PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Chuck Squire

    Chuck Squire was an on-air personality and producer who worked at KKMG, KVUU and KKFM. If you listened to Southern Colorado radio in the late 1980s, or caught a classic-rock morning show in Colorado Springs around 2011, you were in his world.

    Pueblo and Milwaukee

    In 1988, Chuck was announced as the new afternoon personality at WLTQ in Milwaukee, coming from KKMG in Pueblo. That puts him at Magic FM while the station was expanding its reach from Pueblo toward Colorado Springs.

    Back in Colorado Springs

    Chuck later worked at KVUU and returned to the Citadel Colorado Springs group. By 2011 he was producing KKFM‘s classic-rock morning show. He left that year, after Cumulus acquired Citadel.

    Sources

  • Jeff Zaiger

    Jeff Zaiger worked in Colorado Springs radio at KRDO-FM 95.1, The Peak. If you listened to The Peak in the early 2000s, Jeff was part of the team picking the music.

    The Peak

    The 2003 Radio Power Book lists Jeff as KRDO-FM’s music director, working under program director Mike Lewis and general manager Neil Klockzien. KRDO-FM’s Peak had been on 95.1 since 1994, and on July 1, 2006, that signal flipped to KATC, Cat Country.

    This is a short page built from limited records. If you worked with Jeff or have more to add, we’d love to hear from you.

    Sources

  • Jared Goldberg

    Jared Goldberg was the programmer who launched KIBT 96.1 The Beat in Colorado Springs. If you were cruising the Springs in 2005 with the hip-hop and Top 40 mix on, you were part of its fast rise.

    Launching The Beat

    In late 2004 Jared became program director of KIBT, his first PD job, after serving as assistant program director and music director at KKDM and KDRB in Des Moines. The station had just launched as a rhythmic CHR.

    Number one, fast

    In a February 2005 profile, Jared said KIBT went from about two points of the audience to nearly ten, roughly four times as many listeners, and landed in first place in its very first ratings book. It finished number one overall and in every daypart among listeners 12 and up and 18 to 34. He also worked as the station’s afternoon personality.

    The local mixtape series

    Jared and music director and night host DJ Madboy built a multiplatform local-artist mixtape series that combined artist selection, on-air play, listener voting, texting, web content, retail distribution and sponsorship. Radio & Records credited the pair, and the second and third volumes earned statewide recognition.

    Sources

  • Sharon Hogg / Sharon Green

    Sharon Hogg, earlier known on the radio as Sharon Green, is a Colorado Springs broadcaster who went from programming K-Lite to training the next generation. If you listened to the Springs in the ’90s, you heard her; if you studied radio at Pikes Peak, you may have learned from her.

    Commercial radio

    In the mid-1980s, Broadcasting yearbook listings have Sharon Green at KVUU 99.9 as promotion manager and news director during the station’s adult-contemporary days. By the early 1990s she was at KKLI 106.3 K-Lite, listed as music director in the 1993 yearbook. In July 1996 she was both program director and music director, and by 1998 she was on middays after a shift change with Greg Allen. That June, Radio & Records reported the KKLI music director and midday host was stepping down.

    Teaching and KEPC

    Sharon joined Pikes Peak Community College (now Pikes Peak State College) in 1998. By the mid-2000s the catalogs show her teaching radio and television, and by 2008 she was station manager of student-run KEPC 89.7, helping students prepare for professional radio and audio work. A 2016 Radio Survivor visit lists her as both station manager and associate dean, and later industry directories call her KEPC’s general manager.

    Her career ties together two sides of Southern Colorado radio: the commercial KVUU and KKLI years, and the classroom-to-airwaves training that KEPC gives new broadcasters.

    Sources

    • Broadcasting Yearbook, mid-1980s — KVUU promotion/news role
    • Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook, 1993 — KKLI music-director listing
    • Radio & Records, July 19, 1996; April 3, 1998; June 5, 1998 — KKLI chronology
    • Pikes Peak Community College catalogs — Radio/Television faculty listings
    • Radio Survivor, September 2016 — KEPC station-manager and associate-dean roles

  • Mike Knar

    Mike Knar ran the Citadel radio cluster in Colorado Springs and later became a local station owner. If you listened to KKFM, KVOR or the other Citadel stations from 2007 to 2011, he was the boss upstairs. And if you’ve tuned in to SoCo Radio since, you’ve heard what he built next.

    Citadel’s Colorado Springs boss

    Mike was vice president and general manager of Citadel Broadcasting’s Colorado Springs cluster from 2007 until Cumulus took over Citadel in 2011. Station directories list him as GM of Citadel’s local stations, including KKFM, KKMG, KKML, KKPK and KVOR. In late 2010 he was the Citadel market manager announcing the Tom Tancredo show on KVOR.

