Tributes to Don Martin and Mindy McNeil who passed away

Jeremy Levy back with you with some sad news to report. Don Martin who was on KIMN 950 for years and was also with KOA radio for years has passed away. He passed away last September and he was in his 80’s. Don first started on KIMN radio 950 doing traffic reports and he was also the news director at the station. Don’s first introduction into radio was when he started a radio station when he was in high school. Don had a deep and calming voice. His voice sounded like Jerry Bell’s voice. When Don started his own radio station the call letters were KDON radio based on his first name. Those of you in Colorado would remember him doing the Shane Company commercials. The tag line was “Now you have a friend in the diamond business." Then he would give the directions on how to find the Shane Company. I first heard one of those commercials back on news talk 630 KHOW during the Mr. Fix-It show with Paul Macgregor. Don worked on KOA radio as program director in the early 90’s. 1994- 1996. The reason why I know this is because Dave Logan and Scott Hastings mentioned on the "Zoo You Hear What I hear" CD that I have. Chris Olinger got trained by him. Chris went on to be another one of the great program directors of KOA radio. Lee Larson also knew Don and the wonderful work that he did for KOA radio. . After Colorado radio, Don moved to California to program 570 KLAC radio which is a sports station. I remember Dave Logan and Susie Wargin doing an interview during the 2016 Super Bowl. He sounded great during that interview.Peter Boyles said that Don Martin was a radio guy. I also found out that when ever there was a weather disaster that Don would be covering that on KIMN radio. Don had a studio in his basement which is very similar to what I’m going to do in my new home. Don also mentored Hal Moore. I remember listening to KHOW radio back in 1996 and 1997 and the term for the traffic person was called KHOW "radio sky spy." Don coined that term. In Colorado there is a road that connects I-70 and I-25. It is called it the mouse trap. Don also coined that phrase as well. The word pictures that he painted were really great. . Peter Boyles said on his show that Don was a radio maven. Whenever someone big in the radio industry passes away Peter likes to mention them and bring guests on to honor them. Every year Peter mentions the passing of Alan Berg in June. I really think that Peter is providing a great service by doing these tributes. Peter knew Don when he first was getting into radio. When Peter first got into radio and he was working with Bob Lee, Don was their traffic guy on KWBZ radio.RIP Don Martin. A lot of people will really miss you.In other very sad news, Mindy McNeil, one of the secretaries that worked at KUVO radio has passed away. She had asthma. I am not exactly sure if she passed away from Covid 19 or not. I was office mates with her when I was doing my internship at KUVO radio. She was a fun person to talk with. I really believe she really cared about making the station great One example is that she used to put together the food and wine events for the station. The reason why I knew this was because Rodney Franks, who is on from 3-6 p.m. on KUVO, mentioned this. Rodney and Mindy really enjoyed talking with each other. . When I was learning the route in the studio to intern with Andy O’Leary, the first couple of times she helped me into the studio. I feel I did a wonderful job showing her how to interact with a blind person by showing her what sighted guide was. During the KUVO pledge drives Mindy produced them. This meant that she really liked to tell people’s stories. She liked to hear people’s stories and to tell them back to the people that were listeners and the people who pledged money to the station. Mindy was also the current events reporter for the station. In my brief time there I shared a little bit of my story. I really wish that I shared more of my story with her. I also heard her on one of the pledge drives and she was a great host on the air. Her voice sounded interested in the jazz that they were playing that day This particular day she was working with Arturo Gomez. It was the last day of the fall pledge drive. They got to their goal at the end of the day. Mindy said when she first came on with Arturo that today was the first time that particular pledge drive that she worked on the air with Arturo. I found a tape of this that I had taped. I also remember her working with Steve Chavez, who works on Saturday mornings. Mindy was a very important part of what they did at KUVO radio and I'm sure she will be really missed there and by her friends and family.RIP Mindy McNeil.Thanks for tuning in.

