PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Aubrey Bishop

    Aubrey Bishop is a Colorado Springs radio personality and promotions pro who got her start in local broadcasting education. If you listened to X103.9 at night or midday over the last several years, you’ve heard her.

    Getting started

    Aubrey took classes at Pikes Peak Community College while still in high school and landed in its audio/video production program. That’s where she found radio, through college station KEPC. She went on to spend about five years with Cumulus before joining KRXP X103.9 as a night personality.

    X103.9

    At KRXP she moved to middays, and in 2022 she was promoted to promotions director. Trade coverage highlighted her on-air work, promotions, social media and digital-art skills.

    Where is Aubrey now?

    As of October 2026, the latest word is that she left KRXP in April 2026 after roughly five years, for a job outside radio.

    Sources

  • Chris Austin

    Chris Austin is a Colorado Springs rock voice who’s been on Southern Colorado radio since 1997. If you’ve spent a weekday afternoon with KKFM’s classic rock, you’ve heard him.

    Home-grown

    Chris says his family moved to Colorado Springs in 1980 and that he’s a Manitou Springs High School graduate. His Southern Colorado résumé includes KILO and KVUU, and by March 2014 he was on KSPZ 92.9 Peak FM, where a Sky Sox announcement named him the local DJ on a panel judging national-anthem auditions.

    X103.9

    He moved to KRXP/RXP at 103.9, co-hosting the Chris & Coba morning show before shifting to middays. In 2017, when Ross Ford became operations manager/program director of KILO and KRXP, Chris was promoted to KRXP music director, after three years at the station.

    KKFM

    He then joined KKFM 98.1, where he hosts weekday afternoons from 2 to 7 p.m. and the station’s “Big Ass Block of Classic Rock.” His station bio lists sports and live music among his big interests and notes his long connection to the community. At the 2025 Colorado Broadcasters Association awards, “Chris Austin’s Ass Slaps” won the Award of Excellence for Best Regularly Scheduled Entertainment Program.

    Sources

  • Gina Kavali

    Gina Kavali is “Southern Colorado’s Classic Rock Chick.” If you’ve had 98.1 KKFM on during a Colorado Springs workday, you’ve probably heard her, and she’s been part of that station on more than one stint.

    How it started

    Gina says her love of radio began at age nine, when a DJ played her request and she captured the moment on a boom box. She studied at the University of Georgia, where she was on the air at student station WUOG, and worked in Atlanta, Fort Myers and Wilmington before coming to Colorado Springs.

    More than a midday voice

    In her first big Colorado Springs run, Gina did a lot more than play songs. Records from the Citadel/Cumulus era show her as director of interactive marketing, digital sales manager, KKFM midday personality and community officer, and a colleague’s recommendation calls her interactive director for Citadel Broadcasting in Colorado Springs, running the cluster’s digital side as radio companies built out their web businesses. In 2011 her team earned a corporate “Budget Buster” recognition after digital revenue grew to roughly four times what it had been. She was still on the air, too, and a 2012 Gazette feature had her weighing in on songs local personalities never wanted to hear again.

    Back at 98.1

    Gina later worked other radio and syndicated and digital jobs before returning to Cumulus and then KKFM. The station calls this her second stint, and its schedule has her on middays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays, with a Saturday shift as well.

    Beyond radio

    She’s also an actor and producer on independent films and a committed autism advocate. She co-created Table Talk, a speed-dating event for young adults on the autism spectrum, which KKFM says led to a cameo on Netflix’s Emmy-winning Love on the Spectrum, and she developed Life With the Spectrum and related audio and digital projects.

    Sources

  • Tony Spicola

    Anthony “Tony” Spicola owned a Pueblo Top 40 powerhouse and brought some of rock’s biggest names to Southern Colorado. If you saw the Who in Colorado in 1968, he’s the reason you could.

    From Trinidad to promoter

    Tony grew up in Trinidad and Pueblo and started out promoting and managing local musicians before moving into concert promotion. He booked major acts into Southern Colorado, including the Everly Brothers, Ike & Tina Turner, the Animals, Buffalo Springfield, the Yardbirds and the Who. Colorado Music Experience credits him with bringing the Who to the state for their first Colorado show in 1968.

    Owning KDZA

    In the late 1960s Tony went to work in sales at KDZA. About a decade later he bought the station and owned it from 1979 to 1985 while still promoting concerts. In 1985 trade reports documented the sale of KDZA and sister station KZLO to Surrey Broadcasting for $2 million.

    Van Halen and the Hall of Fame

    His concert work included the famous Van Halen show at the University of Southern Colorado tied to the band’s “no brown M&Ms” contract story. The Colorado Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 2019 and presented him with the Barry Fey Innovation Award.

    Sources

  • Super Shannon

    Super Shannon was the air name of radio personality Stephen Alexander Reid, remembered as one of KDZA‘s signature voices during the station’s “Rock of Pueblo” era. If you grew up on KDZA rock in Pueblo, you probably remember the name.

    The Rock of Pueblo

    Retrospective radio histories identify Reid as Super Shannon, and Pueblo’s Vintage KDZA archive keeps his memory alive with a gallery of the station’s golden years.

