Gary Nakashima is a longtime Colorado broadcast engineer whose career spans small-market radio, KYGO and decades of engineering work in major-market Denver radio. He served for years as assistant chief engineer alongside Brad Hart through the Jefferson Pilot and Lincoln Financial Media eras and remained associated with the Bonneville Denver operation.
Early Colorado career
Nakashima’s documented Colorado engineering career reaches at least to the 1980s. The 1987 Broadcasting Yearbook lists Gary Nakashima as chief engineer of KFTM-AM 1400 in Fort Morgan, Colorado. The station was then owned by Lovcom Inc. and served northeastern Colorado.
Nakashima later worked at KYGO in Denver. In a 2007 remembrance of longtime broadcaster Joe Rateau, Nakashima recalled working with Rateau for about a year and described the two going to Denver’s Wax Trax to buy records for the station using the KYGO account. The recollection provides a first-person record of Nakashima’s early KYGO connection.
Jefferson Pilot Communications
By the 2000s Nakashima was Assistant Chief Engineer for Jefferson Pilot Communications’ Denver radio operation, working with Chief Engineer Brad Hart. A 2006 Radio World engineering profile identified the pair in those roles and noted their influence as mentors to younger broadcast engineers.
Lincoln Financial Media facility
After Jefferson Pilot’s broadcasting assets became part of Lincoln Financial Media, Hart served as Director of Engineering and Nakashima continued as Assistant Chief Engineer. Together they designed and documented the relocation of Lincoln Financial Denver’s five-station operation into a new approximately 30,000-square-foot consolidated facility.
The new plant brought KYGO-FM, KJCD-FM, KQKS-FM, KEPN-AM and KKFN-AM together under one roof. Hart and Nakashima authored a detailed engineering article explaining the move, the shortcomings of the previous facilities and the technical decisions behind the new studios and infrastructure.
Later Denver work
Nakashima continued to be identified with the Denver cluster after the move. A 2013 reception report for KRWZ-AM 950 records Nakashima, then Assistant Chief Engineer, personally responding with an electronic reception verification. Public professional records later associate him with Bonneville Denver, the company operating KYGO, KOSI and KKFN in the market.
Legacy
Nakashima’s career links several generations of Colorado radio engineering: from KFTM in Fort Morgan to KYGO and the consolidated Denver cluster. His work with Hart encompassed studio construction, transmitter and facility engineering, automation-era operations and mentorship of other technical professionals.
Sources
- Broadcasting Yearbook, 1987 — lists Gary Nakashima as KFTM chief engineer.
- Radio World, “Young Engineers, Please Stand Up” — identifies Nakashima as Jefferson Pilot Denver assistant chief engineer and documents his mentorship.
- Radio Guide, November 2007 — Hart and Nakashima’s technical account of the Lincoln Financial Denver facility.
- Denver Post/Legacy memorial for Joe Rateau — Nakashima’s first-person recollection of working with Rateau and buying records for KYGO.
- Gary Nakashima professional profile — current association with Bonneville Denver.
Stations They Worked At
FROM THE TIMELINE
Career Moments
Gary Nakashima serves as chief engineer of KFTM in Fort Morgan
1987 – The Broadcasting Yearbook listed Gary Nakashima as chief engineer of KFTM-AM 1400 in Fort Morgan, documenting an early chapter of his Colorado broadcast-engineering career.
Brad Hart and Gary Nakashima lead engineering of consolidated Lincoln Financial Denver studios
2007 – Director of Engineering Brad Hart and Assistant Chief Engineer Gary Nakashima documented the design and relocation of Lincoln Financial Media's Denver radio operation into a new approximately 30,000-square-foot facility. The project consolidated KYGO-FM, KJCD-FM, KQKS-FM, KEPN-AM and KKFN-AM, which had previously operated from two locations.
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