Nick Frazer was a Colorado broadcaster and television programmer whose career connected the earliest days of KBCO with the founding years of Denver public television station KBDI.
Born in Columbus, Nebraska, in 1951, Frazer moved to Colorado and studied technical journalism at Colorado State University, graduating in 1974. His work as a disc jockey and newscaster at the university’s student station introduced him to broadcasting and led to his first paid media job at Boulder’s KADE.
Frazer played a small but consequential role in the creation of KBCO. In November 1976, while wearing a KADE shirt at a Neil Young concert at the University of Colorado, he met KBPI morning personality Dennis Constantine. Frazer told Constantine that KADE owner Bob Greenlee was buying an FM station and would need a program director. That conversation helped connect Constantine with the operation that became KBCO.
When KADE’s ownership launched KBCO, Frazer became one of the new station’s first disc jockeys. He subsequently moved from radio into public television, joining the founding staff of KBDI Channel 12 as program manager. There he also produced and hosted Homemovies, a program showcasing local amateur films and comedy.
Frazer later left broadcasting and worked in other fields, but remained in Colorado. He died on September 21, 2015, at age 64. His career occupies an unusual intersection in Colorado media history: a young Boulder radio personality whose chance conversation helped set in motion one of the state’s most influential music stations before he became part of the launch generation of Denver public television.
Sources: Horan & McConaty — Nicholas F. Frazer obituary; Dennis Constantine — The Story Behind KBCO’s Beginnings.
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