Max Goldberg went from selling newspapers on a Denver street corner to sports talk on KFEL radio, and later helped put Channel 9 on the air. KUSA still calls him the “Father of 9News.”
Career
At 21, Goldberg was doing sports commentary on KFEL. The next year he moved to KFXF, the station that became KVOD. In 1936 he started his own ad agency, handling public relations and political campaigns, including Senator Ed Johnson’s. He also wrote more than 800 columns for the Denver Post and published the Intermountain Jewish News.
In 1951 he formed the Colorado Television Company with his former KVOD bosses, William Pyle and Thomas Ekrem. They received the license for KVOD-TV Channel 9 on July 12, 1952, and renamed it KBTV before it signed on. Goldberg hosted the interview show On the Spot on KBTV and later KLZ-TV, then The Max Goldberg Show from 1960 until 1966. He died October 25, 1972, at 61, and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2019.
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Career Moments
Max Goldberg talks sports on KFEL
c. 1932 — At 21, future Channel 9 founder Max Goldberg was doing sports commentary on KFEL. A year later he moved to KFXF, later KVOD.
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