Hal Gibney

Harold T. "Hal" Gibney (August 26, 1911 – June 5, 1973) was NBC's West Coast announcer for more than 20 years.

He was best known as the announcer for The Six Shooter and The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also known as the announcer for the radio and the original television version of Dragnet.

Career

Radio

Early radio career

Gibney first started out in radio at KTAB, (now KZAC) in San Francisco, California. He was an announcer there. In March 1935, Gibney relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he joined the announcing staff of both Portland-based radio stations KGW, (now KPOJ) and KEX. Gibney's first noted announcing job was the KEX broadcast of the homecoming of the Oregon National Guard from Fort Lewis on June 25, 1935. He was joined by Van Fleming and Larry Keating.

Gibney, alternating with Fenneman, was known for announcing the opening of the show which went:

Gibney stayed with the show until its end on the radio on February 26, 1957.

Other shows

Gibney served as the announcer for The Penny Singleton Show. The series premiered as a summer replacement series on May 30, 1950, on NBC radio. The series starred Penny Singleton, Jim Backus and Gale Gordon. He was also the announcer for the entire two-year run of Tales of the Texas Rangers starring Joel McCrea.

On September 23, 1953, Gibney began announcing another memorable radio program; The Six Shooter. The series starred James Stewart as Britt Ponset, a drifting cowboy during the final years of the wild west.

A typical opening that Gibney would announce would be the following:

Gibney was later replaced as announcer by John Wald beginning in January 1954. The series ended June 25 of that year.

Television

Gibney first announced for a television show when the successful radio show Dragnet, (which Gibney also announced), premiered on NBC Television. The television version premiered on January 3, 1952. Gibney first announced for the show starting with the third episode.

Also starting with episode 3, each show ended with epilogue of sorts, narrated by Gibney, in which it was told the fate of the criminal and parties involved with the crime mentioned in any given episode. An example of this can be found below:

Gibney stayed with the show until its end on August 23, 1959.

Gibney also was the announcer for the original run of The Mickey Mouse Club on ABC from 1955 to 1959.

Later years

On July 7, 1954, Gibney bought radio station KPAY in Chico, California. 17 months later, on December 28, 1955, a transfer of power was put into effect for $87,750. Power was transferred from Gibney to Jack O. Gross. He was survived by wife Julie. Gibney's funeral was held on June 8, 1973 at the Goleta Cemetery District.