Van Osdol & Magruder Client Spotlight: Fred White, Royals Announcer Who Still Rules The Airwaves

Fred White’s last television broadcast was the Big 12 Basketball Tournament in 2010. After more than 30 years as the voice of the Kansas City Royals and many other sporting teams on radio and television, Fred White, along with his wife Barbara, decided to become radio station owners. Fred and Barb bought the radio station in her home town of Russell, Kansas, several years ago with help from Van Osdol and Magruder and Bob Beachy. As owners of KRSL in Russell, Fred and Barbara developed a new perspective on the radio business. They have since added stations in Missouri and Arkansas. Now they have to worry about payroll, personnel and copyright issues among many others, but they have enjoyed owning the stations. Fred says Bob has helped them with the business side of the radio industry. On the other side of the microphone, Fred was one of ESPN’s original on air talents and has done play by play all over the country. For a number of years he called the Big 12 regular season and postseason tournament games on television. He has broadcast Major League Baseball, college football and basketball, NBA, NFL and Canadian football games. Originally from Homer, Illinois. Fred became sports director for WIBW in Topeka in 1967 and has since broadcast seven NCAA Final Fours, 11 college football bowl games, two Canadian Grey Cup games, and seven American League Championship Series and two World Series. When Bob Beachy helped him negotiate his current position with the Royals as director of alumni relations and Royals network coordinator, Fred was also actively doing work for local Cable station Metrosports TV including a series on home town heroes. As he starts his 40th season with the Royals, Fred is actually one of Kansas City’s home town heroes in his own right.