    After Pueblo

    Stephen later worked in Buffalo radio at WGRQ and WKBW and eventually moved into television. He died in 2014.

    Real name: Stephen Alexander Reid.

    Sources

  • Steve Scott

    Steve Scott was one of Southern Colorado’s big Top 40 and rock programmers. If you grew up on Pueblo or Colorado Springs rock radio from the 1960s into the 1980s, his fingerprints were on what you heard.

    Pueblo and KYSN

    Steve worked at KDZA in Pueblo in the early 1960s and later recalled helping move the station into rock and roll in 1964. He then became a prominent personality at KYSN 1460 in Colorado Springs.

    KEDI, KCMS and KKFM

    By 1973 Steve was managing and programming KEDI/KCMS. His career chronology then puts him at KKFM from 1975 through 1980. A period radio-industry directory lists him as program director, with Bob Bailey as music director and John Bartholomew as news director, at 225 S. Academy Blvd.

    His KKFM years covered an important transition. The station was progressive rock in the mid-1970s and later showed up under broader contemporary classifications before its 1980s rock evolution.

    Sources

  • Ken Landau

    Ken Landau is the voice of Colorado College hockey. If you’ve followed the Tigers on KRDO in the last 20 years, you’ve heard him call the games.

    Voice of the Tigers

    Ken became the “Voice of the Tigers” in the mid-2000s and, by the end of the 2025–26 season, had called 20 seasons of Colorado College hockey. The games air on KRDO NewsRadio as the flagship of the CC Tiger Sports Network. Before CC, the Michigan State graduate called hockey at Michigan State and the University of Michigan and worked national college-hockey television.

    Award winner

    In 2026, Colorado College reported that Ken had won the Colorado Broadcasters Association’s first-place major-market award for Best Sports Coverage six times, plus several second-place honors. His Tiger hockey coverage on KRDO-FM also earned a Certificate of Merit in 2023 and a 2025 Award of Excellence for Best Sports Coverage.

    Sources

  • Cheeba Hopkins

    Kevin “K Cheeba” Hopkins, better known as Cheeba, spent years as the voice of the afternoon drive for Colorado Springs listeners. If you were cruising the Springs after school or after work in the 2010s, there’s a good chance he was on your radio.

    Colorado Springs radio

    Cheeba spent roughly a decade with Citadel’s Colorado Springs operation before joining KIBT (96.1 The Beat) in 2010. At The Beat he became program director and afternoon personality.

    Awards

    His afternoon show earned recognition from the Colorado Broadcasters Association in the major-market category, including Best Afternoon Show in 2020. In 2023, working alongside Aaron Kinnischtzke, The Beat picked up an Award of Excellence for Best Station Promotion/Marketing Campaign for “Beat’s Best Seats Summer of Concert Tickets,” plus Certificates of Merit for “Beats Eats and Sneaks/Beat Down Producer Battle” and “The Box State Mic Drop.”

    Where is he now?

    Cheeba left KIBT in 2024 during iHeartMedia’s company-wide restructuring.

    Sources

  • Lindsey Broyles

    Lindsey Broyles, on the air as Lindsey Marie, is the midday voice on KVUU My 99.9 in Colorado Springs. If you’re at work in the Springs between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., she’s probably keeping you company.

    On the air and behind the scenes

    In a 2022 profile Lindsey described hosting weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on My 99.9 while also helping run the station behind the scenes. Her recurring local-business feature, “Lindsey’s List,” earned Colorado Broadcasters Association recognition in digital/social media.

    Awards

    The CBA honored her work in major-market radio in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, including her midday show, an on-air contest, station promotion and her work as a station personality. In 2023 “Lindsey Marie” won the Award of Excellence for Best Midday Show, plus Certificates of Merit for Best On-Air Contest (“Tourist in Your Own State”) and Best Station Personality. In 2024 she was credited with Aaron Kinnischtzke and Dean Nedens for KKLI-FM‘s “First & Main Summer Concert Series,” which won Best Station Sponsored Community Event.

    Sources

  • Woody Powers

    Woody Powers is a Colorado Springs radio fixture. If you listen to 92.9 Peak FM, you know the guy who’s been keeping the Springs company on that frequency for years.

    Finding a home on 92.9

    Woody joined KKMG/Magic FM for middays in 2003. In 2005, he moved within the Springs’ Citadel cluster to KSPZ 92.9, again working middays. That put him on the frequency before its later KKPK/Peak FM chapter and kicked off a long association with 92.9.

    Woody & Bobby

    Woody co-hosted Peak FM Mornings with Woody & Bobby alongside Bobby Adan. The show won the Colorado Broadcasters Association’s major-market Best Morning Show award in 2019 and picked up major-market recognition again in 2020, 2021 and 2023, including a Certificate of Merit for Best Morning Show in 2023. Peak FM’s official schedule has also listed Woody as a weekday personality.

    Award of Excellence

    In 2025, Woody won a CBA Award of Excellence for Best Midday Show at KKPK-FM in Colorado Springs.

    Sources