Amazon Alexa

Jeremy Levy back with you. This week I’m going to do something a little bit different. I am going to talk about the Amazon Echo that I have in my room. I have learned how to do many things with this device. When I first got the Echo wasn’t sure why I would need this device. I was a little hesitant to try it. After some exploration and finding much enjoyment, I was hooked. I am always finding new things. If you are looking for something other than TV or radio, I would really encourage you to try Alexa and figure out how to use it.Here are some of the things I have found that it can do. It can play music. After I discovered this, I found out that I can request different songs, artists, and even different albums. On top of that, I can thumbs up a song or thumbs down a song. Thumbs up means that you like a song and thumbs down means that you don’t like a song. You can also skip songs that you don’t want. My friend Lucas who I have blogged about and I had a lot of fun with creating our own play lists of our favorite artists. Alexa has a lot of artists and a lot of different songs. Sometimes, though, it can be a little bit frustrating when it doesn’t give you the song or artist that you want.Another thing the Echo can do is play different radio stations. I have a lot of fun playing different radio stations from around the country and even different parts of Colorado. I found out last year that I don’t have to miss any of the Mike Boyle Restaurant Show in Colorado Springs on Saturday mornings anymore. Before I got the Echo, I couldn’t get his show in Colorado Springs on my regular radio because the signal didn’t reach. Another example is that I really enjoy getting up on Sunday mornings and asking for the station WBAP radio in Dallas and listening to Neil Sperry’s gardening show. This is a lot of fun for me.Another thing that Alexa can do is you can play games with it. My favorite game is Go fish the card game. Lucas taught me how to play this game and I really enjoy playing. Another game that he taught me is song quiz. Song quiz is where Alexa gives you samples of songs and you need to tell her the artist and the name of the song to get points. Lucas really enjoys playing country song quiz and he gets all of them correct because he is such a country music fan. Another game it can play is puzzle runner. Alexa gives you 2 different choices and you try and pick the right one. For example, it would ask you 2 different milk shakes Vanilla or chocolate. If you picked chocolate a high sound would play. If that wasn’t the correct one than you would get a low sound and then you would have to try it again. Another thing it can do is United States geography quiz. It would give you a state and then you would need to guess the capital of that state. Another game it can play is Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I haven’t quite figured out how the rules for this game yet. This is something I am going to check into.Another important feature of Alexa is you can ask it questions about the weather. I like asking what the weather in Honolulu is, and what is the weather in Pinnopolis, South Carolina, where Lucas lives.I have heard of washing machines and dryers that can be controlled with Alexa. I have also heard of thermostats and air conditioners that can be controlled with Alexa as well. I look forward to checking out these skills in my new downstairs house where we live.This just touched the surface of all the things the Echo can do. If you know of things I or other blog readers might enjoy, please share it.Thanks for tuning in.

News coverage of the outbreak

Jeremy Levy back with you. I hope that everyone of my readers and followers is staying safe during this time.Today I wanted to write about radio during the Corona Virus.In my opinion KOA radio has been doing the best job with coverage. When the virus first started, I enjoyed listening to Dave Logan and Julie Browman on the Logan and Lewis show from 9 AM-noon on 850 a.m. and 94.1 FM. They kept the listener informed as to what Colorado’s efforts were and they also talked about some sports along the way.Mandy Connell’s show has been informative as well. She did talk some about the virus, but she also talked about other fun topics as well and she put some fun things on her blog. Mandy also has been featuring small businesses. Every day she has callers call in if they have a small business and she promotes them a little bit. People can e-mail these to her at Mandy@KOAnewsradio.com. KOA has stopped their national programming on the weekends for local coverage. On Saturdays from noon to 3 Ross Kaminsky is on with coverage. Then from 3 PM-6 PM is Mike Rice. From 6PM-9 PM Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Albright have been on. Sundays from 10 AM-noon is Lou from Littleton. It is so good to hear Lou From Littleton again on KOA radio. Mike Rice is on from noon to 3 PM and Jon Caldara is on from 3 PM-7 PM. KOA radio breaks in with every press conference and every President’s speech. You can hear it in its entirety.The station that has the next best coverage is KNUS radio. Stefan Tubbs has been my favorite host to listen to on KNUS. He goes to every press conference from the governor. He also does informative interviews. For example, he did one with the news director of WCBS radio named Tim Shelton, who informed listeners to the situation in NY city. He also did one with a reporter from KOGO radio in San Diego named Phil Faraar, with an update from that city. And he also has been interviewing Steve Fudderman from CBS news radio who had a national update. At the beginning of the outbreak, Stefan was having callers call in if they had a small business and they were still open to let the listeners know what the store or restaurant was doing. The other person that I think has been doing a great job on KNUS is Mike Boyle. On the KNUS website there is a list of restaurants that people can get grab and go meals at restaurants. Mike has broadcast from some of these restaurants to promote the deals that they were having. My favorite show was when he was at Pegasus restaurant.KOA radio and KNUS radio are the 2 stations that are making a real difference in the community. They are bringing people together. That has been part of their slogans for both KNUS and KOA radioSome people that want to be news anchors or radio talk show hosts are not sure that they want to cover disasters or important things that are going on. I have learned that radio hosts and live coverage is important to let the listener know what is going on. A radio drama that I listen to on Saturday mornings called Adventures in Odyssey had this lesson in last Saturdays show. In the show, a news reporter named Ted Humphries was trying to find the best stories to cover. He was getting a little bit tired of the stories he was already covering. He tried a couple of different stories, but the important story was the one that got him the viewership. It is really good to know that when there is serious stories that radio stations cover the stories.In my opinion it is amazing how technology has changed. Some of the radio people can do their shows from their house using remote equipment. That is what KOA and some shows on 630 KHOW have been doing with their shows. Altitude Sports 92.5 and sports radio 104.3 The Fan have been doing the same thing. The Fan has one host in the studio and one host at their house. Sometimes there are challenges with doing this with routers and the equipment but for the most part it has been working well. Mandy Connell on KOA has been doing her show from her house. She has her producer on skype on the computer while the other producer is in the regular studio. When I first started listening to the radio in 1996 they didn’t have this technology. When there was a snow blizzard the radio host had to call into the station over the phone in order to do their show. Wow! Technology has really changed for the better. .Thanks for tuning in.

