It must be nostalgia more than anything.
I don't get the sense of loss with Jackson or Cronkite or any corporate shill passing.
I miss Jim Fyffe and mourned his passing because of his singular focus in broadcasting: love of Auburn University.
Diff'rent strokes, I guess.
It is only nostalgia.
For me it's "dang, I remember that guy..."
Keith wasn't really a corporate shill so much. Well, he did a lot of things for ABC including some memorable baseball games and some IDGAFA NASCAR stuff, so I guess in a way he was.
But for those of us who are a touch older we remember the days when there was no ESPN, no JP 11 am game. Every game wasn't televised. You'd have the one Game of the Week and it would be Keith Jackson calling it. Might be Ohio State/Michigan, might be Tennessee/Georgia, might be OU/Nebraska, might be Auburn/Alabama. Then you'd have your own team on the radio. The only time you'd get to SEE Auburn was if you went, if Keith called it or if you watched the Sunday afternoon Review shows.
So in that respect, I remember Keith with a certain fondness despite his Pac10 leanings and his Al-uhhh-bamuhhhh predisposition.