Charlie Kearns

Charlie Kearns
Inducted: 2009

This father-son team has been The Voice of WKTY radio in La Crosse since it signed on the air in 1948. Charlie hosted WKTY’s morning show, “The Lead Balloon” from the day it signed on the air in 1948 and upon his death in 1981, his son Mike took over the show. Together, the father-son team has also been the Voice of Sports in the La Crosse region since 1948. Charlie was the station’s first Sports Director and Mike assumed the position in 1981. Together, they have delivered play-by-play on over 1,200 football games and 6,000 basketball in their over 68 years behind the WKTY microphone. Charlie was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, a sports reporter for the Duluth Herald Tribune and had his first radio job as a sports director of KSJB radio in Jamestown, North Dakota before moving to WKTY in 1948. Mike attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Brown Institute, learned the radio craft and the art of sportscasting from his father, and celebrated his 35th year on the air at WKTY in 2008.