Passing of Wayne Yaffee

Jeremy Levy with some sad news to report. Wayne Yaffee who was with EZ 1430 and intercom and KNUS for years and years has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Wayne was a legend in the radio business. He was a talented musician, a gifted radio guy with a great sense of humor, and always a gentleman. Last year, Wayne earned the Best Scheduled Newscast award from the Colorado Broadcasters Association representing the 710 KNUS News Department. His radio career included stops in Grand Junction and at stations here in Denver including KIMN, KOA, KEZW, KALC, KOSI, KQMT, and here at 710 KNUS. He served as a Disc Jockey, Program Director, Production Director, and Newsman. He did it all with excellence! Before I started listening to Wayne he was with KOA radio. The first time I remember hearing Wayne Yaffee’s voice was when he was with EZ 1430 KEZW. He was doing introductions for the different shows on the weekends. I remember his introduction for the Mr. fix-it show by heart. “it’s time for Mr. fix-it Paul Macgregor on 1430 KEZW. If you have a problem around the house that needs attention we have people to help with all your abilities and now Mr. fix-it. Also when he was with 1430 he also filled in once on the Warren Byrne Restaurant show while Warren took a vacation to Germany. Wayne talked with Mr. Fix-it Paul Macgregor on his show before he did the Warren Byrne Restaurant show Paul asked him “Are you a gourmet or a gourmand?” Wayne said “I wouldn’t know the difference..” Paul explained to him that a gourmand likes everything.” I had never heard that word before. Wayne did the Warren Byrne restaurant show similar to the way Mike Boyle hosts his show. On this particular show a couple of the callers tried to stump Wayne with questions. Wayne explained that Warren had a computer with him with all of the restaurant names and their phone numbers and all of their information. Wayne had to have all of the listeners help to get through the show. This was also where I learned about the phrase Elvis has left the building. Wayne said this in the second hour of the show referring to Warren Byrne not being there. Wayne was on KEZW until 2012 or 2013. He took a little time off to spend more time with his family. In 2014 or 2015 I heard him doing news for 710 KNUS during the mid-days. The thing I will remember about Wayne was his soft and calming voice. It always sounded like he had a smile in his voice. I would have loved to interview him for my blog. I asked him once but he declined my offer. I will miss Wayne and his wonderful radio work that he did for both intercom radio and 710 KNUS.

