Napa Valley's Ira C. Smith: Celebrating a 60-Year Legacy

Napa Valley radio legend Ira C. Smith passed away at 88. His celebration of life will be on August 24 at 11 am at the Napa High Gym.Photo bywww.legacy.com Ira C. Smith webpage.

Napa sports and radio legend Ira C. Smith touched 3 generations of lives in the Napa Valley. Now many will get a chance to say one last thank you and goodbye.

On Saturday, August 24 at 11 a.m., there will be a “Celebration of Life” for Ira in the Messner Gym on the campus of Napa High School. Smith passed away on July 22^nd at the age of 88 after a 60-year career as a radio sports broadcaster. His family stated that it was due to a heart issue, and they had a private service in Indiana, where he was born. He moved to Napa in 1976 and never left.

His booming voice was a mainstay in calling Napa Valley's high school sports. Along with his radio broadcasting, he was also the sports director for longtime Napa radio stations KVON-AM 1440 and KVYN-FM 99.3, which were bought by Wine Down Media in 2017. Ira was working until his last days, recently calling a high school baseball game and also getting ready for the upcoming high school football season.

The ultimate for any Napa Valley athlete was getting your name mentioned by Ira on air. With his amazing voice, it was like a professional broadcast. His presence will be greatly missed, especially in football and basketball. He broadcast all of the major sports for the Napa Valley.

The co-owner of Wine Down Media, Will Marcencia told the Napa Register. “We already had a football broadcast schedule for this fall that he had completed and just turned in to us last week, starting with the jamboree (four-team scrimmage) on Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. from Memorial Stadium. It would have been season 49 for him,” Marcencia said Monday morning.

Ira did it all. He announced University of Michigan football for a time. For several years he was the in-arena public address announcer for the Sacramento Kings, and he voiced the first "NBA 2K" video game. He hosted several awards shows and dinners and was the presenter and master of ceremonies for many events. He won many awards and was honored several times by various city and sports organizations, including the Napa Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club of Napa, and the Napa Valley Tennis Association. .

He was very proud to be a Napan and loyal to the people of the Napa Valley. Napa residents will remember Ira staying on air during the horrible fires and feeling a sense of responsibility to his community to be a steady voice and to give information to those that needed a comforting voice or a little reassurance. A true Napa legend that will always be a part of the spirit of the Napa Valley.