A longtime member of the KDKA Radio family has died. News Radio KDKA looks back at the career of the late Bob Kmetz.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019t 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,\u201d said Kmetz.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d said Kmetz.<\/p>\n
Kmetz worked with KDKA legends like Jack Bogut, John Hadar, Ed Shaughnessy and Bill Steinbach<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d said Kmetz.<\/p>\n
And for more than 30 years, thousands and thousands of listeners knew that he did.<\/p>\n
Bob Kmetz worked at KDKA until his retirement in 2004. He was 83.<\/p>\n