You might recognize Harold Mann’s voice from the “Coach’s Show with LU football coach Pete Rossomando which is broadcast every Wednesday from the Rec Center Patio. Or maybe you recognize the radio personality’s voice from his show on KLVI 560. Or maybe you recognize him from his radio coverage of LU sports.
After four decades on the air, the news and sports director for iHeart Beaumont was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, Nov.1.
Harold grew up in a radio studio. His father was a disc jockey and Harold expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“It's just always been part of my life,” he said, “Don’t know if I could do anything else. That's been my life. I mean, it's the only thing I've ever done since I was a little kid — going back into a little studio and playing around when my dad was doing something in his office.”
As well as playing records, Harold’s father would broadcast local high school games in his hometown of Fall City, Nebraska. When the younger Mann was a junior in high school, he helped his father in the booth.
“My big thing was getting to reading the stats at halftime,” he said. “That was all I got to do, and maybe comment now and then.”
However, one day Harold unexpectedly found himself behind the mic during a basketball game. His father would leave the arena to smoke a cigarette at half time while Harold read off the stats. Typically, his father would be back for the third quarter, but on this day his father didn’t come back in time.
Instead of panicking, Harold broadcast the rest of the game. When he left the arena, he found out his dad was sitting in his car listening to see how Harold would handle that situation.
“I'm like, OK, what's going on?’” Harold said. “So, I just started broadcasting the game. He basically, set me up from the room to start doing that.”
After that experience, Harold realized he finally found his calling and continued to broadcast in the Midwest, in Tarkio, Missouri, until 1984 when he decided to move to Marble City, Texas to be closer to family.
Harold finally moved to Southeast Texas in 1991 when he was asked to broadcast his first Lamar women’s basketball against the University of Houston.
“I was down here, and I was working over in Orange for a year — this was a bigger opportunity,” he said. “I contacted them, and it fell into place. I started doing Lamar basketball later that year and eventually worked into some baseball games and I’ve been going strong ever since.”
Harold said working at KLVI offers him a chance to work with a great group of radio men, who are also in the radio hall of fame.
“We've got Al Caldwell here, an 89-year-old guy. We got Jim Love here. We have three of our members of our morning show in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, and that's pretty cool,” Harold said. “I don’t know of any other radio station, in the state or the country, that can say three members of the morning show are in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame that went in individually. They're a big part of what I've done radio-wise.”
Harold said he has also found guidance within the Lamar athletics department, especially Dave Hofferth, his former broadcast partner, and Jack Pieper .
“Dave did Lamar athletics for us at KLVI for 30 years, and I took over for him, and I worked with him at times,” Harold said. “When we shared broadcasts, I'd do some games, he’d broadcast some games. But Dave was a big influence on my radio career when it came to sports broadcasting. He gave me my chance to put my foot in the door at Lamar, and you know, I've been cool ever since.”
Jack Pieper was the news director at KLVI when Harold started in Beaumont.
“Jack, or “Slammer’ as we used to call him, I owe a lot to him when it comes to the sports side of things,” Harold said. “Those guys are true professionals.
“When I got here to KLVI in 1991, I thought I knew everything there was about radio. I didn't know anything. These guys taught me basically all what I know — and half what they know.”
Harold Mann joins a long list of larger-than-life Texas radio men, including Rod Ryan, Mike Rhyner, Craig Ryan and Bob ‘Tumbleweed Smith’ Lewis.
“You know I've lived in other states, and I can't even compare what Texas radio is compared to the others,” he said. “I've worked radio in Iowa, Missouri and Texas, and it's amazing the people you meet in this industry. We're family, and so is the radio industry in Texas.
“Everybody gets along. I go to different high school or college games in the state, and you become friends with other announcers, and we help each other out.”
Harold said Lamar University has also been an important part of his life, not just courtside calling the games. He became friends with the coaches and athletic staff. His fiancé, Jeri Ann, was a Lamar alumnae. Jeri Ann would often go to Lamar events with him until 2014, when she lost her battle with multiple sclerosis.
“I lost my fiancé about 10 years ago, and the way Lamar treated me was amazing.” Harold said.
After her death, before every football game that season, the players and coaches held a moment of silence, and every coach in the athletic department called or texted him to check on him, Harold said, with some even kind enough to show up to the funeral.
Lamar is a big part of his family, Harold said.
During his lengthy career, he has seen many changes in the radio industry, notably with technology. But the job remains the same.
“Honestly, I probably wouldn't change a thing,” he said. “It really wouldn't change a thing, because you really can't prepare for the future, technology-wise, if you don't know what it is.”
Looking back on his legacy, Harold said he’s grateful that things turned out the way they did, but most notably he’s grateful for being himself.
“My dad was Harold Mann, but he went by Hal Mann on the air,” Mann said. “And in my last two years of high school, I was Hal Mann Jr. Early on, I wanted to be me and develop my own identity on radio.”
Harold said he was excited when he was told he’d be inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame with his peers and co-hosts.
“(It was) awesome,” he said. “I mean, you look back and you see the guys I've worked with, and the talent I've come across in the state of Texas over the years — from the news guys across the state to sports guys,” he said.
It is clear that for Harold Mann, radio is more than just a job. It’s an extended family.
“Texas radio is special, it really is, and that's why being in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame is really cool,” he said. “I mean, you just look at the number of people here in Texas and the talent that has come out of the state of Texas and radio, and it's like, ‘Wow I'm part of that now.’”
