it's a great honor to be here. my name is debby dirsh, san francisco native. i'd like to welcome you to the annual cable car bell ringing contest. i would like to introduce mr. ford. >> welcome to the 47th annual cable car bell ringing competition. this is one of a kind. this is a comptation -- competition for the world championship and thank you for coming. i also have to thank our cable car grip men and conductors. every day they help move people

around our city, they're great ambassadors and do a great job entertaining visitors to our fine city. we have two members from the mta board, bruce oka and malcolm hideke here today. i'd like to thank our judges. we have judges representing a lot of president businesses here in the union square area. with that, to all the mta employees and fine citizens of san francisco, thank you for joining us today and thank you for your support. >> matt ford, ladies and gentlemen. the bell ringing competition is a two-part event today. we have professionals competing for a number of prizes in the coveted title of world champion bell ringer. for the amateur portion we have executives from some of our local media outlets competing

for first, second, and third place trophies. the competition started with preliminaries. 37 contestants went through filling out the paperwork and a chance to proceed to the finals. all cable car crews were invited to compete. this year they have six finalists competing here at union square, competing against the two-time current champion mr. leonard oates. going to be tough. two years with the tiara, hard to give up. individual trophies welcome awarded to all six professional bell ringers. first, second, and third prizes will not only win trophies but a most -- host of prizes from our he steemed sponsors. we have the prize table right next to all the lovely doughnuts at this time we would like to thank our supporters and sponsors, without whom we

could not do this every year. the sfmta, muni, the friends of. cable car museum, the union square association, trophy masters, shanghai 1930, ghirardelli chocolates, the american automobile association, triple-a, the golden gealt disposal and recycling company, macy's and $250 cash prize donor san francisco can he -- deluxe silentseeing. let's hear it for our sponsors. yeah. all right. now i'm going to introduce all the judges. there are a whole bunch of them err and i would ask you to hold your applause until i have finished are introducing all the judges. if i hear applause we're going to have to start all over again and we're wasting daylight already. there is a newcomer, matt new

comer, triple-a staff staff. and long-time supporter, mr. gilberto gadoy, frens ever the cable car museum. he's the man who makes the beautiful bell that goes to the champion every year. linda is the executive director of the union square association and a co-response of this -- so he sponsor of this competition. cinderella echen is the owner of the shanghai 1930 restaurant. and the san francisco icon and door man of the francis drake hotel fore the last 800 years. it's only been really 32. pillar from the newspaper, david from uncle vito's pizza, maggie baxter from abc channel

7. i must turn the page. deputy chief antonio para, san francisco police department, lynn bruney, director of consumer marketting for the san francisco convention and visitors bureau and wes tyler, general manager, chancellor hotel on union square and president of the union square association. let's hear it for all those judges, ladies and gentlemen. now, these judges have a very, very difficult job. they have to rate the competitors. each bell ringer will be judged on rhythm, originality, and style. today we're going to find out who has the it factor and before the amateur competition stuff starts, i'd like to bring up a former bell-ringing champion, mr. carl payne, ladies and gentlemen. not one, not two, not three,

10-time bell-ringing champion. the only bell-ringing champion who is even close to this would be mr. byron cobb, who has five wins. and buddy, my second husband, what's the secret to winning? >> stay on god's good side. >> ah, that sounds good. now what we're going to do is ask you to go up and gib these fine people a sample of the championship bell-ringing that you have done since, oh, gosh, i can't even -- when cable car was in black and white. it's been a long time. mr. carl payne, the winningest cable car bell ringer ever. [ringing bell]

[applause] >> carl payne, ladies and gentlemen! fantastic. you're the best. carl payne. i know. now somebody has to follow that. let's introduce the amateur bell ringers and see what they can do, huh? what do you think? first up, a woman whose enthusiasm and support over the years has helped gain international recognition for this competition. last year's celebrity bell ringing second place winner, who has promised this year to try even harder. abc 7 and view from the bay host shanell wang. >> nice to see you again. i'm really nervous. i don't know why. because everybody is watching me. i'm really honored to be part

of this event because it -- this brings all the locals and visitors to san francisco and thank you to all the conductors and grim men that get me around town. thank you for that. i know some of you may have been here last year. i was unprepared. i didn't know you needed music, a group, an entourage, a posse so i got my freak on by myself the a little embarrassing but i'm willing to risk rong-term embarrassment for the cause. this year i brought backup. my crew. let's hit it. >> snow. got a, got aconfession ♪ ♪ want to grow up ♪

