Ray Durkee

Ray Durkee was a Denver radio personality whose career helped establish one of the earliest oldies programs in the market and later produced the nationally syndicated Sunday at the Memories.

Durkee began broadcasting in 1956 in his hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota. After serving as program director at KQDI in Bismarck, he moved to Denver in 1959 for a position at KOSI. When budget cuts eliminated jobs there, Durkee remained in Colorado and joined KTLN in 1960 as music director and afternoon personality.

At KTLN, Durkee created a Saturday feature called Golden Gassers. Fellow broadcaster John Rook recalled that the idea grew from an occasion when Durkee could not access his locked cabinet of current records and instead played older hits. Listener response was strong enough to turn the concept into a regular feature. Rook credited Durkee with being among the first broadcasters he knew to use “oldies” as a radio term.

After additional work that included programming KRIZ in Phoenix, Durkee returned to Denver radio. In 1974 he began Sunday at the Memories on KHOW, building a nostalgia program around music and recollections from earlier decades. The show entered national syndication in 1976 and became the work for which he was most widely remembered.

Durkee’s 34-year broadcasting career earned him induction into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2015. He died in 1990.

Sources: Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado — Ray Durkee Hall of Fame biography; John Rook — KTLN and the origin of Durkee’s oldies programming; Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado — Denver Radio history.