CREDIT KANSAS ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS
By John Mesh
Brad Hallier, local sportscaster and Hutchinson Community College sports media adviser, is the 2025 Hod Humiston Award winner for Sports Broadcasting.
In 2017, Hallier, then sports editor of The Hutchinson News, also received the Oscar Stauffer Sportswriter of the Year Award.
Since 2017, Brad has been a dedicated voice for high school sports at Ad Astra Radio, calling football, basketball, baseball and softball games while also contributing to Ad Astra’s website.
“I’m truly honored and humbled to win this award,” Hallier said. “I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by great people throughout my broadcasting days. I want to thank especially Aaron Napier for taking a chance on me, and to Scott Hogan, for mentoring me and showing me the ropes in broadcasting.”
Napier is the VP and Chief Programming Officer at Ad Astra. Hogan is a fellow announcer at Ad Astra and is the longtime voice of Sterling College athletics.
A veteran journalist and educator, Hallier has shared his passion for storytelling with students at Hutchinson Community College, helping them build their careers in sports media.
Brad will be honored at the Student Broadcast & Sports Seminar on April 23.
The Hod Humiston Award is given annually to a Kansas broadcaster who has made significant contributions to the field of sports broadcasting as well as work in the community.
This is the second major award for a Hutchinson broadcaster this year.
Eagle Radio’s Hutchinson sportscaster Glen Grunwald received the KSHSAA Oscar Stauffer Sportscaster of the Year Award for 2025 during the Kansas Class 3A State Basketball tournament at the Sports Arena.
It was the second time Grunwald received this award, winning it for the first time in 2020. Grunwald was the 2017 Hod Humiston Award winner.
Other previous winners of the Hod Humiston Award are a Who’s Who in Kansas sports broadcasting: Mitch Holthus (the longtime voice of the Kansas City Chiefs), Bob Davis (Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas City Royals, who we lost on March 20 at the age of 80), Max Falkenstein (the longtime voice of the Kansas Jayhawks, who we lost in 2019 at the age of 95), Wyatt Thompson (the voice of the Kansas State Wildcats), Brian Hanni (the current voice of the Kansas Jayhawks) and Mike Kennedy (the voice of the Wichita State Shockers).
The award is named for Hod Humiston, the first television sportscaster in Kansas. He did play-by-play coverage of college games for KTVH (now KWCH TV), channel 12, Wichita.
Humiston was founder and a co-owner of KSKU radio and was also employed as an announcer for KWBW and KWHK radio stations in Hutchinson.
Humiston was instrumental in bringing the NJCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament to Hutchinson, where it has been since 1949.