Mike Murphy Bio

River Radio Sports Director Mike Murphy, a three time winner of the Illinois Broadcasters Association Silver Dome Award and member of the Illinois High School Basketball Association Hall of Fame, has been a part of the Southern Illinois sports scene for over thirty years.

 Mike began his broadcast career at WJPF in Herrin in 1976, working with Sports Director Mike Powell and broadcast partner T.J. Creek.

 When Powell left for a radio job in California, Mike took over and later became General Manager of WJPF.  He  later followed Powell to San Luis Obispo, California to become the voice of the Cal Poly Mustangs.  He returned to Southern Illinois a year later after the radio station was sold to a group of New York investors.

  After another turn as General Manager at WJPF, Mike eventually moved his radio talents to WEBQ  99.9 FM when they opened their new studios in Carbondale and became the flagship station for Saluki Sports.  During the 1988 SIU Football season he was part of the broadcast team doing on the field reports and then became the play-by-play voice of Saluki Basketball for the 1988-89 Basketball Season that featured Freddie McSwain, Rick Shipley and Kai Nurnberger. The break-out season for coach Rich Herrin’s squad featured a huge early season upset win over Villanova in Puerto Rico as well as a return to post season play for the first time in eleven years with an appearance in the N-I-T.  Mike also served as General Manager of WEBQ until he left in the spring of 1990 to become a private detective for Eastern Investigations in Orlando, Florida.

 Mike moved back to Southern Illinois two years later and began a stretch as News & Sports Director at WJPF with Bob Ferrari until 1996 when he assumed the same duties at WUEZ 103.5 FM. 

 Murphy eventually found his way back to WJPF in Herrin as they merged with Zimmer Radio which included WCIL-AM & FM, WOOZ, WXLT, and WUEZ.  During the next decade he worked under Sports Director Mike Reis and had the “tough job” of filling in for Reis doing SIU Basketball Play-By-Play in Las Vegas, Hawaii, Anaheim, and the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage.

 Besides SIU Sports, Murphy lists favorite broadcast memories as calling the 1982 Class 1A State Football Championship with Zeigler-Royalton, the Carterville Lions ’96 Class 3A Football Championship over Spring Valley Hall, Herrin Basketball’s 2002 second place finish at State in Peoria, and the 2004 Herrin Football Season under John Helmick, featuring Kyle Walker, that ended in the semi-finals at Lombard Montini.

 Mike and his current broadcast partner, Scott Hudson have been working together since 1997 and are hosts of the popular Saturday morning call-in talk show Sportsvoice.  They also can be heard during the SIU Football and Basketball season before every home game with Sportsvoice on Location.

 Murphy was inducted into the Herrin High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, and is a 1974 graduate of Herrin High School.  He takes great pride in being the Radio Voice of the Tigers for the past 33 years. He also graduated from John A. Logan College in 1976 and played for the basketball Volunteers in 1975.  He is still one of the featured announcers on the long-running John A. Logan Basketball Network. He received his degree in 1978 from Southern Illinois University majoring in Radio-Television with a minor in Journalism.  He has also written sports for the Southern Illinoisan Newspaper, the Marion Daily Republican and writes his popular Murf’s Turf column (now featured on the 103.5 ESPN website) for the monthly area sports publication SISC.