The Northern California sports fan is spoiled by a collection of first-rate radio and television broadcasters who bring more than a list of statistics and enthusiasm for the home team to each game.

The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders have had mostly brilliant play-by-play announcers. Lon Simmons was the voice of the Niners from 1957 to 1980 and again for two more seasons starting in 1987.

Bill King was the voice of the Raiders for roughly the same period. I know they built Hall of Fame careers broadcasting baseball, but it’s their work on pro football that I’m thinking about now.

The 49ers are in the market for a new play-by-play guy and it’s going to be impossible to find a voice who provides what Simmons and King — and current Raiders’ voice Greg Papa — have provided over the years.

Given that I grew up with Simmons, I never really took to Joe Starkey during his time doing the Niners’ broadcasts. Starkey’s OK, which is still good since he’s being compared to Simmons and King.

I just felt like Starkey was a better fit for Cal football — a bit too much of the sometimes excited, sometimes shrill, fan. Plus, Simmons and King made me smile more in one game than Starkey has in his entire career.

Still, if Starkey was just OK in comparison to Simmons — what’s the guy who takes his job alongside 49ers analyst Gary Plummer going to sound like?

Who could it be?

The 49ers have stayed close to home to hire their lead announcers. Bob Fouts was a Bay Area media star when he took the play-by-play job in the 1950s.

When Simmons ascended to the top job, Fouts went on to do West Coast regional TV work. When Simmons left the Niners in 1980, the club turned to longtime Stanford announcer Don Klein, who did a Starkey-like job in the early Super Bowl era. When Klein retired, Simmons came back for two seasons.

Then, along came Starkey at about the time the 49ers signed on to make KGO, Starkey’s employer, their flagship station.

Word is that the leading candidate to replace him is former Giants and A’s broadcaster Ted Robinson, who did Stanford football for years before the Cardinal turned to Dave Flemming.

Robinson’s the lead announcer for NBC’s tennis coverage of Wimbledon and the French Open. He works the U.S. Open for the USA Network.

I’m a Robinson fan, but this 49ers’ gig simply can’t be handed to the first guy with local connections.

Flemming’s built a reputation calling Giants baseball, but he’s a supporting player in a pretty star-studded cast.

His work on Stanford football the last two years was solid, but it’s still hard to believe KNBR and the 49ers would pass over the 53-year-old Robinson for the 31-year-old Flemming.

Dan Fouts, Bob’s son and the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback of the San Diego Chargers, was a sports anchor at KPIX. Then, he worked color on ABC’s Monday Night Football before winding up doing play-by-play of ABC’s regional Pac-10 football coverage.

Fouts lost that job and spent this season doing color analysis of the NFL on CBS, but he’s buried way down the depth chart.

Fouts has name recognition among NFL fans. I actually think he’s got talent and I like his general take on NFL football. It’s a huge jump from TV to radio, though, and Fouts is absolutely unproven as a radio broadcaster.

Longshot, a real longshot, would be Barry Tompkins. I like his work on Pac-10 football on Comcast Sports — basketball and football.

He lives in Marin County and started his career at KPIX, but he’s in his mid-60s.

I’d lean to Robinson.

He’s articulate and doesn’t let the natural tendency to pull for the team he covers shade his play calling.

Robinson makes observations and leaves the rambling criticism to his analyst.

And, that’s one reason I’d love to see Plummer sent packing and Fouts brought in to do analysis with Robinson. I like my announcers to be honest with me.

The 49ers and KNBR want sugar-coated analysis.

If not Robinson then ... Flemming over anybody from outside the Bay Area.

Oh, yeah, I did think about it.

But, Simmons is well into his 80s and probably couldn’t be lured from his home in Hawaii just to make a bunch of baby boomer 49ers fans happy for a year or two.

Ted Sillanpaa can be reached at tsillanpaa@napanews.com or 256-2220.