PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Gary West

    Gary West worked at KVOR and Z-93 in Colorado Springs in the ’70s. If you tuned in to either station between 1973 and 1978, you were hearing the building he worked in at 615 E. Brookside Street.

    Inside the Brookside building

    Gary was part of KVOR and its FM sister KVOR-FM/KSPZ “Z-93”. Those years fell under owner Eugene Powers and general manager James W. “Jim” Vinall, with Arthur “Bus” Oaks as assistant general manager and sales manager.

    KVOR was a CBS affiliate, and Gary remembers Lowell Thomas originating his nightly broadcasts from the building when he was in town. The building was advanced for its day, too: the production side and the business side were acoustically isolated from each other by a two-inch rubber gasket where the structures joined.

    The night Z-93 was born

    Gary was there for the switch from KVOR-FM to Z-93, when Century 21 essentially tried out its “Z” format on the station. In his words, listeners “went to sleep listening to Mantovani on Sunday night and woke up to Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’” The audience turned over almost completely and nearly every sponsor canceled, so the station ran commercial-free for its first 90-plus days. Then it did very well in the next ratings book.

    Gary and several co-workers moved on after the stations were put up for sale in the late 1970s.

    Sources

    • Gary West, first-person contribution to the Colorado Radio Archive, October 2026

  • Irv Brown

    For more than 40 years, Irv Brown (died 2019) was one of Denver’s sports radio voices. If you listened to sports talk around here over those decades, chances are you heard Irv.

    Decades on the air

    His start came in 1974, delivering sports reports on KHOW. In the 1970s he also co-hosted sports talk on KWBZ. Later on, his voice turned up on Mile High Sports Radio, The Fan, The Zone, KYBG and KLAK.

    ESPN and the whistle

    Irv’s sports résumé stretched well beyond Denver. The Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado say he was on ESPN’s first live sporting event, a softball tournament in Wichita in 1979, and he called ESPN’s first college football broadcast, Colorado vs. Oregon at Folsom Field. He was also a renowned basketball referee who served as the WAC’s director of officiating and worked six NCAA Final Fours. On local radio, his longtime partner was Joe Williams, and the Broadcast Pioneers note he signed off the air in 2016.

    Sources

  • Bob Rubin

    Bob Rubin worked in Colorado radio and television for 47 years, wearing the hats of disc jockey, sportscaster, salesman, station co-owner and manager. Tune in to KOA radio or KOA-TV during the 1970s and you were taking in his work.

    Before and between KOA

    His first job was the overnight shift at KYOU in Greeley. Next came KMYR in Denver. Then, from April 1, 1960, until April 1, 1965, he was a co-owner of KMOR, a station aimed at Denver’s south suburbs, in partnership with Bob Martin and Tim O’Connor. Afterward he moved to the sales side, selling ads for KTLN and eventually holding the national sales manager job at KOSI.

    At KOA

    Early in the 1970s, Bob handled sports for KOA radio and weekend sports for KOA-TV. He was later named program director of KOA radio, and after that he became operations manager across KOA radio and television. He departed in 1979. His next post put him in charge of the Resources Communications Center, part of the Colorado School of Mines.

    Sources

  • Mick Schafbuch

    Richard M. “Mick” Schafbuch (died 2005) ran KOA radio during the years it climbed from ninth place to first in the Denver market. If you tuned in to KOA in the 1970s, the heavy dose of news you heard was his doing.

    Number one in Denver

    Mick became vice president and general manager of KOA AM and FM in April 1971, and he made news the centerpiece of the station’s push to the top. In 1974 he picked up KOA-TV as well. Outside the station, he served as Colorado Broadcasters Association president for 1973-74.

    How he got there

    Mick was born and raised in Denver and graduated from Regis College. His first job at KOA was in promotion and merchandising, starting in December 1960. From there he went into radio sales in 1963, then KOA-TV sales in 1968. When General Electric bought the station in 1969, he came back as sales manager for KOA radio.

    Moving on

    He left in February 1978 to run KOIN-TV in Portland. That March 17, Colorado’s governor, Dick Lamm, proclaimed it Mick Schafbuch Day.

    Sources

  • Jean Ruth Hay (Beverly)

    Jean Ruth Hay (about 1917–2004), known on the air as Beverly, ranked among America’s first female disc jockeys. Her wartime show out of Denver was a national sensation, and a Hollywood film was built on it. If your grandparents were glued to the radio in the early 1940s, they may well have heard her wake-up show.

