Gil Haar, Longtime Bay Area Radio Newsman, Dies at 92; Worked at KCBS-AM and KYUU

By KEVIN WING | Chairperson, Media Museum of Northern California

Gil Haar, a beloved Bay Area radio pioneer considered a legend in the broadcasting industry who became best known for his memorable, signature sign-off after every radio newscast with “And that’s the news.. so now you know. I’m Gil Haar”, has died at the age of 92.

Gil Haar

Haar, of Millbrae, died Sept. 12, according to his friend and Bay Area radio colleague, John Evans. Haar passed away at Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame.

Born Eugene Lewis Gelhaar on April 18, 1930, in Kansas City, Missouri, his burgeoning radio career brought him to San Francisco in 1958. He began as a teen radio broadcaster in Kansas City before heading off to Wyoming in 1952, when he worked as a program director at KVWO in Cheyenne.

Remaining there for two years, Haar was the station’s program director. He then worked at KFBC radio and KFBC-TV in Cheyenne in 1956. His career eventually brought him to California in 1958. He became a newscaster at KMJ radio in Fresno, where he would remain until 1966.

That year, Haar was hired as news director at KNEW radio in Oakland, where he would remain for nearly a decade, until 1975.

Before retiring in the late 1990s, Haar became known to a new generation of radio listeners with long tenures at San Francisco’s KCBS-AM and KYUU.

A multi-award-winning radio journalist, Haar was the recipient of numerous honors, including best newscast from the California Associated Press Television Radio Association and best spot news from the California United Press International Broadcasters Association. He was a longtime member of the Northern California Radio Television News Directors Association, to which he also served on its board as secretary and vice president. Haar also served as president of the Northern California Chapter of Sigma Delta Chi.

Evans described Haar this way: “Under that tough exterior was a gentle giant, a gracious mentor and teacher, a man with a deep respect for journalism, radio news, storytelling.”

Haar was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Noralee, whom he cared for faithfully for many years after she became ill.  He is survived by his children, Meredith LaFlesh and her husband, Thomas, of Tacoma, Washington; Anastasia Pfluke and her husband, John, of Kihei, Hawaii; and Ned Gelhaar and his wife, Christina, of Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania; and by grandchildren Anthony Pfluke and Faith and Genevieve Gelhaar.