PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Dan Cowen

    Dan Cowen is one of those radio people who has seen the business from just about every seat: on the air, in the programming chair and behind the research data. If you listened to country in Colorado Springs in the early 80s, or to K-Lite in the 90s, you were hearing his work.

    Colorado Springs beginnings

    Cowen was at KSSS in Colorado Springs by 1981 and was promoted to music director that year, a job Steve Sauder took over in early 1982. Former KSSS morning host Tony Lynn remembers Dan back on the KSSS air staff as the night guy during his own 1984–1990 run, so he did both the music side and the microphone side there. (A 2016 interview dated his on-air start to 1985, but the trade papers put him at KSSS several years earlier, so we go with the earlier record.) By 1984 he was also music director at KKCS-FM 101.9, then a Colorado Springs country station.

    The K-Lite years

    Dan became one of the key programmers behind KKLI / K-Lite 106.3. He was program and music director by 1991, program director in 1992, and by 1993 he ran operations and programming for the Tippie Communications operation. In early 1994 he was still program director and also on the air weekdays from 9 to 11 a.m. under the name Michael St. John, in a lineup that included Sharon Green, Mark Goldberg, Marty Lenz and Dean Radice.

    Research and consulting

    From there he moved into audience research. By 2001 he was director of client services for Music Technologies, and that August he was hired as director of research at Pinnacle Media Management, relocating from Colorado Springs to San Diego with 22 years of on-air, programming and research experience behind him. He later became vice president of research at Pinnacle Media Worldwide, helping stations with music testing, perceptual research and format strategy, and he was known for mixing research discipline with a programmer’s gut instead of just following national airplay trends.

    Back in the mountains

    By the mid-2010s Dan was back in Colorado as group program director for Always Mountain Time, which runs radio brands across the state’s resort towns, overseeing 11 of them. In 2016 he was also director of programming for KIFT-FM / The LIFT FM and spoke for the company after a widely reported incident of unauthorized audio on the station’s signal. These days Always Mountain Time lists him as director of programming and talent, capping a career of well over four decades.

    Sources

  • Tony Lynn

    Tony Lynn is a former Colorado Springs radio personality and programmer, best remembered for his years at KSSS-AM 740. If you woke up to KSSS in the second half of the 80s, that was his morning show.

    Mornings at KSSS

    Tony joined KSSS in 1984 and stayed through 1990, hosting mornings for nearly six years with Dick Norton on news. Bill Struck was general manager when he arrived.

    The KSSS lineup

    Around him on the station were Dick Chase on middays, Dan “Captain Dan” Jackson on afternoons and programming, and Dan Cowen on nights. After Jackson moved “across the hall” to sister station KVUU, Tony took over as KSSS program director.

    Sources

    • Tony Lynn, first-person contribution to the Colorado Radio Archive, October 2026

  • Dick Chase

    Richard “Dick” Chase Jr. (February 3, 1941 – September 29, 2022) was a voice a lot of Colorado Springs sports fans grew up with. If you listened to the Sky Sox on the radio, chances are Dick was in the booth, and if you studied radio or TV at Pikes Peak Community College, he may have been your teacher.

    In the Sky Sox booth

    Ask a Colorado Springs baseball fan about Dick and the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox come up first. Broadcast listings from the 1990s and early 2000s put him next to Dan Karcher for games on KRDO and, for stretches of the 1990s, on KSSS and KKPC. In 2020, Minor League Baseball called Karcher and Chase “PCL broadcasting legends.” Dick kept his seat into the 2000s, right up to April 2008, when Ira Liebman took over as Karcher’s color commentator.

    In the classroom

    Away from the ballpark, Dick taught radio and television at Pikes Peak Community College; the 2004–05 catalog has his name right beside Sharon Hogg’s. His obituary adds that he also worked as an educator in Colorado Springs School District 20. Former students have named him among the teachers who got them ready for careers in media.

    Around the Colorado Springs dial

    On the commercial side, Dick was working afternoon drive at KRDO-AM by 1982, and that July he was promoted to program director. The 1983 yearbook lists him as PD of KRDO 1240. By 1984 he had moved over to KSSS-AM 740, programming the modern-country station there. Tony Lynn, a former KSSS morning host, remembers Dick handling middays during Lynn’s own 1984–1990 run.

    Where he came from

    All of it grew out of his military years. Born in Glendale, California, Dick spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a broadcast specialist, working both radio and TV. The family followed his assignments to Spain, Italy, Alaska and a number of other places around the country. He retired in 1980, chose Colorado Springs as home and started a civilian broadcasting career.

    Remembering Dick

    Dick died September 29, 2022, at 81. His obituary spoke of a lifelong love of baseball, the Boston Red Sox especially, and of the mark he left on sports fans, his students, and his coworkers, family and friends. Military broadcasting, local programming, pro baseball play-by-play, then teaching: that was the arc of a career that fed back into the community that listened.

