SALT LAKE CITY — After Friday, Fred Ball is going to stop "speaking on business." But he has no intention of simply fading away.
It's a second retirement for Ball, well known to radio listeners throughout Utah and Idaho, where for the past 13 years he has been the voice of Zions Bank's advertising segment "Speaking on Business."
Before becoming the voice of that segment, which highlights a local business with whom the bank has a relationship, local listeners knew him as the voice of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Metro Business Report, which he did for nine years.
Both were a good fit. He'd gotten his master's in business administration from Stanford University, then spent a quarter-century as the chief executive officer and president of the chamber, leading to that first retirement. He was a key player in efforts to bring the Olympics to Utah and had said that if Salt Lake City indeed snagged the 2002 Winter Games, he would happily retire. When the International Olympic Committee made its announcement, he made his own, both coming from Budapest, Hungary, in June 1995.
It was a short retirement.
Not long after, Zions Bank wooed him to become a senior vice president in its loan origination department — a nod, he now says, to his extraordinary business contacts. His job was "to be a rainmaker and bring business to the bank," which he did with gusto.
A year in, Zions launched "Speaking on Business." As the radio segment became more popular, Zions expanded the number of stations on which it purchased time to run the program, Ball said, going not only statewide but into Idaho. And that, in turn, meant broadening the pool of businesses highlighted to include those outside the Wasatch Front, as well as in it.
"As we added more radio stations, I spent more time traveling to interview local companies where the other stations were and less time on loan origination," he said. The two-minute, drive-time segment "basically became a full-time job."
But a decade after beating pancreatic cancer, Ball's health has faltered, and he very recently spent five months in the hospital, he told the Deseret News. Now, he's home recuperating, but at 77, he said he figures it's time to take a break and spend more time with his bride of 56 years, Joyce, their four daughters and 18 grandchildren. And he has outside interests he would like to pursue, including work with the American Cancer Society, on whose board he serves.
Besides that, he has turned down a lot of speaking assignments over the years because of illness and lack of time. "I'm going to start accepting those again," he said.
In his final broadcast, Ball, who was born in Ogden and has spent most of his life in Utah, says he has highlighted 2,500 businesses, from tiny to large, and marvels at the entrepreneurial spirit in the area. Getting into his car after an interview, he said, he would often wonder, "Gee, why didn't I think of that?"
The final segment will be followed by a tribute to Ball by Scott Anderson, president and CEO of Zions Bank, who hails Ball as "the voice of business" on Utah radio.
The bank plans to continue "Speaking on Business," but a replacement for Ball has not been selected, according to Tammy Walquist, a Zions spokeswoman.
e-mail: lois@desnews.com