PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Jack Miller

    Jack Miller ran KCOL in Fort Collins for 32 years and led the station’s coverage of the 1976 Big Thompson flood.

    Career

    Miller started at WJAG in Norfolk, Nebraska, in 1956 and became general manager of KCSR in Chadron, Nebraska, around 1959. In 1971 he came to Fort Collins as vice president and general manager of KCOL AM and FM, staying 32 years and later also overseeing KUAD-FM in Windsor before retiring in 2003. His motto: “Service to the community must be an integral part of every broadcast day.”

    He was Colorado Broadcaster of the Year in 1981, served two terms as president of the Colorado Broadcasters Association (1977–78 and 1982–83), was profiled in Builders in Broadcasting in 1986, and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2007.

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  • Fred Hobbs

    Fred Hobbs (born April 21, 1932) started spinning records in Denver as a teenager and worked his way through Boulder and Denver radio into TV news management.

    Radio

    Hobbs was a disc jockey at KFEL-FM in Denver in 1948. He hosted on KBOL in Boulder from 1951 to 1954 and came back in 1957 as afternoon host, promotion manager and program director. In 1960 he joined KDEN in Denver as an on-air personality and news director, and in 1966 he became the state government reporter for KLZ.

    Television and later work

    He also anchored weekend news on KLZ-TV starting in 1966, and was news director of KWGN-TV Channel 2 from 1977 to 1982. Later he taught public relations at the University of Colorado and founded PR Associates in 1989. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2008.

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  • Bob Hix

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

    Career

    Hix came to KOA in 1953, served three years as sales manager and became general manager, staying until 1959. That year he took over as general manager of KHOW. In 1960 he founded the Bob Hix Company, a sales and management firm that represented Rocky Mountain West stations for 28 years. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2008.

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  • Lee Fondren

    Lee Fondren spent nearly three decades at KLZ 560, rising from promotion manager to station manager, and was one of the most respected advertising figures in the country.

    Career

    Fondren started as a performer, entertainer and continuity writer at KGNC in Amarillo, then worked in sales and programming at KGGM in Albuquerque, where he hosted an interview show. He joined KLZ in Denver in 1941 and stayed until 1970, apart from three years in the Army in the Pacific. At KLZ he was promotion manager, national sales manager, director of sales and eventually station manager of KLZ-AM and FM.

    He was president of the Advertising Club of Denver, chairman of the NAB Radio Code Board, chairman of the CBS Radio network affiliates and chairman of the Advertising Federation of America, which named him its Advertising Man of the Year. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2006.

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  • Art Peterson

    Art Peterson spent 41 years in broadcasting, starting as a radio announcer and finishing as Channel 9’s globe-trotting “Man On The Go.”

    Radio

    Peterson was a staff announcer at KFBC in Cheyenne from 1940 to 1942. After serving as a public affairs instructor at Fort Francis E. Warren from 1942 to 1944, he joined KVOD in Denver in 1944.

    Television

    He moved to Channel 2 in 1960 and Channel 9 in 1962, first as the 10 p.m. news anchor and later as “Man On The Go,” reporting from Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Europe, South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand until he retired in 1981. Afterward he ran public relations for St. Anthony Hospital and its Flight For Life helicopters until late 1984. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2005.

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  • Fred Arthur

    Fred Arthur was a Denver disc jockey turned commercial maker whose radio spots won nine Clio Awards.

    On the air

    Arthur worked on air and wrote comedy spots at KVOC in Casper, Wyoming, then came to Denver, where he was on the air at KIMN, KTLN and KGMC, doing spot production at KGMC as well.

    Fred Arthur Productions

    In 1961 he started Fred Arthur Productions, writing and producing radio commercials for clients across the U.S. and Canada. Denver listeners knew his work for Gray Moving and Storage, Grease Monkey, Mountain States Bank and Hugh Tighe’s Skyline Dodge. In 1975 the CBS series Sense of American Humor featured him alongside Stan Freberg and Chuck Blore. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2005.

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  • Elmer Beehler

    Elmer G. “E.G.” Beehler was a self-taught engineer and inventor who built KGEK, one of the earliest radio stations on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, with his own hands.

    KGEK

    With little formal schooling, Beehler held several patents, including one for the typewriter backspace key. According to the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado, he founded, engineered and built the equipment for KGEK in Yuma, broadcasting there from 1921 to January 1925, and later owned and operated the station in Sterling from 1934 to 1966. They describe it as Colorado’s third-oldest station. To grow his audience, he sold radios out of his own electrical store. His son-in-law, Al Ross, took over the business side in the 1940s, leaving Beehler to concentrate on engineering.

    Some other accounts put KGEK’s founding in Yuma at 1938 and its move to Sterling in the 1950s; the archive notes both while records are checked. Beehler was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2005.

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  • Dick Schmidt

    Dick Schmidt worked his way through college and law school on Denver radio, then built a long career in media law.

    Radio

    Schmidt worked at KOA in the summer of 1943 and then at KMYR through about 1950, where he was an on-air personality with Gene Amole on Meet the Boys in the Band.

    Law

    He was a deputy district attorney in 1949–50, went into private practice, served with the U.S. Information Agency in 1965 and was general counsel to the American Society of Newspaper Editors for 30 years. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2004.

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  • Jim Bennett

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

    Career

    Bennett started in 1941 at KOKO in La Junta and worked at KFEL and KOA in Denver before joining KLZ in 1947. When KLZ-TV Channel 7 started in 1953 he did nearly every job in the newsroom — cameraman, weatherman, photographer, writer and newscaster — and he was news director from 1957 to 1971. He produced the Emmy-winning documentary Road to Nowhere and won Sigma Delta Chi and Edward R. Murrow awards.

    In 1971 he became director of communications at Colorado State University. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2004.

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  • Bob Shriver

    Bob Shriver was a Denver announcer best remembered for the big-band remotes from the Trocadero Ballroom at Elitch Gardens, and the first announcer heard on Colorado’s first TV station.

    Career

    A graduate of the University of Denver’s radio program, Shriver joined KFEL, then Denver’s Mutual network affiliate, in 1948. When KFEL-TV Channel 2 signed on in 1952, he was its first announcer. In 1955 he moved to KOA radio and KOA-TV Channel 4, staying until 1969, then went into sales at KLZ-TV Channel 7 and later sold regionally for Pikes Peak Broadcasting, the KRDO company.

    He also gave 40 years to the Arvada Volunteer Fire Department, and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2003.

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