Friday truly marks the end of an era at KCBS Radio.
It’s Stan Bunger’s last day.
We’ve been hearing his voice for decades – 31 years on KCBS, the last 21 as morning anchor.
But it all began back in 1977 at KRKC King City, when Stan was just 21. Blessed with rare intelligence, an insatiably curious mind and a deep voice well beyond his years, Stan moved up quickly, to KVML, the Voice of the Motherlode, then K-Tahoe.
He already the traffic and weather thing down by that point.
But he really hit his anchoring stride at KXRX San Jose.
After a stint in Sacramento, still just 25 years old, Stan got the call to the big leagues: KCBS Radio. The station sounded awfully different in 1982. Northern California has truly depended on Stan Bunger ever since, reporting on all kinds of stories across the Bay Area.
A Bay Area boy, born and raised, Stan was a witness to local history, and now he becomes part of it.
He shared a Peabody Award for his cool, calm coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, which struck as Stan was anchoring from the World Series at Candlestick Park.
"I want to tell you, I’ve lived in the Bay Area all of my 33 years and I’ve never felt one that hit as hard as this one," he told listeners. "Power is out at the ballpark. The scoreboard is dead. The PA system is dead. The Giants are all standing on the field in front of their dugout. Most the A’s are out on the field."
Stan was an ace in the booth or in the field, reporting in 1991 as the Oakland hills went up in flames around him: "Dozens of homes have burned here. You can look down and if you’re careful enough you can see what’s left of them. In many cases you can’t even see the foundation line."
Stan has been the narrator of the soundtrack of our lives.
He’s shared his own along the way in his always entertaining, often heartfelt morning conversations with John Madden.
Wherever we were, Stan was too, with his unflappable coverage of whatever was breaking around the Bay. He never expected his last 15 months on the air to be dominated by the biggest story of his career, but he parlayed the coronavirus pandemic into a signature swan song.
The station’s daily "Ask An Expert" feature was a guiding light for many.
For the last 21 years, Stan has been our expert.
Except, perhaps, when it comes to playing the guitar.
As a member of our newsroom rock group, the Eyewitness Blues Band, Stan worked tirelessly to elevate his guitar playing from "What key are we in?" to "Well, I’m better than Mike Sugerman," which is an extremely low bar.
But Stan attacked music with the same diligence that made him a newsman without peer.
Here’s what you could never see on the radio that made him so great: Stan simultaneously monitoring multiple audio sources to keep track of things happening halfway around the world, checking wind speeds and tide heights so that his weather forecasts were more than "sunny and in the 70s."
Like another recently retired local legend, Michael Tilson Thomas, Stan is a virtuoso, a conductor of an unseen orchestra, a true maestro. He’s a dear friend to so many who will no longer get to wake up to his voice again.
Now, he gets to sleep in. We'll miss you.
Best of luck, Stan!
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