A longtime member of the KDKA Radio family has died. News Radio KDKA looks back at the career of the late Bob Kmetz.
In an interview conducted 6 years ago for KDKA's centennial, Bob Kmetz remembered the biggest story in his 32 years with KDKA Radio happened on September 11, 2001.
“We were trying to keep track of it and, I guess the biggest shock of the whole thing was when they said there was another plane down and that was the one in Shanksville, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was connected with that incident or if it was a private plane or anything like that so, we had to do some scrambling and to find out whether that was in fact connected with the 9-11 attacks and as we all know now, it was,” said Kmetz.
He came to station in August of 1972, and when news broke--he was sure to be there, like the Ashland Oil spill in January 1988.
“I had happened to be in a coffee shop down the road and I had called the desk to tell them what was going on or at least, what I thought was going on and I heard these two guys talking and they said it would be at least a million gallons, and as it turns out, it was pretty close to that,” said Kmetz.
Kmetz worked with KDKA legends like Jack Bogut, John Hadar, Ed Shaughnessy and Bill Steinbach
“I had some thoughts, do I belong here, am I good enough for KDKA when I first got here and those people reinforced the thought that I actually belongs with that group of people,” said Kmetz.
And for more than 30 years, thousands and thousands of listeners knew that he did.
Bob Kmetz worked at KDKA until his retirement in 2004. He was 83.
Read more about Bob’s life here.
