PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Willie “Tuna” Fisher Rutherford

    Willie “Tuna” Fisher Rutherford was a Southern Colorado country-radio personality on KCCY-FM, Y96.9. If you listened to country in Southern Colorado around 2009, Willie may be a name you remember.

    Cooking with the radio crowd

    In 2009, Willie and Val were on the KCCY on-air team in a community culinary competition that paired local radio personalities with chefs. Their group won Most Original Dishes.

    About that dial position

    KCCY-FM has carried those call letters since 1979 and moved from 97.9 to 96.9 on the dial in 1993, so Y96.9 is the dial position most listeners from this era remember.

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

    Sources

    • Colorado Springs Gazette: radio-personality culinary competition coverage (2009) (print)
    • Wikipedia: KCCY-FM

  • Allison Golden

    Allison Golden was a Southern Colorado radio personality on KVOR. If you listened to KVOR around 2009, Allison may be a voice you remember.

    Cooking with the radio crowd

    In 2009, Allison and Wendy LaBree were on the KVOR team in a community culinary competition that paired local radio personalities with chefs. Their group won Best Overall Presentation.

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

    Sources

    • Colorado Springs Gazette: radio-personality culinary competition coverage (2009) (print)

  • Wendy LaBree

    Wendy LaBree is a longtime Southern Colorado radio personality who has worked at KVOR and KATC. If you've started a Colorado Springs morning with country on Cat Country 95.1, you may know her voice.

    KVORIn 2009, Wendy was part of the KVOR team with Allison Golden at a community culinary competition that paired local radio personalities with chefs. Working with chef Scott Coulter, they won Best Overall Presentation.

    Cat Country 95.1Wendy handled middays and traffic at KATC before leaving radio in 2014 for automotive marketing and podcasting. In April 2020 she returned to KATC for the station's Cat Country 95.1 rebrand, co-hosting the new weekday Cat Country Morning Show with Bo Jaxon.

    Sources• RAMP, "KATC Rebrands, Launches New AM Show" (2020)
    • Colorado Springs Gazette, "DJs team with chefs for cooking contest" (2009)

  • Aaron “Goose” Seller

    Aaron “Goose” Seller is a Detroit native who ended up spending most of his radio career in Colorado, and if you listened to mornings in Colorado Springs in the 2010s, you probably knew him as half of Goose & Woody. He got his start in radio in 1999 at Detroit’s Fisher Building and joined KKPK/92.9 Peak FM in 2007. He spent about a decade there, doing mornings and also serving as Director of Marketing, and he did mornings on KKMG/98.9 Magic FM too.

    In August 2017 he headed north to Denver, joining Country 98.5 KYGO on the 5 to 9 a.m. show with Tracy Dixon and Guy David. That stint turned out to be brief. By 2021 he was running Adams Radio Group’s Salisbury–Ocean City stations on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as operations manager and program director of WOCQ (OC104), after a stretch with Sound Management in South Bend, Indiana.

    Cumulus brought him back to Detroit in April 2022, when he and Renee Vitale launched Goose & Renee on WDRQ on April 6. By July 2023 he was program director and morning host at W4 Country (WWWW-FM) in Ann Arbor, and in early 2025 he joined The Morning Blitz on WRKZ (99.7 The Blitz) in Columbus, Ohio, starting February 3 on the 6 to 10 a.m. show with Kelly Quinn and Thick Rick, after leaving Ann Arbor the previous November. His career at that point spanned 26 years. We haven’t confirmed anything newer than that.

    Sources

  • CK

    CK was a longtime morning personality on KKMG, Magic FM, in Colorado Springs, and later worked at sister station KATC, Cat Country 95.1. If you started your mornings with Magic FM in the 2000s, CK was part of the wake-up crew.

    Mornings on Magic FM

    CK spent more than a decade at Magic FM, working in a morning show alongside Lazerman and Romi.

    Moving down the hall

    In August 2006, CK left the Magic morning show for KATC-FM, part of the same Citadel cluster in Colorado Springs.

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

    Sources

    • Colorado Springs local media coverage, August 2006 (via SpringsTV Talk) (print)

  • Greg “Lazerman” Lazor

    Greg “Lazerman” Lazor was one of the signature voices of the long-running KKMG Magic FM morning show. If you woke up to Magic in Colorado Springs in the late 90s and early 2000s, Lazerman was in your kitchen with you.

