PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Dick Carlson

    Dick Carlson was in the Broncos’ radio booth in the early days and later ran the business side of Denver radio. If you listened to the Broncos on the radio in the mid-’60s, you heard him alongside Bob Martin.

    In the booth with Bob Martin

    In the 1960s, Dick was a sportscaster at KTLN. When the Broncos’ radio broadcasts moved to KTLN for the 1964 season, play-by-play legend Bob Martin first worked with talk host Joe Finan and later with Dick, which put Dick in the booth during the Broncos’ early American Football League years.

    Selling and managing radio

    Dick later moved into sales and management. By the 1990s he was general sales manager for the Denver group that included KOA, KHOW and KTLK, three major AM stations with news, talk, sports and personality programming. In 1997 he left Denver to become general manager of KIRO AM and FM in Seattle, a step from senior sales leadership into running stations in another major market.

    His career shows the range available to broadcasters of his generation, from live pro-sports coverage to the revenue side of major-market radio.

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  • Tony Lamonica

    Tony LaMonica was the voice in the sky over Denver rush hour. If you were stuck on I-25 in the late ’90s with KHOW on, he was the guy telling you where the backup started.

    News and the Sky Spy

    Tony had a Denver broadcasting past before he took to the air for traffic, including news work at KTLK. When Don Martin was stepping aside in 1997, Tony got the nod to take over as KHOW‘s “Sky Spy.” Don had been the pioneer of airborne traffic reports in Denver decades before, so the role was one of the city’s best-known radio traditions. Tony brought it into a far more crowded era on the Front Range, giving KHOW listeners plain, straightforward aerial traffic reports.

    Recognition

    Coverage of the city’s airborne traffic reporters around then described his style as direct and fact-focused, a contrast with some of the more personality-driven competition.

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  • Skip Weller

    Skip Weller was the Denver radio executive running Chancellor Broadcasting’s five-station group in the mid-’90s. If you remember the Denver dial changing fast in 1996, his stations were in the middle of it.

    Chancellor’s Denver cluster

    Skip became general manager of Chancellor’s Denver properties while ownership deals were reshaping the market. By 1996 Chancellor held KXKL-FM and its AM companion, classical KVOD-FM, KIMN-FM and KALC-FM “Alice,” which put oldies, classical, 1970s music and Hot AC under one manager.

    Dial shuffle

    Putting that group together took a tangle of acquisitions and frequency moves. Tribune traded for KVOD’s 99.5 frequency and used it to launch KKHK “The Hawk,” while Chancellor kept classical KVOD alive by moving it to 92.5. Chancellor then bought KIMN and KALC from Secret Communications, creating one of Denver’s first big station clusters. Skip was quoted calling the purchases proof of the company’s confidence in Denver as a growing media and economic market.

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  • Steve Keeney

    Steve Keeney was the man behind the curtain at KIMN and KYGO. If you grew up with the KIMN Chicken, or you were around when Denver’s FM country station flipped in 1980, you were hearing his decisions.

    KYGO goes country

    Keeney also oversaw KYGO, the FM sister of KIMN. The switch to country came on July 7, 1980. Speaking to the Denver Post, he likened it to progressive rock, which had made its own move to FM earlier, and said country was now doing the same. KYGO went on to be one of Denver’s lasting country brands.

    KIMN

    Steve got his radio start in 1959 at WDAE in Tampa. He came to KIMN in sales in 1973 and was vice president and general manager by 1976. The Top 40 station he took over was a heritage name whose ratings were off their historic peak, so he rebuilt its identity around strong personalities, promotions and community involvement. The KIMN Chicken mascot and the elaborate charity stunts of Steve Kelley‘s were among the best-known results. For KIMN’s 30th anniversary in 1984, Radio & Records ran a major feature that credited his management for keeping the station a viable AM contemporary outlet while FM listening grew.

    Later years

    Keeney’s executive career later took in KHOW and senior management of Infinity’s Denver cluster, which included KXKL, KIMN and KDJM-FM. In 2008 he stepped back from day-to-day radio management.

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  • Ken Lange

    If your parents’ Denver FM dial carried jazz, big band and blues in the 1970s and early 1980s, Ken Lange was a Colorado radio owner and executive behind that sound at KADX-FM.

    KADX

    In 1973 Ken stepped in as general manager and co-owner of KADX. The station sat at 105.1 FM and offered an unusually wide music mix: jazz, big band, Dixieland and blues.

    National radio directories in 1980 listed Kenneth B. Lange as KADX’s general manager and sales manager. Belvoir Broadcasting owned the station, which put out 100,000 watts from Denver and targeted adults 18 to 49. Each week it aired specialty programming such as Jazztrax, a big-band show, traditional Dixieland, blues programs and artist profiles.

    Back then, independent FM owners could run highly individual programming rather than lean on standardized national formats, which makes KADX a distinctive piece of Denver FM history.

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  • Bob Reid

    Bob Reid was a voice on Denver’s progressive-rock radio. If you were tuned to KBPI in the mid-’70s, back when DJs picked their own records, you probably heard him.

