Rich Herrera

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Rich Herrera is an American sports talk show host and broadcaster. Herrera has been a national sports talk show host on The Infinity Sports Network since 2019. With thirty years behind the microphone, he is one of the longest-tenured hosts in America. He has been heard from coast to coast on national radio and major stations Like KNBR San Francisco, KMOX St Louis, KMAX Los Angeles, 790 The Ticket Miami, WDAE Tampa, 987 The Fan Tampa, 973 The Fan San Diego. He has filled in on the Sports Hub Boston, ESPN Radio NYC, and KHTK Sacramento. He is a broadcasting pioneer, becoming the first nationally syndicated Hispanic sports radio personality in the United States, working first at Sports Fan Radio, and later at Fox Sports Radio and now at Infinity Sports Network. He is also one of the only AAPI (Filipino) national broadcasters in America today.

Early life[edit]

Rich grew up in Salinas, California, as the son of Monterey County Sherrif Deupty and a homemaker. He often talks about his later father on the air. He takes special pride in hosting shows on major holidays when most people have the day off so he can entertain people like his father, who often missed spending the holidays with his family because of his work in law enforcement. He attended grade school in Salinas, King City, and Hollister California. Herrera later attended Washington Jr High School in Salinas and North Salinas High School. He graduated from South High School in Bakersfield, California, in 1984. Herrera attended California State University-Bakersfield where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.^[1] He is considered one of Sigma Pi's notable alumni. He will often reference the fraternity on his radio shows.^[2]

Career[edit]

His national radio experience included radio shows for SportsFan Radio (LA/Las Vegas/NY), Prime Sports Radio (Dallas), and Fox Sports Radio, SiriusXM Radio, MLB Network Radio, CBS Sports Radio, Sporting News Radio, Bleacher Report Radio, and SB Nation Radio. Herrera partnered with former NFL All-Pro and Notre Dame All-American Bob Golic for his first national radio show. His on-air partners have included Steve Sax, Mike Stanton, Cliff Floyd, John Rooney, Mel Antonine and Booger McFarland. Herrera will often ask truck drivers who call into his radio show where they are heading and what they are hauling as a tribute to Antonine, who would ask the same question when the two worked on SiriusXM.

He began his radio career in Bakersfield, where a fraternity brother told him about a local sports radio station that was about to launch. Being a communications major, his fraternity brother was interested in broadcasting, while Rich was an Economics major who was thinking about teaching or maybe law school one day. With some prodding and support from his friends, Rich got a job at the radio station as a sales rep. After a while, Rich thought about returning to school. But instead, he got a break when he became the "fill-in if everyone else is sick weekend sports guy for free radio guy". Herrera used that opportunity to weasel his way into other on-air opportunities and soon became a talk show host at KGEO-AM. From KGEO, he got his big break, jumping from Kern County to Los Angeles to host an evening show on KMAX-FM. It was there he was partnered with Bob Golic, who had just finished starring on the TV show Saved By The Bell, The College Years, and the two soon became nationally syndicated on the Sports Fan Radio Network across the country. Ironically, his fraternity brother became a California Superior Court Judge, while Herrera went into sports broadcasting.

After the sale of KMAX, Rich got his big break as a solo host when he landed a role as the host of the long-running Sports Phone 68 radio show on KNBR Radio in San Francisco.

Rich previously worked with the Oakland A's as their post-game show host from 1998 to 2000 and spent two years (1996–97) hosting the post-game talk shows for the San Francisco Giants and the NBA's Golden State Warriors on KNBR. Herrera is one the only radio announcers in MLB or the NFL of Mexican-American Heritage and AAPI (Filipino) descent.

He was one of the original hosts of Fox Sports Radio when the network launched in 2000. The network once again paired Herrera with his radio partner, former Notre Dame and NFL defensive lineman Bob Golic. Rich also hosted solo shows on the network and was featured on the network's MLB coverage, including the World Series and MLB All-Star Games.

Herrera is the Executive producer and Co-Creator of The Bret Boone Podcast and Audacy Original program. The Podcast began in 2019 during the COVID-19 disruption and has grown into one of the best baseball podcasts available. Over the years, it has featured hundreds of Hall of Fame athletes and celebrities. Rich will co-host with Bret once a week for the popular "Turning Two With Boonie" episode. ^[3]

Herrera served as the host during pre-and post-game shows for the Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Radio Network from 2005 to 2011.^[4][5] Herrera was the featured play-by-play announcer on raysbaseball.com for the team's spring training games and filled in during the regular season. He was the Rays Director of Radio Operations, running the team's statewide radio network.^[6] He joined Tampa Bay after working at Fox Sports, where he was a national talk show host for Fox Sports Arizona.

Rich returned to California in 2016 to join Entercom Radio as the San Diego Padres Radio Network's Executive Producer and host the team's pre and post-game radio shows. Herrera oversaw the launch on KWFS 973 The Fan in the spring of 2018 after the Entercom/CBS Radio Meger.

Herrera was a member of the Sports USA Radio Football crew for a decade. In 2003, he began working as a sideline reporter for their nationally syndicated NFL and NCAA broadcasts.

His baseball play-by-play experience included The Tucson Sidewinders of the PCL, The Durham Bulls of the International League, the Arizona Fall League games, as well as the Tampa Bay Rays. Herrera also hosted the weekly radio show "This Week in Rays Baseball", heard each Saturday during the season on the teams flagship station 620 WDAE in Tampa. Considered one of the best pre and post-game show hosts in America, he has hosted post-game call-in shows for the Giants, Athletics, Rays, and Padres.

Herrera was a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.

Since August 2012, Rich has worked as a sports talk show host with "98.7 The Fan", WHFS-FM. He hosted an afternoon drive with retired NFL lineman Booger McFarland and later hosted the evening program, "Out of Bounds," from 7PM-10PM Eastern.^[7]

In October 2020, Rich returned to KCUB (AM) Tucson, AZ, to serve as programming director and local afternoon-drive host. He also hosted pre- and post-game coverage of The University of Arizona's football and men's basketball broadcasts until 2023. ^[8]

Volunteer[edit]

Herrera's charity work includes The Children's Dream Fund, Make a Wish Foundation, and Northeast Little League—St Pete, Florida. He served on the Heart Gallery board of directors and The US Merchant Marine Academy Arizona Parents Association. He sits on his local House of Representatives Congressional Service Academy nomination committee. He also hosted the All-Service Academy Balls in Arizona and the Richard Nixon Library in Southern California.

Personal[edit]

Herrera is married to his wife Elizabeth and has a son, an aspiring US Naval Officer working on his degree to earn his commission. He resides in Tucson, Arizona.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Sports USA Radio Network