    Mornings with CK and Romi

    Lazerman spent a little more than eight years on the Magic morning show alongside CK and Romi. By 2006 the team had racked up a long string of No. 1 finishes in the ratings, making it one of the most successful morning shows Colorado Springs had seen up to that point.

    Signing off

    Lazerman left KKMG in August 2006 for a career outside radio. The station marked his departure, along with CK’s, with a retrospective broadcast.

    Sources

    • SpringsTV Talk: archived local media coverage, August 2006

  • Chad Rufer

    Chad Rufer ran the music and rode the afternoons at Magic 98.9 during its best years. If you listened to KKMG in Colorado Springs in the mid-2000s, that was his station.

    Coming to Magic FM

    Chad came to Colorado Springs from Saga Communications in Clarksville, Tennessee, and took over programming at KKMG on November 16, 2003, replacing Scotty Valentine. His earlier stops included high-school radio in West Des Moines, KLYF and WHO-AM in Des Moines, WINK-FM in Fort Myers and Renda Broadcasting’s WSGL.

    On top of the ratings

    Chad was program director and afternoon host through 2004 and 2005. By August 2005, Magic FM was winning big: more than one in nine listeners overall, about one in five adults 18 to 34 and more than one in four women 25 to 54. Chad put it down to the staff’s chemistry, saying they were “winning in the halls.” In August 2004 the station also collected water and cleaning supplies for Hurricane Charley victims and trucked them from Colorado Springs to Fort Myers.

    Heading back to Florida

    In October 2006, Chad resigned after three years as KKMG’s program director and returned to Fort Myers to program WINK-FM, starting November 1, 2006.

    Sources

    • Radio & Records, October 31, 2003, August 27, 2004 and August 20, 2005 (print)
    • FMQB, October 1, 2004 (print)
    • The Tattler, October 24, 2003 and October 13, 2006 (print)

  • Joel Navarro

    Joel Navarro is a Colorado Springs-born broadcaster whose Southern Colorado radio career stretches back to the mid-1980s. If you’ve listened to Springs radio in the last few decades, from oldies to the morning traffic report, you’ve likely heard Joel’s work.

    Getting started

    Joel began in radio in 1985 at KSSS and KVUU in Colorado Springs. His local career went on to include KIKX and KKCS, along with work for Salem’s The Word in Music satellite network.

    Clear Channel years

    By 2000 Joel was operations manager for Clear Channel’s KKLI and KMOM, and he spent the early 2000s with those stations and Oldies 92.9. A 2002 industry directory also listed him as music director at KKLI, and a 2001 Radio & Records profile listed him as assistant program director and local midday personality at KMOM.

    Around the country and back home

    Joel’s career also took him to Nashville, where he worked at WSIX, and to Wichita, where he spent five years as operations manager for Steckline. He did Metro Traffic voice work, including on KNUS in Denver. By 2011 he had spent 26 years in radio in Colorado Springs, Denver, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Nashville and Wichita, and he returned to Springs radio at KRDO as a traffic producer.

    Sources

  • John Bartholomew

    John Bartholomew was a Colorado Springs radio news director who worked at both KRYT and KKFM. If you followed the news on Springs radio in the late 1960s or the mid-1970s, John was likely behind the newscasts.

    KRYT in 1969

    The 1969 Broadcasting Yearbook lists John as news director of KRYT 1530 in Colorado Springs.

    KKFM in 1975

    By July 1975, the rock-radio trade paper Walrus has John as news director of KKFM 96.5, alongside program director Michael Birdsong and music director Laura Janis. That was KKFM’s progressive-rock era.

    Sources

  • Sue Barton

    Sue Barton was promotion manager at KRYT 1530 in Colorado Springs in 1969. If you remember station contests and events around KRYT in the late 1960s, Sue was in the middle of that side of the station.

    Promotions at KRYT

    The 1969 Broadcasting Yearbook lists Sue as promotion manager, part of a management team led by William S. Cook, with Donald L. Tucker as station manager and Ed Stabler as program director.

    This is a short page built from one directory listing, so we don’t have the full length of Sue’s time at the station. If you worked with Sue or have more to add, we’d love to hear from you.

    Sources