Steve Bitker
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After graduating from UC Berkeley, Steve worked at KSFO, KYNO and KFIG in Fresno and KNBR in San Francisco before coming to KCBS. Steve lived in Tokyo for more than three years, working as a news/sports anchor for JCTV (Japan’s one and only English Television station). During those years in Japan and in the several months that followed, Steve was able to travel extensively, spending time in Thailand, Micronesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Kenya, Switzerland, England, Scotland and Ireland.
Steve has been the morning-drive sports anchor at KCBS since joining the station in April, 1991. Steve has been the backup play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics on KFRC since the 2001 season after having been the play-by-play announcer for the minor league Sonoma County Crushers in Santa Rosa for seven years. He authored a 1998 book, “The Original San Francisco Giants” (Sports Publishing Inc.), which features the Giants’ first season in San Francisco and profiles every member of the 1958 Giants.
Steve has won numerous sports broadcasting awards, from the Associated Press, the Northern California Radio-Television News Director’s Association and the Peninsula Press Club. The sports story that impacted Steve the most was the Giants’ near move to Tampa after the 1992 season. “It was a wonderfully satisfying experience to work on such a big story every day, to break so many aspects of the story on the air, particularly because this was a story that meant so much to so many people in the Bay Area.”
The news stories that impacted Steve’s life, that had nothing to do with his work in radio, were the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy. “I was 15 at the time, very conscious of the civil rights movement, and very involved in the Kennedy presidential campaign.”
Steve is married to Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker. They have two daughters. Steve enjoys being a parent and being involved in his kids’ lives. In fact, he’s been the head coach of his younger daughter’s club soccer team since 1998.