Tribute to Carroll Spinney (Voice of Big Bird on Sesame Street)

Jeremy Levy back with you with some sad news to report. Carroll Spinney, the actor who first voiced and brought to life Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Grannie Bird on Sesame Street has passed away at the age of 85. I would like to pay a tribute to him.I can remember days as a young child listening to Sesame Street. Whenever I heard Big Bird’s voice, played by Spinney, it always mad me smile. The way Carroll played Big Bird reminded me of myself because of his curiosity. I can remember going to Disneyland and there being a Sesame Street show at the park. My dad told me that I was in my stroller and suddenly my ears perked up. My dad had a little bit of trouble figuring out what was making my ears perk up. He finally realized that I was hearing Bob Mcgrath and Big Bird. We went over to listen to the show. I also remember having a tape of Big Bird music. I remember that a friend of mine, Gayle Scheihing, copying this tape for me. The first song on this tape was big Bird singing a song called There Is Just One Me. This song was special because it reminded me as the listener that I am my own person and there is no one else like me. That is just one of the lessons I have learned from Big Bird and Carroll Spinney over the years.Another song that is one of my favorites was a song titled Tall Enough. In this song Big Bird sang and talked about being small that you can’t do everything, yet you still can do things and when you get older you can do more and more things. It was a little bit surprising to me at the beginning of the song Big Bird saying that he wasn’t as tall as he is now (It taught me that everyone grows). The next song I would like to talk about is, Everyone Makes Mistakes, that conveys the words in the title. This is a good reminder for all of us. Even as adults, we can make mistakes.Listening to Big Bird and Carroll Spinney play Big Bird has given me a lot of joy over the years and I feel like Carroll’s voicing of Big Bird over the years has shaped me into the caring and curious person I believe I am today. Listening to the Sesame Street tapes I had over the years with Big Bird helped me discover different keys of music. I really liked a lot of the Big Bird music because it was in my favorite key of music which the key of F.When I listened to Sesame Street and Big Bird was in the show, I would love to stay tuned to find out what was going to happen next to Big Bird in the show that particular episode. My favorite TV Sesame Street interactions on Sesame Street were Big Bird and Bob Mcgrath. I really think that Bob had a good grasp of Big Bird’s curiosity and feelings.I also really enjoyed the interactions with Big Bird and Snuffy. It was really nice for Big Bird to have a best friend named Snuffy. It reminds me of my best friend Lucas. Some times Big Bird would come up with a great idea and Snuffy and Big Bird would try and make Big Bird's idea work. I really liked episodes like that. As I have gotten older it was nice to listen as Big Bird would develop other friend ships such as Baby Bear.I really liked it when Big Bird and Grannie Bird were together on Sesame Street. The main song that I remember them singing was a song called I will Sing With You. This song's message is even though your family isn’t close to you sometimes that they will always be in your heart. One time on Sesame Street, Big Bird spent a whole week at camp. This was a little bit hard for him, but that weeks episodes talked about it being alright to miss your family when you are apart from them.Bob McGrath said in his online tribute on Facebook that Carol Spinney was a great person. I agree with this. Carroll’s characters have always helped guide me be a better person. I will miss Carroll Spinney.Happy Holidays and Happy 2020 to one and all. I am looking forward to a great year with lots of adventures.Thanks for tuning in.