    Reveille with Beverly

    Hay was 13 when her family moved from Philadelphia to Boulder, where she grew up. She proposed a show for the soldiers at Fort Logan to KFEL, and Reveille with Beverly first aired on October 20, 1941. For $7 a week, she hosted six mornings, Monday through Saturday, in the 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. slot, mixing swing records with letters from listeners.

    Hollywood and after

    Time magazine profiled her in January 1942, and Life did the same afterward. In the summer she traveled to Hollywood as technical adviser on the movie Reveille with Beverly, which starred Ann Miller and featured Frank Sinatra. She moved the show to Los Angeles, and through Armed Forces Radio it reached servicemen in 54 countries during the war. After the fighting stopped, she headed back to Boulder and took an evening show at KBOL.

    Sources

  • Rick Barber

    Rick Barber was a Colorado radio newsman who spent almost 30 years at KOA. If you were up in the middle of the night in Denver in the 80s and 90s, Rick was likely the one giving you the news.

    Coming up in Colorado news

    He worked as news director at KLOV in Loveland. He was later a newsman for KBTR (1971 to 1973) and then KDEN 1340 (1973 to 1976), and he also did an evening talk show on KWBZ. Between 1978 and 1981 he was in Albuquerque as a DJ, a talk host and a program director. Then he came back to Denver, and KOA hired him in 1982.

    Almost 30 years at KOA

    Overnight on KOA, Rick read the news for All Night Live with Joey Reynolds. He stayed at the station for almost 30 years, until corporate programming changes ended his show in January 2012, and in 2013 the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame inducted him.

    Westword described him as a longtime KOA overnight host whose show could be heard across much of the U.S. and into Canada, reported that he had been diagnosed with ALS, and later reported his death.

    Sources

  • Morey Morey (Morey DaVolt)

    Morey DaVolt, known on the air as Morey Morey, was a cowboy singer who became a station builder. He founded KLAK, one of Denver’s pioneering country stations, so if your grandparents had country on the Denver dial in the 50s, he’s the one who put it there.

    Building KLAK

    KLAK signed on from Lakewood on January 8, 1955, as a 250-watt daytime country station. By Morey’s own account, the first record played was “This Old House.” He ran it into the early 1960s. It came about because he couldn’t land the radio job he wanted, so he built his own.

    A cowboy singer with a plan

    Before that, Morey sang as a cowboy on a number of Colorado stations: KFKA, KVOD, KLZ, KFEL and KOA.

    More stations

    In 1967 Morey founded KKEP in Estes Park. He also started the 92.1 FM station in Castle Rock, which began as KMJD in the late 1970s.

    Sources

  • Dick Brehm

    If you grew up with classical music on the Denver dial in the 1970s and 80s, chances are Dick Brehm was the voice you heard. Most remember him as the voice of classical KVOD, and he put in nearly 30 years on Denver radio.

    The KVOD years

    Beginning in 1967, KVOD was his home for roughly twenty years, where he was both an on-air host and the program director.

    Before KVOD

    Dick’s first job was at KHOW in 1958, doing announcing and engineering work on baseball and basketball broadcasts. KGMC 1150 had him producing and hosting programs for three years starting in 1961. Then, until he landed at KVOD in 1967, he spun records as the afternoon disc jockey at KDEN.

    Sources

  • Don Roberts

    Don Roberts was a Denver radio and television personality. His career ran from the big band remotes of the 1950s to the top-rated morning show on KLZ in the 1960s. If you grew up on Denver radio in those decades, there’s a good chance he was part of your day.

    KLZ mornings and back to big band

    KLZ’s morning show was number one in the ratings through the 1960s, and Don hosted it. Big band pulled him back after 1972, and he programmed the music for KAAT, KKBB and KEZW.

    Getting started

    After World War II, Don began at KFXJ in Grand Junction. Elitch Gardens’ Trocadero Ballroom was the setting for the live big band shows he ran for the Mutual network after arriving at KIMN in Denver in the 1950s. A 1958 move took him to KOA, on both the radio and TV sides, and for a stretch he anchored the news at 10 p.m.

    Sources

  • Leroy Smith

    Leroy Smith holds the distinction of being Denver’s first Black disc jockey. If your parents or grandparents stayed up late in the late 1940s and the 1950s looking for rhythm and blues on the dial, chances are good they found Leroy.

    Rockin’ with Leroy

    Starting in 1948, Rockin’ with Leroy aired in the midnight slot on KFEL 950. He played rhythm and blues and early rock and roll for Denver, well before most stations would go near that music.

    From KFEL to KIMN

    KFEL turned into KIMN in 1954, and Leroy’s show moved with it. He kept working on that station through 1960.

    Sources