sports. His 26 years with the Raiders and 21 with the Warriors were no less notable than his 25 years with the A’s. Dodiad (talk) 04:14, 3 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]