Ken Wilson (sportscaster)

Infobox Person
name = Ken Wilson

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caption =
birth_date = 1947
birth_place = Detroit, Michigan
education = B.A., University of Michigan
occupation =
residence = Portland, Oregon
nationality = American
spouse = Marlene

Ken Wilson (born 1947) is an American sportscaster and former play-by-play hockey announcer for the St. Louis Blues on FoxSports Net Midwest and KPLR-TV.cite web|url=http://www.stlouisblues.com/news/0001/000728b.html |title=Chris Kerber, Kelly Chase Introduced As New Blues Radio Broadcast Team On KTRS |accessdate=2007-01-05 | publisher=St Louis Blues Online] His famous catch phrase when calling Blues games was 'Oh Baby!', which he yelled during moments of extreme excitement. Wilson also spent a number of seasons broadcasting Major League Baseball games. He was also the Voice of the NHL on both ESPN and SportsChannel America.

Life and career

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quote =“I try to be very descriptive. That’s essential on the radio and even on TV because folks have trouble seeing the puck and identifying players.”
source =Ken Wilson
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align =leftBorn in Detroit, Michigan, Wilson earned a degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, then attended business school in Honolulu, Hawaii. During this seven year stretch living in Hawaii, he did play-by-play for the Triple A baseball Hawaii Islanders, became sports director of the NBC affiliate in Honolulu, and even developed the second ever sports talk radio show in the United States. In 1976 he received acclaim as Hawaii Sportscaster of the Year. Later Wilson became the first announcer for the Seattle Mariners, along with Dave Niehaus, from by|1977-by|1982. Moving on from Seattle, Wilson did games for the Chicago Blackhawks, and then from by|1983-by|1985 play-by-play for the Cincinnati Reds TV Network.

t. Louis Blues era

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quote = Here's Ramage, for Federko too far, Federko steals the puck from Reinheart, over to Hunter who shoots, blocked, Wickenheiser scores! Doug Wickenheiser! The Blues pull it off and it's unbelievable!
source = Ken Wilson calls Doug Wickenheiser's overtime goal during the Monday Night Miracle, May 12, 1986 [http://www.stlouisblues.com/fanstuff/blues_multimedia/video/Monday_Night_Miracle/mondaynight.html] ]
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In 1984, Wilson was approached by Anheuser-Busch, then part owner of the Sports Time Cable Network, to not only announce the Reds games, but move from covering the Blackhawks during the hockey season to the St. Louis Blues. Wilson called his first St. Louis Blues game on October 11, 1984, a 4-2 win for the Blues in Calgary. During the 1985 baseball season, Ken Wilson, working with Joe Morgan, called Pete Rose's 4192nd hit that broke Ty Cobb's all time record. Wilson then called one of the greatest games in St. Louis Blues history, known as the Monday Night Miracle, the following year. Wilson's association as announcer for the Blues continued to grow stronger after that. In addition to his hockey work, he continued his work in baseball, announcing St. Louis Cardinals games between 1985 and 1990, California Angels' games from by|1991-by|1995, and games for the Oakland A’scite web|url=http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/archives/april2004/spotlight.html |title=KEN WILSON: Bleeding Blue for 20 Years |last=Jones |first=Pam Droog |date=April 2004 |accessdate=2008-01-04 |publisher=St. Louis Commerce Magazine] from 1996-1998.

In 1997, Wilson purchased the Zanesville (Ohio) Baseball Club of the independent Frontier League and moved the club to the western suburbs of St.Louis. He formed an investor group and served as managing partner of the River City Rascals, until selling his interest in 2004. He helped form a second group that purchased a Frontier League expansion team in 2000. That club began play in 2001 in the eastern suburbs of St. Louis as the Gateway Grizzlies. Wilson retains an ownership interest in that club.

Wilson continued announcing for the St. Louis Blues earning the Missouri Sportscaster of the Year award in 2001 along with four Mid-America Emmy Awards for play-by-play. After the 2003-04 NHL season, when his contract was not renewed by the Blues, he moved back to Honolulu, where he opened Mama's Island Pizza in 2005. [cite web |url=http://www.hawaiidiner.com/reviews/review.php?review=90 |title=Mama's Island Pizza - Mama Makes Great Pizza and Wings |accessdate=2008-03-04 |last=Jennings |first=Gail |date=January 2006 |publisher=Hawaii Diner] Along with his wife, Wilson operated the restaurant until February 2008. During this time, Wilson also did play-by-play for the Hawaii Winter Baseball League in 2006 and 2007.cite web|url=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/dancaesar/story/51A79A737243676A862572310014256E?OpenDocument |title=Media Views: Holy Cow! Caray and Buck CDs are winners |accessdate=2007-02-02 | publisher=STL Today] Most recently Wilson became President of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League and moved to the league's headquarters in Portland, Oregon. [cite web|url=http://www.wccbl.com/about.php? |title=About WCCBL |last=Wilson |first=Ken |accessdate=2008-07-16 |publisher=West Coast Collegiate Baseball League] Wilson returned to the Seattle Mariners television booth on July 27, 2008 to fill in for for his former partner Dave Niehaus, who was being inducted to the Hall of Fame on the same day.

During his career, Ken Wilson broadcast 2,154 Major League Baseball games and 1,556 National Hockey League games.

References

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SHORT DESCRIPTION=American sports announcer
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