    Sources

  • Alf Kremer

    Alf Kremer, known on air simply as Alf, was a longtime KTCL (Channel 93.3) personality and one of Denver radio’s most visible champions of local alternative music. If you ever heard a Colorado band on KTCL before it was famous, Alf probably put it on the air.

    Getting started

    Alf began in college radio in 1988 and worked his first commercial overnight shift in Farmington, New Mexico. He joined KTCL in May 1996.

    KTCL and Colorado music

    At KTCL, Alf went on to host Adventure University, The All Request Retro Show and Locals Only, and he took part in the station’s annual Hometown for the Holidays competition.

    He built Locals Only from a short feature into a full specialty program. His support helped expose Denver-area bands to radio audiences, and KTCL’s local-music efforts, Alf’s work included, are credited with helping develop acts such as Love.45 and The Fray. He stepped away from the longtime Locals Only role at the end of 2022.

    Sources

  • Issa Lopez

    Issa Lopez is a bilingual radio personality and voice actor whose Colorado radio career includes Clear Channel Denver and KPTT (95.7 The Party). If you listened to 95.7 The Party in the 2010s, Issa was one of the voices on the dial.

    Denver radio

    Issa joined Clear Channel in 2005 while the company was experimenting with bilingual programming in Denver. At 95.7 The Party, she hosted mornings after the cancellation of the syndicated Whoopi Goldberg show and later moved to middays when Johnjay & Rich arrived. She spent about 15 years as an on-air personality.

    Voiceover and imaging

    Issa developed a national English- and Spanish-language voiceover career specializing in radio imaging, commercials and promos. She moved into full-time voiceover work in 2016 and operates a studio in the Colorado Springs area. Her work has included station imaging, professional-sports promos and the voice of Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour campaign.

    Sources

  • Steve Conklin

    Steve Conklin is a Colorado broadcast historian and preservation advocate who has served as president of the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado. If you’ve ever enjoyed an old Colorado air check or a throwback radio exhibit, Steve is one of the people who helped keep that history alive.

    Preserving Colorado radio history

    Steve has helped collect, present and interpret recordings and artifacts from Colorado’s radio past. In 2016 he advised the Aurora History Museum’s Don’t Touch That Dial exhibition and assembled historic audio for a Colorado Public Radio feature spanning early KLZ, KTLN, KIMN and the first broadcast of KCFR.

    Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado

    As president of the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado, Steve has supported the organization’s Hall of Fame, public programs and documentation of the people and stations that built broadcasting in the state. He has also presented the history of radio in Edgewater, home to KIMN during its most influential years.

    Sources

  • Chad Blake

    Chad Blake is a Colorado-connected radio programmer and personality. If you listened to KATC-FM in Colorado Springs, or heard a network-fed Hot AC or Classic Country format somewhere else, you may have heard his work.

    Colorado and network radio career

    Chad was a KATC operations manager, music director and night personality in Colorado Springs. He later joined the Denver-based Jones Radio Networks, where he worked in Hot AC programming and production, and then continued with Westwood One.

    In 2018 he joined Local Radio Networks as an on-air host for its Classic Country format, which fits a career built around music programming that sounds local while reaching a lot of stations.

    Sources

  • Aaron Kinnischtzke

    Aaron Kinnischtzke is a Colorado Springs radio marketing and promotions professional whose work tied iHeartMedia’s Springs stations to concerts, contests and community events. If you ever won tickets, stood in line for a station event or showed up to a summer concert series in the Springs, odds are Aaron’s team was behind it.

    Colorado Springs radio career

    Aaron joined iHeartMedia’s Colorado Springs cluster in 2021 as a promotions coordinator and advanced to Marketing and Promotions Director. His work supported stations including KIBT-FM, KCCY-FM, KKLI-FM and KBPL-FM. He left the company in April 2026 after nearly five years.

    Sources

  • Robb Hart

    Robb Hart is a Colorado radio personality whose career includes Alice 105.9 and 99.5 The Mountain. If you listen to The Mountain, you may know him by this name, but longtime Denver listeners might remember him as Russell “The Love Muscle.” His real name is Robb Paolasso.

    From Russell to Robb Hart

    Robb worked on Denver’s Alice during its early “Alice 106” era as Russell. He later took the name Robb Hart and kept working in Colorado radio.

    99.5 The Mountain

    Robb is heard on KQMT-FM/99.5 The Mountain. The station’s bio calls him a northern Colorado native and mentions his work in radio, local improv and community life.

    Sources

  • Ross Regan

    Ross Regan was a programmer and manager at KIMN-AM during the station’s influential “Boss Radio” years in the late 1960s. If you grew up in Denver with the Tiger on your transistor radio, Ross was one of the people behind the sound.

    Programming the Denver Tiger

    Ross was promoted to assistant program director at KIMN in October 1967. By 1969, the music trade press had him as the station’s program director. Surviving KIMN newsletters and historical material also credit him in station management, shaping the Tiger’s programming as competition from FM radio grew.

    Later industry records sometimes spell his surname “Reagan.”

    Sources