BOB SIMMS

Considered to be a legend by those in Northern California who have listened to his information-packed radio program, Bob Simms speaks for the sportsman in one of the most important markets in California ... Sacramento. As, that's where public lands policy is made.

Bob Simms has been reporting about the outdoors on radio, television and in print for over 50 years. The Bob Simms Outdoors Show on KFBK-1530AM (5 - 8 a.m., Sat.) has been on the air for 32 years and is the top-rated radio program in its time slot in Northern California, exclusive of the Bay Area.  

Simms is an advocate for the sportsman and woman, keeping public lands agencies accountable for their practices. He is a voice for wildlife politics, defending hunting and fishing as a revenue-producing, environmentally friendly resource management tool to policy makers and lands agency managers based in Sacramento.

His show is a forum in outdoor sports and recreation with sportfishing skippers, guides, outfitters, marina operators, hunters, retailers, public lands managers and sportsmen able to voice what's happening and, more importantly, what should be happening. 

He advocates for them and for the resource, speaking a lot about wildlife, conservation and stewardship and he looks out for sportsmen. When Simms learned that the soldiers guarding Saddam Hussein's palaces and their many lakes and ponds had no fishing gear, he arranged for loads of rods, reels and tackle to be shipped to them. 

Bob not only speaks outdoor sports, he lives it. Simms travels the breadth of California when he's not on the air, to experience the outdoors and meet the people who support it. An accomplished outdoorsman who is self-taught, he's mastered every type of fishing and hunting and knows every corner of California. Simms is so familiar with the backwoods that he's often able to recite who owned a given ranch and the history of the location.

It's no coincidence that the International Sportsmans Exposition in Sacramento is attended by tens of thousands of enthusiastic outdoorsmen and women, each year. Bob Simms' positive voice for outdoor sport and recreation has generated strong regional public support.

LARRY GREENE

Posthumous

To thousands of California anglers, 4:55 a.m. Monday through Saturday was a special time.  That's because for nearly 20 years the late Larry Greene's extremely popular “Fisherman's Forecast” radio show was broadcast through KCBS 740-AM out of San Francisco. 

 The highly informative program covered fishing reports for much of California and southern Oregon.  If fish were biting anywhere along that 1,000 mile axis, Larry let you know exactly what was going on.  Anyone who ever heard that show can never forget its parting line: “That's the 'Fisherman's Forecast'; I'm Larry Greene.”

 Larry's passion for sharing the joy of fishing went beyond radio.  His angling knowledge was made available through numerous books, countless magazine articles in regional and national publications, as a mentor, and as an instructor where he taught introductory and advanced fishing classes for over 10  years at Skyline Community College in San Bruno.

 And for close to 20 years Larry was Master of Ceremonies for the annual International Sportsmen's Exposition in San Mateo where he introduced featured seminar speakers to their audiences, and served as a de facto “Ambassador of Fishing” as he patrolled the show's aisles, conversing freely with exhibitors,  celebrities, and “Average Joe” show attendees alike.

 A champion of fisheries conservation, Larry was a huge supporter of the efforts in establishing United Anglers of California.

 Larry's angling expertise was garnered from almost 50 years of fishing practically every mile of both fresh and saltwater environs in California, plus adventures in several US states.

Larry died in 2002 when on special assignment for KCBS-TV2 as a cameraman off the coast of Iran when the U.S. Navy helicopter he was riding in crashed. Greene was covering U.S. servicemen serving in the Middle East.