    SoCo Radio

    After Cumulus bought Citadel in 2011, Mike left the cluster and went local. He and his wife Lori founded Southern Colorado Radio, known as SoCo Radio, beginning with KFEZ 101.3 in late 2012.

    In September 2014, SoCo took over operations of a batch of Pueblo-area stations from United States CP under a lease. By December 2014 the family had four stations, including a management agreement for KJQY and the November 1, 2014 launch of KCBR “Tailgate 98.5.” In September 2015 SoCo was reshuffling formats across Colorado Springs and Pueblo under a new GM, “Sports Guy” Mike Luper. The Pueblo lease ended in 2017, when Mike Hernandez’s Western Radio bought KWRP.

    Sources

  • Ray Weston / Ray Edelstein

    Ray Edelstein, known on the air as Ray Weston, is a Pueblo broadcaster tied to KCSJ and KDZA. If you got your Pueblo news from KCSJ or KDZA, Ray was likely behind it.

    News director in Pueblo

    In the alumni history from Colorado State University Pueblo’s Media & Entertainment program, Ray shows up as the news director at Pueblo’s KCSJ-KDZA. Directories of station contacts from those years likewise show Ray Edelstein as the news director of KDZA AM/FM.

    This is a short page built from a university alumni history and station directories. If you worked with Ray or have more to add, we’d love to hear from you.

    Sources

  • JoJo (Joe Borsello)

    JoJo, whose real name is Joe Borsello, was the night host on KKMG in Colorado Springs until 2006. If you were tuned in to KKMG after dark in the early 2000s, that was him.

    KKMG nights

    A 2003 FMQB profile of KKMG program director Chad Rufer identified JoJo as the station’s night personality, and he stayed in that slot until 2006 (supplied by the archive).

    Note: he isn’t the same JoJo as JoJo Turnbeaugh.

    Sources

    If you worked with Joe, or listened to him at night, we’d love to hear from you.

  • Trish Knaus

    Trish Knaus is a Colorado Springs advertising and sales professional whose career included radio sales for Clear Channel’s Colorado Springs stations. If you heard a Colorado Springs Utilities spot across the dial around 2012, her campaign may be the reason.

    Radio sales

    In January 2012, Radio Ink profiled Trish for a multimedia campaign she built for Colorado Springs Utilities, naming her as a seller for Clear Channel Colorado Springs. The campaign mixed on-air promotion, digital media and social platforms.

    Clear Channel’s Colorado Springs FM group at the time included KKLI-FM, KCCY-FM, KIBT-FM and KVUU-FM. Her job covered the whole group rather than a single station, so those links are the stations she sold for.

    Sources

  • Dave Hawkins

    Dave Hawkins worked nights, production rooms and middays all over Southern Colorado. If you listened to The Max, KILO, KKCS or K-View in the ’90s, you heard his voice or his production, sometimes both.

    The Max and the production room

    By 1993 Dave was on nights at KIKX 102.7 “The Max.” That June, Radio & Records reported he had left for crosstown KKFM as production director, and Maria Stevens took the Max night shift. In January 1994 The Hard Report had him, as production director for KKFM and KKMG, joining KILO as evening announcer and production director. He left KILO evenings in February 1997.

    KKCS and back

    By June 1997 he was on nights at KKCS. A July 31, 1998 Radio & Records photo caption shows him with PD Mike James, music director Travis Daily and other staff during a visit by Atlantic act The Great Divide. In September 1998 he went back to KILO.

    K-View and beyond

    By July 1999 he moved from KILO, where he’d again been production director, to KVUU/K-View 99.9 for middays, also handling production and imaging. His earlier KATM work comes from an oral-history contribution. Later he worked in Colorado Springs audio production, and the American Advertising Federation Colorado credits him with audio engineering and sound design on a 2010 Silver ADDY-winning local radio spot.

    Sources

    • Radio & Records, June 25, 1993 and July 31, 1998
    • The Hard Report, January 28, 1994
    • Additional Radio & Records personnel reports, 1997–1999
    • AAF Colorado 2010 American Advertising Awards
    • Colorado radio oral-history contribution (KATM connection)

  • Nick Alan

    Nick Alan was a country-radio programmer and on-air personality who led Cat Country 95.1 in Colorado Springs. If you listened to country in the Springs around 2010, he was the one calling the shots on the music.

    Before Colorado

    Station rosters from 2008 and 2009 list Nick as assistant program director and music director at WTNR-FM in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he was also the station’s afternoon personality.

    Cat Country 95.1

    In January 2010, Nick was named program director of Citadel’s KATC-FM in Colorado Springs. He brought both music-department and afternoon-drive experience to the mainstream-country station.

    In the archive

    The Colorado Radio Archive has a photograph of Nick from his KATC days: see the KATC-era photo.

    Sources