    Free-form days at KBPI

    KBPI was holding on to the original underground-FM spirit then. Its personalities worked from a big, varied music library and had far more say over what they played than DJs would once tight playlists took over. Bob was part of that crew alongside Jeff Pollack, Tom Trunnell, Larry Bruce and Dennis Constantine.

    The big shake-up

    Everything changed in 1976. Rival KAZY switched to Lee Abrams’ “Superstars” format, and KBPI answered by cutting its playlist down to a small fraction of what the DJs had been choosing from, about 165 songs. Dennis Constantine later recalled that the veteran air staff, Bob included, was replaced by a younger group willing to work inside that tighter structure.

    Not a lot more is recorded about Bob, but his spot on that staff puts him right at the turning point in Denver radio, when free-form FM gave way to the album-rock sound that ruled the next decade. If you worked with Bob or remember his shows, we’d love to hear from you.

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  • Larry Bruce

    Larry Bruce was a Denver progressive-rock jock who lived through the end of free-form FM. If you listened to KBPI or KFML in the ’70s, you heard albums played the way the DJ wanted.

    KBPI’s free-form staff

    In the mid-’70s Larry was on KBPI‘s veteran air staff with Jeff Pollack, Tom Trunnell, Bob Reid and Dennis Constantine, when announcers had freedom to pick from a big library. In 1976 KBPI tightened its playlist to answer the competition, and Dennis later recalled that Larry and the rest of the veteran staff were replaced as the station moved to a more repetitive, researched format.

    KFML

    Larry then became closely tied to KFML, where industry reports from the late ’70s list him as music director and programmer with Ken Kohl. In 1978 the pair were adding everyone from Dire Straits and Joan Armatrading to George Thorogood alongside established album-rock acts.

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  • Tom Trunnell

    Tom Trunnell was a Denver progressive-rock broadcaster at KFML and KBPI in the early days of FM rock. If you discovered albums by hearing them straight through on the radio in the early ’70s, this is the kind of DJ who made that happen.

    Early FM rock

    Tom was one of the Denver progressive-FM programmers of the early 1970s. FM rock announcers of that era introduced albums and artists to local audiences and passed word of new music back to the record industry.

    The KFML alumni site lists him as “Thom Trunnell” on its staff roster, with a note from fellow KFML alum Bill Ashford remembering him as a thoughtful, methodical programmer who leaned toward the intellectual side of music, from Stones favorites to lesser-known English bands and jazz.

    KBPI’s free-form staff

    Tom later became part of an experienced free-form team at KBPI that also included Dennis Constantine, Bob Reid, Larry Bruce and Jeff Pollack. The station followed the underground-radio tradition, which gave its personalities plenty of say over what they played.

    The end of free-form

    KBPI reined in its playlist in 1976, a response to the more structured album-rock format at KAZY. Dennis later recalled that the old-guard staff, Tom among them, turned over as the station moved away from free-form. Tom’s documented work captures an earlier moment, when individual programmers had unusual influence over what Denver listeners discovered.

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  • Jeff Pollack

    Jeff Pollack was an album-rock programmer and consultant who had a hand in how Denver FM rock sounded in the ’70s. If you spun KBPI back then, you heard the free-form era he was part of.

    KBPI’s free-form days

    Jeff belonged to KBPI‘s progressive-rock era, a time when announcers chose from a large library rather than following a tight playlist. In 1976 he spoke for KBPI at a national programming workshop, making the case that album rock had outgrown its “underground” roots to become a mainstream format able to break new albums and even sway Top 40.

    A format shake-up

    In that same year, rival KAZY adopted Lee Abrams’ tightly structured “Superstars” approach, and KBPI drastically trimmed its own playlist. Dennis Constantine later remembered that Bob Reid, Larry Bruce, Tom Trunnell and Jeff were among the longtime free-form crew who left once the change came, as did Dennis himself.

    Consultant

    Jeff built a big career as a radio consultant. KBPI was still being called “Jeff Pollack-consulted” in the early ’80s, which shows his influence outlasted the free-form years as FM rock shifted to researched playlists.

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  • Nick Frazer

    Nick Frazer (1951–2015) is the guy whose chance conversation at a Neil Young concert helped set KBCO in motion. If you’ve ever loved KBCO, you can thank a Boulder kid in a KADE T-shirt.

    Boulder radio

    Columbus, Nebraska is where Nick was born. He came to Colorado and graduated from Colorado State University in 1974 with a technical journalism degree. He played records and read the news at the student station, and that experience led to his first paycheck in the media business, at Boulder’s KADE.

    The Neil Young concert

    During a Neil Young concert at the University of Colorado in November 1976, Nick, in his KADE shirt, got talking with KBPI morning personality Dennis Constantine. Nick brought up that Bob Greenlee, who owned KADE, was in the process of buying an FM station and would be looking for a program director. That talk helped link Dennis to the outfit that turned into KBCO. Once KBCO signed on, Nick was among its earliest disc jockeys.

    Public television

    After that he went into public television, as program manager and part of the original team at Denver’s KBDI Channel 12. There he also produced and hosted Homemovies, a show built around local amateur films and comedy. Eventually he left broadcasting for other lines of work, though he remained in Colorado. He died on September 21, 2015, at age 64.

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