PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Hugh B. Terry

    Hugh B. Terry (1908–1987) managed KVOR in Colorado Springs and then KLZ in Denver, and became known around the industry as “Mr. Broadcasting.”

    Career

    Born in Alexandria, Nebraska, Terry graduated from the University of Missouri journalism school in 1930. He started in radio at WKY in Oklahoma City in 1932, came to Colorado in 1936 to manage KVOR, and in 1941 took over as manager of KLZ.

    Terry carried KLZ into television, running Channel 7 until he retired in 1974; the station held the No. 1 spot in Denver for about 20 years. His 1955 on-air editorials helped push the Colorado Supreme Court to allow cameras in courtrooms. He also served as a director of the National Association of Broadcasters.

    He was in the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado’s first Hall of Fame class, in 1998.

    Sources

  • Pete Smythe

    Pete Smythe (1911–2000) was the Denver radio host behind the make-believe mountain town of East Tincup and its folksy general store, one of the best-loved shows in Colorado broadcasting history.

    Bandleader to broadcaster

    Born in Glenrock, Wyoming, Smythe started out as a saxophone and clarinet player. In the 1930s he led a dance band and then the Pete Smythe Orchestra, and he spent 1935–36 in Hollywood with the Orville Knapp Orchestra.

    Denver radio

    He landed in Denver radio in 1941 at KMYR with Meet the Boys in the Band. In 1945 he moved to KLZ, working in sales and as program director. He started his General Store show at KTLN, then took it to KOA in 1951 as Smythe’s General Store, broadcasting from the imaginary town of East Tincup, with Smythe playing its storekeeper and its characters.

    He semi-retired in 1969 and died at 88. The Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado inducted him into their Hall of Fame in its first class, in 1998.

    Sources

  • Gary West

    Gary West worked at KVOR and its FM sister KVOR-FM/KSPZ “Z-93” in Colorado Springs from 1973 to 1978, at the stations’ building at 615 E. Brookside Street.

    At KVOR and Z-93

    West’s years there 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 he recalls Lowell Thomas originating his nightly broadcasts from the building when he was in town. The building itself was unusually advanced for its day: the production side and the business and sales side were acoustically isolated from each other by a two-inch rubber gasket where the structures joined.

    West was there for the switch from KVOR-FM to Z-93. Century 21 essentially trialed 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 cancelled, so the station ran commercial-free for its first 90-plus days, then did very well in the next ratings book.

    He 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

    Irv Brown (died 2019) was a Denver sports radio voice for more than 40 years.

    Colorado radio career

    Brown began delivering sports reports on KHOW in 1974 and co-hosted sports talk on KWBZ in the 1970s. Over the following decades he was heard on KLAK, KYBG, The Zone, The Fan and Mile High Sports Radio. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2016.

    Sources

  • Bob Rubin

    Bob Rubin had a 47-year career across Colorado radio and television as a disc jockey, sportscaster, salesman, station co-owner and manager.

    Colorado radio career

    Rubin started on the night shift at KYOU in Greeley, then joined KMYR in Denver. From April 1, 1960, to April 1, 1965, he co-owned KMOR with Bob Martin and Tim O’Connor, a station aimed at Denver’s south suburbs. He went on to sell advertising for KTLN and serve as national sales manager for KOSI.

    In the early 1970s he covered weekend sports on KOA-TV and sports on KOA radio, then became KOA radio’s program director and later operations manager for KOA radio and television. He left KOA in 1979 and later ran the Resources Communications Center at the Colorado School of Mines.

    Sources

  • Mick Schafbuch

    Richard M. “Mick” Schafbuch (died 2005) was the general manager who took KOA radio from ninth place to first in Denver in the 1970s.

    Colorado radio career

    A Denver native and Regis College graduate, Schafbuch joined KOA in December 1960 as promotion and merchandising director. He moved into KOA radio sales in 1963 and KOA-TV sales in 1968, then returned as KOA radio sales manager in 1969 after General Electric bought the station.

    In April 1971 he was named vice president and general manager of KOA AM and FM, and leaned on news to lift the station to first in the market. He was president of the Colorado Broadcasters Association in 1973–74 and added KOA-TV to his duties in 1974. In February 1978 he left to run KOIN-TV in Portland; Governor Dick Lamm declared March 17, 1978, Mick Schafbuch Day.

    Sources

  • Jean Ruth Hay (Beverly)

    Jean Ruth Hay (about 1917–2004), heard on the air as Beverly, was one of America’s earliest female disc jockeys. Her Denver wartime show became a national sensation and the basis for a Hollywood film.

    Colorado radio career

    Hay grew up in Boulder after moving from Philadelphia at age 13. She pitched KFEL on a show for the soldiers at Fort Logan, and Reveille with Beverly debuted on October 20, 1941. For $7 a week she hosted the 5:30–6:30 a.m. slot Monday through Saturday, reading listener letters and playing swing records.

    Time magazine profiled her in January 1942, and Life followed. That summer she went to Hollywood as a technical adviser on the movie Reveille with Beverly, starring Ann Miller and featuring Frank Sinatra. She moved the show to Los Angeles, where Armed Forces Radio carried it to servicemen in 54 countries during the war. After the war she came back to Boulder and hosted an evening show on KBOL.

    The Smithsonian honored her in 2004 at the dedication of the World War II Memorial, and she was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2014.

    Sources

  • Rick Barber

    Rick Barber was a Colorado radio newsman best known for three decades at KOA.

    Colorado radio career

    Barber started as news director at KLOV in Loveland, then reported news at KBTR from 1971 to 1973 and at KDEN 1340 from 1973 to 1976. He also hosted evening talk on KWBZ. After working as a DJ, talk host and program director in Albuquerque from 1978 to 1981, he returned to Denver and joined KOA in 1982.

    At KOA Barber was the newsman on All Night Live with Joey Reynolds and stayed with the station until 2012. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2013.

    Sources

  • Morey Morey (Morey DaVolt)

    Morey DaVolt, known on the air as Morey Morey, was a cowboy singer turned station builder who founded KLAK, one of Denver’s pioneering country stations.

    Colorado radio career

    He first worked as a cowboy singer on several Colorado stations, including KOA, KFEL, KLZ, KVOD and KFKA. Unable to land the radio job he wanted, he built his own: KLAK signed on from Lakewood on January 8, 1955, as a 250-watt daytime country station. By his own account, the first record it played was “This Old House.” He ran KLAK into the early 1960s.

    DaVolt went on to found KKEP in Estes Park in 1967 and the 92.1 FM station in Castle Rock that began as KMJD in the late 1970s. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2013.

    Sources

  • Dick Brehm

    Dick Brehm spent nearly 30 years in Denver radio, most memorably as the voice of classical KVOD.

    Colorado radio career

    Brehm began at KHOW in 1958 as an announcer and engineer on baseball and basketball broadcasts. He produced and hosted programs at KGMC 1150 from 1961 to 1964, then worked afternoons as a disc jockey at KDEN from 1964 to 1967.

    In 1967 he joined KVOD, where he spent about two decades as an on-air host and program director. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame in 2012.

    Sources