PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Bob Butz

    Bob Butz went from small-town radio in Trinidad to two decades as a Denver news anchor at KLZ.

    Career

    Butz started in radio at KCRT in Trinidad. He joined KBOL in Boulder in 1947, staying into the early 1950s with a two-year break for Army service. In 1953 he moved to KLZ radio and the 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.

    From 1971 he narrated Talking Books for the blind, earning the Alexander Scourby Award. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2003.

    Sources

  • Joe Tennessen

    Joe Tennessen was “the voice of Weld County” for more than 35 years at KFKA in Greeley.

    He hosted the morning talk show Up With Weld County and also worked in station management and ownership before retiring from radio for a career in banking. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2002.

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  • Starr Yelland

    Starr Yelland hosted Party Line on KOA, which the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado call the first radio talk show, and over his career he interviewed more than 5,000 people.

    Career

    Yelland started at WMT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and joined KOA in Denver in 1940. He served in the South Pacific during World War II, including at Iwo Jima. He stayed with KOA until 1954, when he moved to KLZ. On KLZ-TV Channel 7 he was a sports anchor and hosted Starr’s Matinee and Dialing for Dollars. Future station owner Bill Stewart got his start writing news for him at KOA.

    Yelland was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2001.

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  • Jim Hawthorne

    Jim Hawthorne, born in Victor, Colorado, was the first voice heard on KMYR when it went on the air on April 21, 1941, and went on to become one of radio’s great comic innovators.

    Career

    In the 1940s Hawthorne moved to Los Angeles, where his “nutty” radio shows aired on ABC, NBC, CBS and Mutual. Steve Allen wrote about his on-air inventions in three books. He worked in Los Angeles television in the 1960s and, starting in 1965, spent four years in Hawaii, where he created the children’s show Checkers and Pogo.

    He came home to Colorado in 1974 at KOA, becoming promotion manager and program director. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2001.

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  • Ed “Weatherman” Bowman

    Ed “Weatherman” Bowman (died July 4, 1994) was Denver’s pioneer broadcast weatherman, famous for drawing his weather maps by hand, live on the air.

    Career

    Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Bowman worked at WHO in Des Moines before arriving at KOA in Denver on January 1, 1950. When KOA-TV Channel 4 went on the air, he became its first weatherman and stayed 12 years. His Midwestern drawl and no-nonsense delivery made him a Denver media icon. Later he broadcast weather to a Kansas network from a studio in his home.

    He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2001.

    Sources

  • Bette Bailly

    Bette Bailly (died 2015) came to KNAB in Burlington in 1967 as an electronics engineer on what was supposed to be a 30-day job. She stayed nearly 50 years.

    KNAB

    Bailly had an engineering background and had already done on-air work at a Top 40 station in Great Falls, Montana. At KNAB, which signed on in 1967, she worked as engineer and disc jockey and went on to own the station, adding an FM sister in 1980.

    Voice for small-market radio

    She spent 15 years on the Colorado Broadcasters Association board, including as chair, and sat on the National Association of Broadcasters’ small-market board. At home she led the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the Morgan Community College advisory board and the Kit Carson County Fair Board. Her honors include the Athena Goddess Award (1995), the CBA’s Broadcast Citizen of the Year (1996), the Rex Howell Award (2004) and induction into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2003.

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  • Bill Stewart

    Bill Stewart built KLMO in Longmont from a 250-watt local into a 10,000-watt AM, at the time second in Colorado only to KOA.

    Getting started

    Born in Winfield, Kansas, Stewart served three years in the Army Air Corps, two of them in the Asian theater, then studied radio and TV at Columbia University and earned his radio-TV degree from the University of Denver in 1948. That same year he was night news editor at KMYR and spent six months writing news for Starr Yelland at KOA.

    Station manager

    He moved into sales at KFKA in Greeley and worked up to general manager, then ran KGHF in Pueblo from 1951 and KWRL in Riverton, Wyoming, from 1958. In 1959 he became president and general manager of KLMO in Longmont. The FCC approved the jump to 10,000 watts in 1964, and he added KLMO-FM in 1969.

    Stewart was a past president of the Colorado Broadcasters Association and its Broadcaster of the Year, and he was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2000.

    Sources

  • Ed Scott

    Ed Scott was a Denver-born announcer who went from network radio in Chicago to TV’s “Sheriff Scotty” to co-owning KLAK in Lakewood.

    Announcer

    Scott graduated from high school at 16 and was already running a teen record show. After leaving the University of Washington he went full time at KING in Seattle, made his network debut at CBS’s WBBM in Chicago at 19, and voiced network radio shows including People Are Funny, Sky King, The Gene Autry Show and The Quiz Kids. He came home to Denver in 1947, working at KOA and then KLZ, and from 1953 he spent nine years as host and producer of Sheriff Scotty on KLZ-TV Channel 7.

    KLAK owner

    In 1961 Scott pooled his resources to buy into KLAK, which by 1966 was a state-of-the-art operation; KLAK-FM signed on that year. He started the Accent Sound background-music company in 1970, bought KFEZ in Kansas City in 1971, and sold his businesses in 1976.

    He later served on the Englewood City Council and became Colorado’s youngest mayor, wrote a Denver Post column carried by 63 papers in 30 states, and hosted There Was A Time, which won a Telly Award. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2000.

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  • Bob Martin

    Bob Martin (died February 1990) was the voice of Denver sports for a generation, calling Denver Broncos games for 25 years and starting the city’s first sports talk show.

    Denver radio

    Martin came to Denver from Oak Park, Illinois, in January 1954 as program director of KMYR, where he later hosted an afternoon music show. In 1960 he became co-owner and general manager of KMOR in Littleton, the 1510 signal that later became KDKO, and hosted its classical music program himself. In 1965 he launched Denver’s first sports talk show on KTLN.

    KOA and the Broncos

    Martin then became sports director of KOA radio and KOA-TV, anchoring evening TV sportscasts for 14 years. Over his career he called the Broncos for 25 years, along with University of Colorado, Colorado State and Air Force football, the Denver Rockets, AAU and NCAA basketball, the Denver Bears and golf tournaments.

    He was named Colorado Sportscaster of the Year 22 times and went into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (1991), the University of Denver Hall of Fame (1997) and the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame (2000).

    Sources

  • Rex Howell

    Rex Howell (born 1907) put KFXJ on the air as a teenager and went on to build Western Colorado’s first television station. He was the first president of the Colorado Broadcasters Association.

    KFXJ

    Howell was born in Norton, Kansas, and grew up in Longmont, where he was licensed as a broadcaster by 1921 and worked on a KFEL station while still in high school. In 1926 he started KFXJ in Edgewater with just 15 watts, raising it to 50 watts in 1927 and 100 watts later on. KFXJ moved to Grand Junction, where it became that city’s pioneer station, and in 1942 it was authorized for 1,000 watts. The station survives today as KNZZ 1100.

    Television and industry work

    On May 4, 1954, Howell signed on KREX-TV in Grand Junction, later adding satellite stations KREY in Montrose and KREZ in Durango, and he founded the XYZ Television Network. He ran the ham station WORX to handle communications for service members during World War II and Vietnam. Beyond being the CBA’s first president, he chaired the National Association of Broadcasters board, served as a BMI director and sat on CBS’s board of advisors.

    Howell was in the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado’s first Hall of Fame class, in 1998. The Colorado Broadcasters Association’s Rex Howell award is named for him.

    Sources