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Michael Kay (born February 2, 1961), is the television play-by-play broadcaster of the New York Yankees, host of Centerstage on the YES Network, and the host of The Michael Kay Show heard on WEPN, WLIR-FM, WNJE, and XM141.

Biography

Early life and education

As a native of The Bronx, and a nephew of actor Danny Aiello, Kay began reporting as a youth at the Bronx High School of Science and then at Fordham University for WFUV. Receiving a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Fordham University, Kay is part of a successful line of Fordham alumni sportscasters including Vin Scully, Bob Papa, Mike Breen, and Chris Carrino.

Broadcasting career

Kay started his professional career as a New York sports reporter writing for the New York Post in 1982 as a general assignment writer, with specific assignments to college basketball, the Nets, the NBA coming over time. He received the Yankees assignment in 1987. In 1989, Kay left the Post for the New York Daily News, still primarily working on the Yankees. At this time, Kay also served as the Madison Square Garden Network Yankee reporter starting in 1989. From 1992 to 1999, he also served as MSG's locker room reporter for the New York Knicks. He had previously worked for the network as a contributor on the news-format sports show SportsNight. Kay left the Daily News to host a sports talk show on WABC in 1992, briefly returning to write "Kay's Korner" for the News in 1993, before taking the microphone job for radio broadcasts New York Yankee games beside John Sterling. In 2008, he served as a play-by-play for ESPN Radio during the 2008 NLDS.

Announcer for the New York Yankees

Kay spent a decade partnered with John Sterling as the radio announcers of the team on WABC-AM. Kay and Sterling also paired together in 1998 for Sports Talk with John Sterling and Michael Kay, a nightly radio show which aired on WABC. During the baseball season, the duo hosted Yankee Talk, a weekend pre-game radio show. From 1992 to 1993 Kay hosted his own show on WABC. Kay continued during that time as a spot reporter on ABC radio, doing off-season shows with Sterling and as a fill-in sports reporter for Channel 7 Eyewitness News New York. When ESPN launched an AM station, Kay moved downtown to 2 Penn Plaza to host a radio show on ESPN's WEPN from 10AM to 1PM. (See below)

On radio and TV, Kay has been best known for yelling "See-ya!" during his home run calls and noting the time of the game during the recap, often using the word 'unmanageable' if the game was longer than 3 hours. As a radio broadcaster one of Kay's best known trademarks was describing the uniforms of the Yankees and their opponent, this description typically ended with him describing the back of the Yankees' jersey as having "no name, of course."

When WCBS-AM acquired the radio rights to the Yankees broadcasts in 2002, Kay moved to the debuting YES Network on television and Sterling remained on the radio. Kay has been the Yankees' lead television play-by-play announcer since this time.

Late in the 2006 baseball season, Kay was sporadically absent from both the YES Network and his ESPN Radio Show while tending to his ailing mother who was battling with Alzheimer's Disease. On September 11, 2006, it was announced by Ken Singleton during the New York Yankee broadcast that Kay's mother, Rose, had died. Kay returned to announce for the Yankees on September 18th, after a hiatus of 27 days.

In 2008 MLB invited Kay to call the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium during that year's All Star festivities.

Since the late 1990s, Kay and Sterling have co-emceed the Yankees' annual Old-timers day ceremony (following in the tradition of the late Mel Allen and Frank Messer), players' number retirements, and the City Hall celebrations after Yankees' World Series victories.

Kay and Sterling also provided play-by-play commentary for Nintendo 64's All-Star Baseball video game from 1999 to 2001.

On September 21 2008, Kay joined Jon Miller and Joe Morgan to call the seventh inning of ESPN's broadcast of the final home game at Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. According to Miller, Kay was brought in because ESPN felt that they should include the local aspects of broadcasting for the Yankees for this special game, as the YES Network's coverage was blacked out. Later that year, Kay was selected to call one of the 2008 National League Division Series for ESPN Radio.

The Michael Kay Show

Kay currently hosts a drive-time talk show on 1050 ESPN Radio, as well as the YES Network's CenterStage, a sports and entertainment interview-format show. On Monday January 5, Michael Kay announced that The Michael Kay show will air from 2PM to 7PM starting on Monday, January 12, 2009.

Awards

In 2007, Kay was nominated for a number of New York Emmy Awards for his work with the YES Network, both for Yankees broadcasts and for his highly rated talk show Centerstage. Kay won one New York Emmy for his work on the YES Network as part of the team of the NYY broadcast: New York Yankees Baseball “Manny vs. NY – Yankees/Red Sox- 5/24/06.” (YES Network).

In 1998, he was on the MSG team that won an Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Coverage—Series. In 1996 and 1997 he was a member of the MSG team that won Emmys for Outstanding Live Sports Coverage—Single Program for Dwight Gooden's no-hitter and The Battle for New York: Yankees vs. Mets.

Kay was also awarded the Dick Young Award for Excellence in Sports Media by the New York Pro Baseball Scouts in 1995 and the award for Best Sports Reporter at the 2000 New York Metro Achievement in Radio Awards.

References

1. ^ "Michael Kay". Broadcasters. New York Yankees. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
2. "Biography for Danny Aiello". Danny Aiello. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
3. "And the nominees are..." (Microsoft Office Word). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences—New York Chapter. February 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
4. "And the winners are..." (Microsoft Office Word). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences—New York Chapter. April 1, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-16.

Residence

Michael resides in Paramus, New Jersey with his girlfriend Kim Jones.

External links

• Michael Kay at IMDb
• ESPN Radio Biography

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• Living people
• LIVING deaths
• YES Network
• American sports radio personalities
• Major League Baseball announcers
• New York Yankees
• Bronx High School of Science alumni
• Fordham University alumni
• Radio programs on XM Radio