He sat out the 2020 season due to health concerns, with Amelia Schimmel taking his place. He planned to return for the 2021 season, but he died on January 29, 2021. On March 9, 2021, the A's announced Schimmel as Callahan's permanent successor. Previous broadcasters Philadelphia years In 1938, a young Texan named Byrum Saam became the first radio voice of the A's. Saam, later joined by Claude Haring, broadcast all the Athletics’ home games on station WIBG. Because Saam and Haring also broadcast Phillies’ home games as well, A's road games were only broadcast when there was no conflict with a Phillies home game. Even so, the team's road game broadcasts were what were called "ticker tape games" in that era. Saam and Haring would broadcast from studios in Philadelphia, reconstructing the game from telegraphic feeds brought in by assistants. Beginning in 1950, the Athletics began broadcasting all games, home and away, on WIBG with Saam and Haring accompanying the team on road trips. (The Phillies hired their own announcers in 1950 and broadcast their games on a different radio station.) Their tenure as A's broadcast announcers came to an end after the 1954 season, when the team was sold and moved. Kansas City years When the Athletics moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season, Merle Harmon and Billy Ray were hired as play-by-play announcers. Harmon remained the voice of the A's until 1962, when then-owner Charles O. Finley replaced him with Monte Moore, an Oklahoma native along with George Bryson a veteran announcer from the Cincinnati Reds. On September 16, 1964, Betty Caywood, previously a television weather analyst, was hired by owner Finley to join the broadcasting crew, becoming the first female play-by-play broadcaster in major league baseball. She finished out the 1964 season, but did not return in 1965. Since the move to Oakland Moore came west with the team's move to Oakland in 1968, remaining the team's principal radio/TV voice through the 1977 season. He was hired by NBC to announce the Saturday Game of the Week with Wes Parker and Maury Wills. He also was the announcer with Parker on the USA Network's USA Thursday Game of the Week. He came out of retirement in 1988 when the A's asked him to be the announcer on the A's telecasts with Ray Fosse as analyst. Moore broadcast those games through the 1992 season, commuting from