PRESERVING RADIO HISTORY ACROSS COLORADO

Archives: People

  • Jim Arthur

    Jim Arthur is a longtime Colorado Springs news and sports broadcaster whose career has been tied closely to KVOR. If you start your Springs morning with the news on KVOR, or catch Air Force games on the radio, you know his voice.

    Path to KVOR

    Jim is a Colorado native who worked in Trinidad and Canon City before joining KVOR in 1989 as a sports reporter. He became lead anchor of Colorado Springs Morning News in 1995 and has been a central local voice on the station for decades. KVOR’s station information also lists him as news director.

    Air Force sports

    Jim has called Air Force basketball since 1996 and football since 2002, and has won multiple Colorado Broadcasters Association awards for sportscasting.

    Sources

  • Mark Stevens

    Mark Stevens is one of Colorado Springs’ most familiar rock voices. If you’ve listened to KKFM on a weekday afternoon, you’ve likely heard him, and he’s been rocking the Springs since the mid-1980s.

    Arriving in 1985

    Mark came to Colorado Springs from Durango in 1985. He told the Gazette in 2012 that the first song he played on the air in town was Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time,” and that apart from a stretch working in Dallas and Washington, D.C. from 2002 to 2008, he’d been rocking Colorado Springs ever since.

    More than an air shift

    His KKFM role grew quickly. By 1987 he was music director, working with program director Bill Betts at what was then an album-rock station. By September 1992 he was assistant program director of the now-classic-rock KKFM under PD Chris Baker, part of its programming leadership during a big shake-up on the local FM dial.

    Afternoons

    After his years away, Mark returned to KKFM and became one of its most familiar afternoon voices; in 2012 he hosted 2 to 7 p.m. and ran recurring features like the 6 p.m. Triple Shot, often built around an artist’s birthday or anniversary, and the Friday 5 p.m. Loud and Proud Military Salute. In that interview he said great personalities should sound conversational instead of using the stereotypical DJ voice, and that radio’s long-term challenge is staying relevant as listeners get more ways to find music, which means personalities staying entertaining and connected to listeners instead of just announcing records.

    Sources

  • Shawn Lucero

    Shawn Lucero is a Colorado radio host and programmer whose career started in Colorado Springs and later reached across the state. If you grew up on the Springs’ rock stations, there’s a good chance you’ve heard her.

    Career

    Lucero got her start in 2002 as an intern and weekend-morning host at 94.3 KILO. She went on to work in promotions at 98KUPD in Phoenix, then joined 101.5 K-Rock/KMKF in Manhattan, Kansas in 2006 as promotions director and morning host and eventually became its program director. In 2015 she came back to KILO as music director and midday host.

    In 2019 she became program director of KRXP/X103.9, where she also hosted on air and developed music-focused digital content, and where she promoted midday host Aubrey Bishop to promotions director in 2022. She remained a major part of the Colorado Springs alternative-radio scene until April 2023. Carly Evans stepped up to program director after her and called Lucero one of her best friends of a decade.

    Where is Shawn Lucero now?

    She’s at Colorado Public Radio, which hired her as a host and promotions coordinator for Indie 102.3 (KVOQ-FM) in Denver. She joined Indie on May 1, 2023, with weekend afternoon shifts starting in mid-May, and also coordinates the station’s work with promoters, venues and artists across Colorado.

    Sources

  • Coyote McCloud

    Coyote McCloud, whose name is documented as John Lane, is a Colorado Springs radio personality and music director at 92.9 Peak FM (KKPK). If you drive the Springs with the Peak on in the afternoon, that’s him on the air.

    Meeting radio fans

    A 2011 International Radio Club of America convention report names “John Lane, aka Coyote McCloud of KKPK Peak-FM 92.9.” When the convention came to Colorado Springs, he chatted with attendees during his air shift, joined the group for dinner and later talked at length about his experience in radio.

    On the board

    Photos from 2011 show Coyote at the control board during his shift and identify him as KKPK‘s music director. The station’s current schedule still lists him in weekday afternoon drive, 3 to 7 p.m., and on Sundays.

    Sources