Sports-talk legend Barbieri, 74, dies.
Former sports-talk host succumbs after battle with Parkinson’s disease
Ralph Barbieri, a Bay Area radio sports-talk legend, and one of the “founding fathers” of KNBR (680 AM), died at his home in Novato on Monday after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.
Barbieri spent 28 years at KNBR, where he was a bulldog of an interviewer and projected a highly opinionated, abrasive ap- proach that rubbed some listeners the wrong way. But that style also drew a legion of fans and, over his final 15 years at KNBR, Barbieri teamed with former NBA player Tom Tolbert in a highly rated afternoon show called “The Razor and Mr. T.”
“He was one of a kind. He was special,” Tolbert said on KNBR Monday afternoon. “He could be frustrating. But I loved working with him. He kept you on your toes.”
Barbieri, known for his raspy delivery, was dubbed “Razor Voice” early
in his career by fabled San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. It, along with his pugnacious demeanor, set him apart.
“You knew when you flipped that dial and heard his voice, there was nobody like that,” Gary Radnich, a former KNBR mainstay, said.
In 2005, Barbieri was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He didn’t disclose his illness to KNBR management and his listeners until 2011.
Six months after his announcement, he was fired in April 2012. He sued KNBR’s parent company, Cumulus Media, alleging discrimination based on his age (then 66) and his illnesses. In 2013, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
In an April 2019 interview with The Athletic, Barbieri spoke about how his Parkinson’s disease complicated the end of his tenure.
“(Producers) would say at the end of the hour or beginning of the hour, ‘Hey punch it up a little bit. Sound like you’re excited,’ “he said. “But I couldn’t do it because my voice was getting weaker.”
Late in his radio career, Bar
bieri, who was single, became focused on becoming a father. Through in-vitro fertilization with a surrogate mother, his son, Tayte Ali, was born in 2000.
On the air Monday, Tolbert called Barbieri “one of the founding fathers of KNBR” — and one of the two “pillars” (along with Gary Radnich) upon which the station built its successful sports-talk franchise.
“He was such a San Francisco original. He really was,” Tolbert said. “We got paid for laughing together.”
Barbieri told The Athletic about those years with the former Warrior in typically understated style.
“It was the best coupling in the history of the world,” he said. “We laughed all day long. It just flowed from us. We didn’t even need a guest. We were at our best when we were talking to each other.”
A San Francisco native and graduate of the University of San Francisco, Barbieri was a passionate Giants fan who praised his team when they played well and didn’t hold the venom when they weren’t.
Barbieri didn’t land his first radio gig until he was 33 years old, when he began working for a small 5,000-watt station in Honolulu.