♪ want to see the world ♪ want to grow up ♪ want to grow up ♪ ♪ want to be in movies ♪ [applause] >> janelle wang, ladies and gentlemen, abc 7 view from the

bay and her 49er posse. thank you. fantastic. the judges are stunned already. ladies and gentlemen, the winner of last year's amateur competition, the general sales manager for koit radio, mr. scotty bastopol. >> thank you, debby. wonderful. scotty b, koit, light rock, less talk. 25 plus years in the bay area. pretty cool the it's funny, i'm a native here and i often traverse this beautiful, beautiful city and i find myself behind a cable car at a spop -- stoplight and i look and see one of the brake men saying give me the green light, give me the green light. then i look closer and realize the rider's having so much fun, it's such a vibe. it's not really a cable car,

it's more of a cable bar. >> ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ a little bit faster ♪ a little bit slower

♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ i'm ready to to right snow ♪ ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ i'm ready to go right snow ♪ ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ ready to go right now i'm ready to go right now ♪

♪ [ringing bells] ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ i'm ready to go right now ♪ i'm ready to go right now [applause] >> beam me up, scotty jim scotty from koit and the koit martini posse. wow, i'm so thirsty now. ladies and gentlemen, today

this man's plans are to shuck -- chuck the whole quiet storm thing and make some noise. local sales manager of the quiet storm, kbrx manager mr. aaron jones. >> can you -- thank you, thank you. kblx is celebrating its 30th anniversary of local radio in san francisco. please funeral -- tune in to 102.9 and join in our 30th year anniversary. right now i want to introduce the kblx steppers. ♪ [ringing bells]

♪ woooo ♪ oooooo ♪ ♪ i'd love to express

it ♪ >> aaron jones, ladies and gentlemen, kblx. the quiet storm quiet no more. thanks, et great job. excellent job, part-timers. let's hear it for them. that was i guess the amateur portion if you can call it that because everybody rehearsed so hard the let's hear it for everybody. shanell wang, aaron and scotty. now time to move on to the professional category. the muni experts. the professionals have up to 30 seconds for a warmup and up to two minutes to ring the bill --

bell. now it the time to bring up the heavy artillery. selected by a panel of judges in two preliminary rounds, these six men who have been selected to ring in random order are your troneds -- contenders for the title of 47th annual cable car bell ringing champion. are you ready to rumble? all right. our first contestant, mr. ken lunardi, ladies and gentlemen. ken? he's competed in this contest 19 times. he's had -- a three-time champion, 1997, 2002, and 2006. he is a grip and a conductor. hey, buddy, how's it going? ok. it says here you've been with with muni for 29 years. is that possible? >> yeah. >> and you've been on the cable

car 23 years. correct. >> if you weren't driving the cable car, what would you do? >> don't forget the slot blade, baby. >> ok. the slot blade. ken lunardi is going to warm up, then he'll give us his competition bell ringing. ladies and gentlemen, mr. ken lunardi. [ringing bells] [applause]

>> ken lunardi, ladies and gentlemen! mr. ken lunardi. our second contestant is a grip. he's been with muni for three years. one year on the cable car. ladies and gentlemen, mr. sullivan philips. how you doing, buddy? how are you? >> thank you. i'm ok. >> cool. sullivan, we scud a few questions. if you weren't driving a cable car what would you be doing? >> probably be cooking. >> good. i am so hungry. sullivan, give us a little warmup and then your bell ringing the ladies and gentlemen, mr. sullivan philips.

>> [ringing bells]

>> sullivan philips, ladies and gentlemen! let's hear it for him. our third contestant has been with muni for 10 years. he's been on the cable car for six years. ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. they're doctor they're not booing you, they're woo-ing you. ok. now if you weren't driving a cable car what would you be doing every day? >> fishing every day the >> excellent fishing off the coast here. what advice would you give to new operators of cable cars? >> new operators?

stay out of buses. >> ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. give us your practice ring and the real thing. howard woo. [ringing bells] >> howard woo, ladies and gentlemen. fantastic.

all right. our fourth contestant, ladies and gentlemen, is a grip and a conductor. he's been with muni for 35 years. he's been on the cable car for 18 years. 1999 champion to ring in the millennium and 2004 champion. ladies and gentlemen, mr. frankware. -- mr. frank wear. how's it going today? >> great. >> if you weren't driving the cable car what would you be doing? >> i'd be bar-hopping. >> start at one end of clement street and go all the way down, hitting all the bars. if you could choose anybody to pick your partner, who would you pick? >> i would say the governor but i knows -- know he's busy clearing up all this mess we're in.