PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Bob Hix

    Bob Hix (died July 22, 2008) ran two of Denver’s biggest stations, KOA and KHOW, and later spent nearly three decades selling airtime for stations across the Rocky Mountain West.

    Career

    Hix joined KOA in 1953. He spent three years as sales manager, then moved up to general manager and held that job until 1959. In that same year he went over to KHOW as general manager. Then in 1960 he started his own firm, the Bob Hix Company, which handled sales and management for stations around the Rocky Mountain West for 28 years.

    Sources

  • Lee Fondren

    Lee Fondren was at KLZ 560 for close to three decades, working his way from promotion manager up to station manager. He was also one of the most respected advertising figures in the country.

    Before Denver

    In Amarillo, at KGNC, his first jobs had him writing continuity, performing and entertaining. He then did sales and programming at KGGM in Albuquerque, and hosted an interview show there.

    At KLZ

    He came to KLZ in Denver in 1941 and stayed through 1970, apart from three years in the Army in the Pacific. Over the years he moved up from promotion manager to national sales manager, then director of sales, and finally ran both KLZ-AM and FM as station manager.

    Industry leadership

    Fondren led the Advertising Club of Denver as president. He chaired the Advertising Federation of America, the CBS Radio network affiliates and the NAB Radio Code Board.

    Sources

  • Art Peterson

    Art Peterson put in 41 years in broadcasting. He began as a radio announcer and ended up as the globe-trotting “Man On The Go” on Channel 9.

    Television

    Peterson came to Channel 2 in 1960 and moved over to Channel 9 in 1962. There he started out anchoring the 10 p.m. news, then became “Man On The Go,” filing reports from Europe and South America, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and also Japan, Australia and New Zealand. That ran until he retired in 1981. He then handled public relations at St. Anthony Hospital, including for its Flight For Life helicopters, until late 1984.

    Where it started

    His radio days began in Cheyenne, where he was an announcer on staff at KFBC from 1940 to 1942. From 1942 to 1944 he taught public affairs at Fort Francis E. Warren, and in 1944 he came to Denver and KVOD.

    Sources

  • Fred Arthur

    Fred Arthur began as a disc jockey and ended up as a maker of radio commercials.

    Behind the microphone

    His airwork and comedy-spot writing started at KVOC in Casper, Wyoming. After returning to Denver he spent time on the air at KIMN, KTLN and KGMC, and at KGMC he also produced spots.

    Fred Arthur Productions

    Fred went into business for himself in 1961 with Fred Arthur Productions. The company wrote and produced radio ads for customers all over the U.S. and Canada. If you lived in Denver, you may have heard his commercials for Hugh Tighe’s Skyline Dodge, Mountain States Bank, Grease Monkey, or Gray Moving and Storage. His profile got a boost in 1975, when the CBS series Sense of American Humor showcased him with Stan Freberg and Chuck Blore.

    Sources

  • Elmer Beehler

    Elmer G. “E.G.” Beehler never had much formal schooling, yet he taught himself engineering, held patents, and built KGEK, one of the earliest radio stations on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, by hand.

    Inventor and engineer

    Among his patents was one for the typewriter backspace key. Radio was his bigger project, though. The Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado say he founded KGEK in Yuma, engineered it and built its equipment, and that it was on the air there from 1921 to January 1925. They call it Colorado’s third-oldest station. Later he owned and ran the station in Sterling, from 1934 to 1966.

    Radios, and a son-in-law

    Since listeners needed sets to hear him, he sold radios out of an electrical shop he owned. In the 1940s his son-in-law, Al Ross, handled the business side, which freed Beehler to stay focused on engineering.

    Some other accounts say KGEK started in Yuma in 1938 and moved to Sterling in the 1950s. The archive notes both versions while records are checked.

    Sources

  • Dick Schmidt

    Radio paid for Dick Schmidt’s college and law school years in Denver, and he went on to a long career in media law.

    Radio

    Schmidt spent the summer of 1943 at KOA, then stayed at KMYR until about 1950. There he was an on-air personality alongside Gene Amole on Meet the Boys in the Band.

    Law

    In 1949–50 he served as a deputy district attorney, and afterward he opened a private practice. In 1965 he spent time with the U.S. Information Agency. For 30 years he was general counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

    Sources

  • Jim Bennett

    Jim Bennett spent 30 years in Colorado radio and TV news, from KOKO in La Junta to running the KLZ-TV newsroom.

    Awards and later years

    Bennett produced the documentary Road to Nowhere, which won an Emmy, and he collected Sigma Delta Chi and Edward R. Murrow awards. In 1971 he became director of communications at Colorado State University.

    Career

    His start was KOKO in La Junta in 1941. He then worked in Denver at KFEL and KOA before landing at KLZ in 1947. When KLZ-TV Channel 7 signed on in 1953, Bennett took on almost every newsroom role: newscaster, writer, photographer, weatherman and cameraman. From 1957 until 1971 he was news director.

    Sources

  • Bob Shriver

    Bob Shriver was a Denver announcer, remembered for big-band broadcasts out of Elitch Gardens’ Trocadero Ballroom and as the first announcer on the air at Colorado’s first TV station.

    Career

    Shriver studied radio at the University of Denver, then in 1948 joined KFEL, at the time Denver’s Mutual network affiliate. When KFEL-TV Channel 2 began broadcasting in 1952, he was the first announcer heard. He left for KOA radio and KOA-TV Channel 4 in 1955 and remained until 1969. After that he switched to sales, first at KLZ-TV Channel 7 and later covering a region for Pikes Peak Broadcasting, the company that owns KRDO.

    Outside broadcasting, Bob volunteered with the Arvada Volunteer Fire Department for 40 years.

    Sources

  • Bob Butz

    Bob Butz went from small-town radio in Trinidad to two decades as a Denver news anchor at KLZ. If your family watched the midday news on Channel 7 in the 50s and 60s, Bob was the familiar face delivering it.

    From Trinidad to Denver

    Bob started in radio at KCRT in Trinidad. He joined KBOL in Boulder in 1947 and stayed into the early 1950s, with a two-year break for Army service.

    Channel 7 and KLZ

    In 1953 Bob moved to KLZ radio and the brand-new KLZ-TV Channel 7, where he was news director, announcer and, for 19 years, the midday TV news anchor, along with weekend night newscasts. He left KLZ in 1972.

    Talking Books and the Hall of Fame

    From 1971 Bob narrated Talking Books for the blind, which earned him the Alexander Scourby Award.

    Sources

  • Joe Tennessen

    Joe Tennessen was known as “the voice of Weld County” for more than 35 years at KFKA in Greeley. If you woke up in Weld County with the radio on, Joe is probably the voice you remember.

    Up With Weld County

    Joe hosted the morning talk show Up With Weld County and also worked in station management and ownership before leaving radio for a career in banking.

    “Mister Greeley”

    The Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado say folks called him “Mister Greeley.” Joe grew up in Wisconsin, imagining himself as the sports announcer he heard on the radio at night, and by age 16 he was actually the color announcer on high school sports broadcasts. After he retired from KFKA, he started a new venture in banking and kept contributing to community projects in and around Greeley.

    Sources