Charley Martin

Charley Martin was a Denver radio personality best remembered as the comic half of Hal & Charley, the KHOW morning show that became one of the city’s most successful and enduring radio programs. His career at KHOW began in 1969 and ultimately encompassed several different morning partnerships, allowing Martin to remain a central figure in Denver morning radio for nearly a quarter century.

Martin had known Hal Moore since their earlier years in Iowa, where both worked at KSO in Des Moines. When Martin was looking for radio work in California in 1969, Moore—then program director at KHOW—brought him to Denver. Martin began on weekends and later worked the 9 p.m.–midnight shift. In 1971, after Buzz Lawrence left KHOW‘s morning program, Martin was moved into mornings with Rosemary Barnwell. When Barnwell later left, a highly publicized search produced another partner, Marti Martin, and Charley & Marti became another ratings success.

In 1976, KHOW paired Martin with Moore. Hal & Charley became nationally recognized for its humor and dominated Denver morning listening for years. Martin generally supplied the comedy while Moore played the straighter role. Their place in Colorado popular culture was underscored when their KHOW program was heard in the 1980 film The Shining as a character drives through the Colorado mountains.

The partnership lasted 19 years, ending when Martin left KHOW in 1995. He later lived in Arizona. Martin died in 2012 at age 67, leaving behind a career that helped define the sound of Denver morning radio during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2019.

Sources: Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado — Charley Martin Hall of Fame biography; Denver Post — Charley Martin remembrance; Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado — Denver Radio history.