Fred White dies at 76. Fred White, a Royals radio voice for 25 years, died Wednesday due to complications from melanoma, a day after announcing his retirement following a 40-year relationship with the club.

White teamed with Denny Matthews on broadcasts from 1973-98, and since had served as the team’s director of broadcast services and the Royals Alumni.

His retirement was due to health issues, and he died in hospice care.

“Fred White has been synonymous with Royals baseball as long as anybody can remember,” Mike Swanson, Royals vice president of communications and broadcasting, when the team announced White’s retirement.

In 1973 he began a 40-year tenure with the Royals, with 25 of those years spent in the radio booth with partner Denny Matthews. In an era before the explosion of baseball coverage on cable television, the team of “Fred and Denny” carried word of the Royals’ exploits in the club’s glory years through a Midwest radio network that was one of the largest in Major League Baseball at the time. White was in the broadcast booth of the team’s two World Series appearances (1980 and 1985, the championship season) and numerous post-season playoffs.

An Illinois native who began his broadcasting career in the Midwest, White also was a play-by-play man on Big Eight, and later Big 12, network basketball telecasts. He also often called basketball games for ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and Turner Broadcasting.

White’s time as part of the Royals’ broadcast team ended in 1998 when the team and radio rights holder Entercom made a lineup change. But he continued to call occasional games while taking on new duties as the Royals’ director of broadcast services and head of the Royals alumni organization.

The Royals announced his official retirement from the organization Tuesday.

Funeral arrangements are pending. The story is still being developed.