Jerry Schemmel back on KOA Colorado Rockies radio broadcasts

850 KOA has announced that longtime Colorado Rockies broadcaster Jerry Schemmel is back with the team after a two-year absence. Schemmel replaces Mike Rice, who replaced Schemmel before the start of the 2020 season.

Jerry Schemmel is back in the radio booth for the Colorado Rockies

Jerry Schemmel is rejoining the Colorado Rockies radio booth after he previously broadcast games on the radio with the Colorado Rockies from 2010 through 2019. He joined the Rockies after he was a broadcaster with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets from 1992 through 2010.

Schemmel previously broadcast baseball with the Billings Mustangs (who were an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in the Pioneer League) in 2007 and the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in the mid-2000s, when they were the Triple-A affiliate of the Rockies.

Schemmel was fired just before the pandemic in January 2020 when iHeartMedia (who owns 850 KOA) made massive cuts to their staffs around the country. Mike Rice, who was already on the staff of KOA as their sports director, was hired as his replacement.

However, there’s a reason why Schemmel is back with the team and Rice is out in the Rockies radio booth.

According to The Denver Post, Mike Rice is not vaccinated for COVID-19. For the first time since Rice was hired in 2020, the Rockies radio broadcasters will be traveling for road games.

The Rockies and MLB require that all personnel that would be on team flights must be vaccinated. In addition, to access the field and clubhouse, all personnel must be vaccinated so Rice would not be able to travel nor interview players and coaches on the field.

Schemmel will rejoin Jack Corrigan, who he worked with for all 10 of his seasons with the Rockies. Corrigan is entering his 20th season broadcasting games for the Rockies and his 37th overall.

He was previously a television broadcaster with the then-named Cleveland Indians for parts of 17 seasons, ending in 2001, when his station (WUAB) lost television rights to the then-named FOX Sports Net Ohio. They became the exclusive TV home of the Indians in 2002 after they started broadcasting some of their games in 1990.