Lois Melkonian
Jeremy Levy back with you with another exciting blog about one of my favorite radio hosts and now podcaster Lois Melkonian. The first time I heard Lois Melkonian on KOA was on a Saturday morning with the show Colorado’s morning news the Saturday edition. It’s hard for me to remember if she was working with John M or Corey Lopez. This show was similar to the Colorado’s morning news show during the week, but on Saturdays. It was on for 4 hours and it covered both local and national news. The news personalities on this show would vary from Saturday to Saturday. There aren’t too many shows like this anymore around the country. There are a couple of stations that do weekend news programming, but it is very unusual now. KOA doesn’t do this show anymore which I miss. Some of the people that helped with this show were Brenda Stuart, Corey Lopez, John M, Kim Hubbard, Karen Trinidad, Lois Melkonian, Joel Hillan, and Alex Stone. I really enjoyed it when Corey Lopez was on with either Brenda, Lois, or Kim Hubbard. Reggie McDaniel would come on to talk about what was coming out movie wise that weekend and what was coming up on his show that weekend. John Cretti would come on with a gardening tip as well. When I first heard Lois’s voice I thought to myself that she was a special person. I really loved her gentle voice and her questioning of guests that would be on this show. I also loved her sense of humor and the way she interacted with the other host whether it was Corey or John M. I maybe have heard her during the week on Colorado’s Morning news doing the business reports. Back in 2005 Scott Hastings left the Sports Zoo with Dave Logan and they were looking for a co-host that could talk sports and could be a great co-host for Dave. They might have also been looking for someone that could run the show when Dave would be coaching. Lois was picked to fill that role and the show was called the Ride Home. This show was a mixture of fun topics, news and sports. I first tuned into this show back at the beginning of 2006. The first show that I tuned into was when Lois and Rick Marshall, who was substituting for Dave because Dave was announcing at the rally. The coach was broadcasting live from a Bronco’s rally. This was the first year that the Bronco’s made it to the play offs in quite a few years. As I listened to this show my love of sports began to grow. As I mentioned in my last blog post about Irv Brown and Joe Williams they first got me interested in sports. After that I sometimes would listen to the Sports Zoo. That got me a little more interested. It was actually the ride home show that deepened my love of sports and helped me to start to understand sports.I also adored and enjoyed Lois’s sense of humor on this show. I think that Lois started to understand sports a little bit better as well. She was also wonderful at talking about other news stories that would be happening around the country or around Colorado. Sometimes they would talk about silly topics on the show. A couple of my favorite topics were a Cologne that smelled like hamburger meat, and things not to do at Christmas parties, and How the wind affects you, and how another person’s yawning can make you yawn. Another topic that was my favorite was when Lois and Amy Van Dyken talked about chocolate. When Dave Logan wasn’t there Lois would have a couple of co-hosts on the show to help her. Some of my favorites were Amy Van Dyken, Lou from Littleton, Reggie McDaniel, Steve Kelley, Mike Rice, Mark Johnson, Andy Lindal, and Jon Caldara. Probably my favorite show that Lois did with a co-host was the 4th of July show when Reggie was the co-host. This is where the chocolate conversation started. During the show if Lois or if one of her co-hosts got hungry they kept a stash of food in the studio. Lois put the chocolate out that day for Reggie and all of the chocolate was gone when the show was all done .I also enjoyed Lois, Amy and Reggie talking about the 5th Harry Potter movie that came out in July of 2007. All 3 of them had a small debate on the 7th book that would come out about weather Harry Potter should die. Reggie and Amy thought that Harry Potter should die Lois had the opposite opinion saying that he didn’t have to die. Lois had a great sense of humor when she was talking to Reggie. Lois also loved doing remotes from Cheyenne Frontier Days, and from the Taste of Colorado. Another one of my favorite broadcasts was when Lois and Lou from Littleton were doing a remote from a golf concourse in Parker for a Wednesday summer afternoon. On one of the shows of the Taste of Colorado Lois and Lou had a chocolate cupcake that Lois said was absolutely sensational. Lois got a little bit of frosting on her face. When I got my first computer and learned how to use e-mail I started e-mailing back and forth with Lois. She has become a big mentor for me and one of my radio heroes. In 2011, KOA radio was making some changes to the show that didn’t include Lois. Lois had to decide what she wanted to do with the rest of her career. The Ride Home’s last show was one that I will never forget. They had a tribute to Lois with the song I’m moving on by Rascal Flats with some clips of Dave Logan Mike Rice, and Lois talking about their time working together. Lois said that she had a great time working on The Ride Home show. She took a radio job in Houston.Lois worked at KTRH radio for a year on the morning news program with Matt Patrick. This was a different kind of show then Lois was used to. She was back to doing the hard news kind of show. During this time Lois’s father got sick with Alzheimer’s. She was going back and forth to take care of him from Houston to Denver. Finally, she decided to move back to Colorado to take care of him full time. I stayed in contact with Lois constantly throughout all this time, even getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning to listen to her in Houston. After moving back to Denver, Lois heard that KHOW radio was looking for a new morning show to replace the Peter Boyles show that was no longer on. Lois and Karen Lindsay did an audition show on KHOW in July of 2013. I was so excited for this show that I got up extra early so that I wouldn’t miss any of it. They didn’t get the job, but the audition was certainly fun for both them and me. I really thought that Lois would still be a wonderful radio host. After this Lois wasn’t sure what her next career move would be. In January of 2018 she started the More to Life podcast with FaithDonaldson and Lois Melkonian. https://moretolifewithfaithandlois.com/ This podcast is on one day a week and has one topic focusing on a topic of life. Lois and Faith have done a couple of workshops similar to the podcast where they talk about some of these topics and go into more detail. Last April I got to go to a workshop . This is where I finally got to meet my hero that I had been listening to since the early 2000s. This was really a big opportunity for me and I was nervous about how Lois would think of me. When she first greeted me I felt so comfortable and it was just like I imagined it would be.One of the biggest things that I have learned from Lois is never give up on your dreams and to always keep your dreams alive. I also learned that sometimes life takes you to places where you never thought you would go but, that’s okay as well. Lois will always be a hero to me and also be a wonderful friend to me as well. Tune in next time for my interview with Lois.Thanks for tuning in.