Radnich back on air: ‘I’ve gotten over missing Joe in Livermore’

Gary Radnich, once the undisputed king of the Bay Area’s sports airwaves, hasn’t been heard from ever since making a much talkedabout departure from KNBR last June. But on Wednesday, he resurfaced — if only for a few minutes — on Tony Bruno’s new Sirius radio show.

“I only work national now. No local garbage,” he jokingly declared.

Bay Area listeners know that Radnich and Bruno have had a long-running partnership. For 17 years, Bruno did regular-call-in segments on Radnich’s popular KNBR morning program. Now, Bruno is headlining a show — and podcast — with Harry Mayes.

As usual, Radnich brought some levity to the proceedings.

“I’m making a comeback today,” he cracked. “And Harry, if you ask for a raise — screw you — I’ll jump in there for cheap.”

Radnich hinted that he has gotten calls from Bay Area sportstalk hosts to come on their shows — especially since the coronavirus crisis has put sports on lockdown and there are so many programming segments to fill. But he hasn’t been interested.

And he also doesn’t seem intrigued by the idea of doing his own show or podcast.

“When you’re done, you’re done,” he said.

Like most people in the Bay Area and beyond, Radnich has spent much of his time recently sheltered in place, at home with his family. He claims that being retired for nearly a year prepared him for the isolation and down time.

“I was kind of warmed up for this,” he said. “So I’ve already gotten over missing ‘Joe in Livermore.’”

Bruno spent a few moments introducing Radnich to his national audience, describing his guest as “an icon in the Bay Area.” The two men then engaged in a freewheeling conversation ranging from Radnich’s basketball playing days at UNLV (“I wasn’t good enough. I had to go to class.”), to a quick recollection of Latrell

Sprewell’s infamous choking incident with Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo.

Substantive sports talk? There wasn’t much of that. But Radnich made it known that he’s skeptical over tentative plans by professional leagues to play games in empty stadiums.

“What happens if people get used to this (no crowds) and say, ‘OK, this isn’t bad. I’ll just stay home and save my money.’? I wouldn’t put a secondary product on the field. If you have it without people in the stands, you miss a lot.”

As for the recent attempts by some sports networks to fill the void with simulated games and other gimmicky programming, Radnich isn’t a fan.

“As lonely as I might be, I’m not that lonely,” he said.