Ira C. Smith is an American

public address A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

announcer who has worked for the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. Since 1976, Smith has been called the ''Voice of Napa Valley Sports ''for

KVON KVON (1440 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a Spanish AC radio format. Licensed to Napa, California, it serves the Napa County/Sonoma County region of Northern California. The station is owned by Wilfred Alexander Marcencia an ...

and

KVYN KVYN (99.3 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Saint Helena, California, and serving the Napa Valley and Wine Country of Northern California. The station broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) radio format and is owned by lic ...

, covering many local sports.

Early life and military service

Smith was born and raised in Plum Tree, Indiana. He grew up listening to sportscasters

Hilliard Gates Hilliard Gates (December 14, 1915 – November 21, 1996) was an American sportscaster who was widely regarded as the founding father of Indiana sports broadcasting and the leading sportscaster in Indiana for decades. Early days Born Hilliard ...

and

Chris Schenkel Christopher Eugene Schenkel (August 21, 1923 – September 11, 2005) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and bar ...

. He graduated from

Hanover College Hanover College is a private college in Hanover, Indiana, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Founded in 1827 by Reverend John Finley Crowe, it is Indiana's oldest private college. The Hanover athletic teams participate in the H ...

with a degree in business administration. He was then drafted into the Army. A major assigned him to the Army Public Information Office as a Broadcast Specialist because of the sound of his voice.

Career

After leaving the military, Ira started his civilian career in radio management and sportscasting. In the 1960s, he was the University of Cincinnati's sports director of their radio station, broadcasting Cincinnati Royals' games. Along the way Ira worked at

WHLT WHLT (channel 22) is a television station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and has studios on US 49 in Hattiesburg; its transmitter is located in uninco ...

in Columbia City, Indiana (4 years),

WMRI WMRI (860 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a sports format. Licensed to Marion, Indiana, United States, the station serves the Muncie-Marion area. The station is currently owned by Hoosier AM/FM LLC and features programming from ESPN Radio ...

AM and FM in

Marion, Indiana Marion is a city in Grant County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,948 as of the 2010 United States Census. The city is the county seat of Grant County. It is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from South Carolina in the ...

(2 years) and WVMO in

Monroe, Michigan Monroe is the largest city and county seat of Monroe County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Monroe had a population of 20,462 in the 2020 census. The city is bordered on the south by Monroe Charter Township, but the two are administered autonomo ...

where he also, for six years, broadcast

University of Michigan football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the List of NCAA football teams by wins, most all-time wins in college football ...

. In 1975, Smith moved to the

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

to become KVON's Sports Director. Since 1976, he has been called the ''Voice of Napa Valley Sports'' for KVON and

, covering many local sports. He has announced over 600 football and 1,300 basketball games in the Napa Valley area. In 2000, with the death of long-time

public address announcer Fred Anderson, the Kings held auditions for the position. Smith sent his audition tape, and for the final test, he had to broadcast half of a game between the Kings and the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

, while the other finalist, Eric Hasseltine, broadcast the other half. He passed the audition and joined the Kings' staff that year. From 2000 to 2003, Smith was the main public address announcer for the team and from the 2003–04 season onward, he shared the public address announcing duties with

Scott Moak Scott Moak is an American public address announcer best known for his work for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He previously worked for the Kings as Vice President of game entertainment, production and content, as well ...

. They worked together until he left in 2007. Smith provided the voice of the Public Address Announcer in ESPN's

NBA 2K2 ''NBA 2K2'' is a 2001 sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega for Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. ''NBA 2K2'' featured more street courts such as Mosswood, Fonde Rec Center, Venice Beach, etc. The cover ...

NBA 2K3 ''NBA 2K3'' is a 2002 sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was the first of three consecutive ''NBA 2K'' games to be produced with licensing from ESPN (however, the ESPN l ...

, and NBA 2K4 video games. He has also emceed Sacramento's Harvest Festival for over 20 years.

Community involvement

Smith has served as past president of the

Kiwanis Club Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Since 1987, the organizatio ...

for Napa and past president of the Napa Valley Tennis Association. He received the Napa Chamber of Commerce "Volunteer of the Year" award. He was also an ambassador for the Napa Chamber of Commerce, and was honored as its Ambassador of the Year in 2017.

Honors

Smith was inducted into the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame on March 5, 2022. On September 10, 2022, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame and inducted him. On November 2, 2022, he was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Smith has two sons, Brad and Tyler Smith, and a daughter, Heidi Horton.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Hanover College alumni National Basketball Association public address announcers Sacramento Kings personnel {{US-basketball-bio-stub