Mark Stevens

Mark Stevens is a longtime Colorado Springs rock-radio personality and programmer whose association with KKFM reaches back to the mid-1980s.

Stevens arrived in Colorado Springs from Durango in 1985. In a 2012 interview with the Colorado Springs Gazette, he remembered the first song he played on the air in the city: Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time.” He told the newspaper that, apart from a six-year stretch working in Dallas and Washington, D.C., from 2002–08, he had been rocking Colorado Springs ever since.

Contemporary trade records show that Stevens’ responsibilities at KKFM quickly extended beyond an air shift. By 1987, FMQB listed Mark Stevens as KKFM music director, working with program director Bill Betts. The station was then an album-rock outlet, and the weekly trade listings document Stevens as one of the people responsible for reporting and shaping KKFM’s music.

By September 1992, an FMQB Colorado Springs market snapshot listed Stevens as assistant program director of the now-classic-rock KKFM under program director Chris Baker. That snapshot came during a major period of change in the local FM dial and documents Stevens as part of the station’s programming leadership.

After his 2002–08 work outside Colorado Springs, Stevens returned to KKFM and became one of the station’s most familiar afternoon voices. In 2012 he was hosting 2–7 p.m.. He also controlled recurring features including the 6 p.m. Triple Shot—often built around an artist birthday or anniversary—and the Friday Loud and Proud Military Salute at 5 p.m.

That 2012 interview also captured Stevens’ philosophy of radio. He argued that successful personalities needed to sound conversational rather than use the stereotypical artificial “DJ voice,” and said radio’s long-term challenge was remaining relevant as listeners gained more ways to obtain music. For Stevens, that meant personalities staying entertaining, engaging and connected to listeners rather than functioning only as record announcers.

Southern Colorado station: KKFM.

Sources: FMQB, August 28, 1987; FMQB archive, including the September 25, 1992 Colorado Springs market snapshot; Colorado Springs Gazette, “Media Buzz: A Q&A with KKFM DJ Mark Stevens,” July 6, 2012.