Spring and Summer radio and TV changes

Jeremy Levy back with you to write about Spring radio and TV changes.Kori Rose of KUSA TV has had a baby. She returned to the station in April.For those who speak Spanish there is a new Sports deports radio station on 1120 radio I also read on Jason Barrett’s Sports media blog and also on radio insight that the Brand ESPN radio deports might be shutting down at the end of this year. J.J. Kinkade is no longer with 95.7 the party’s morning show with Nina Blanco. Nina and JJ are no longer with the station. Nina was most recently with intercom’s 107.5 radio. JJ is looking for his next radio opportunity. He has worked all over the country. Could changes be coming to 95.7 the Party? We will have to wait and find out. There is also no word yet on where Nina has gone. John E Kage has moved across the street from 98.5 KYGO radio to 95.7 the Party KPTT radio. KYGO has been looking for its next program director. Patrick Knight was serving in this role.Also 107.1 radio is looking for it’s next program director. Jowcol ‘Boogie D’ Dolby was Operations/Programming Director overseeing Rhythmic CHR “Flo 107.1” KFCO Bennett and Rhythmic Oldies “Jammin 101.5” KJHM Watkins CO. Dolby has spent the majority of his career at Radio One where he most recently served as OM of their Detroit stations until his exit in January. Unfortunately, this job didn’t work out and he is out after just a couple of months. These 2 stations are now looking for their next program director. I will keep you posted on this change of events I got this information from "radio insight". A Classic Hip Hop radio station has launched in Grand Junction. Grand Junction Media has flipped Hot AC “94.3 Kiss-FM” K232FB Grand Junction/KGJX-HD3 Fruita CO to Classic Hip-Hop “94.3 The Beat.The flip is the third recent change made to the cluster since Grand Junction Media closed on the acquisition of the stations from Redrock Radio Group earlier this year. Oldies “Redrock 101.5” KGJX rebranded as “101.5 The Junkyard” earlier in April while Country “107.3 Canyon Country” K297BR Grand Junction/KGJX-HD4 flipped to Classic Country “107.3 The Outlaw” in February This is very interesting to me when radio stations flip formats. This was also on radio Insight as well. I had not heard of this radio group before. Shannon Steel is 100.3 KIMN radio’s next mid-day host on KIMN radio. She has taken over for Emily who exited late last year. Good luck to Shannon. Shannon was most recently with KDSP radio helping them out with promotions kinds of things Shannon’s article was also on radio insight. Also Open Air Denver 1023 launches as the gradual shift of the station over the past few months to a new music discovery oriented AAA under recently added Program Director Willobee Carlan. The station is in the most competitive AAA/Alternative market in the country competing against the iHeartMedia combo of “Channel 93.3” KTCL and 97.3 KBCO as well as Community Radio For Northern Colorado’s more traditional Public AAA “105.5 The Colorado Sound” KJAC. The 6am hour of the new Indie 102.3 today consisted of:Colorado Public Radio has announced the relaunch of its Triple A outlet, Indie102.3. Previously known as OpenAir, the rebranded service will be an independent music discovery platform with a tightened focus on local artists and a new schedule of programs. Leading the charge is radio veteran Willobee Carlan, who joined CPR’s staff earlier this year. As Indie102.3’s PD, he has provided leadership and vision to the station’s ongoing development. MD Jessi Whitten and hosts Jeremy Petersen, Alisha Sweeney, Bruce Trujillo and Zach Gilltrap will introduce listeners to new music from emerging artists and from those they know and love. The Indie team has also been working with Mike Henry of Paragon Media Strategies on honing the service. I really think this is interesting. Open Air Denver Relaunches As Indie 102.3There are a couple of country radio things to write about. Bo Jackson has joined KTTS radio in Missouri as it’s mid-day host and it’s new program director. He was most recently with 92.5 radio KWOF and KIMN radio. He also did a couple of fill ins on altitude sports 950 back when that station was going through the switch from A.m. to FM. . I am really excited that Bo has found a new radio home in missouri. I have been trying to get a hold of him through e-mail to say congratulations but so far have been unsuccessfull. I also got this from radio insight. The next country radio move is the good morning guys Brian Gary and Todd Harding on Town Square’s country station in Fort Collins KUAD99.1 radio have retired. The station has a new morning show with hosts Jordan Soto and Michael Mason. Jordan has come from Cat Country 98.7” WYCT Pensacola where she hosted middays as ‘Jenna Scott’. Mason was most recently in nights at “98.9 The Bull” KNUC Seattle and has also worked in Portland and Richmond VA as well as a producer for Delilah. Congratulations to the both of them. Also congratulations to Brian and to Todd, I wish them good luck with whatever they are going to do next. KUAD has also been branded as New Country 99.1 radio. I got this information from radio insight. Also KTRR radio goes Retro. KTRR radio used to be called KTRY radio. They were focusing on hits from the 70’s and 80’s. They have now rebranded as a classic hit radio station. We will have to see what happens with this. The on air line-up will remain the same on KTRR radio.There is a new country radio station in Grand Junction, Colorado. Outlaw Rides Into Grand Junction, I liked the title of the Radio Insight post.The new station in Grand Junction has a couple of familiar names from the Town Square Fort Collins radio stations. Scott Stallie is serving as it’s station manager. And Ed Chandler is serving as it’s afternoon host. I first heard about Ed when he was with the Town Square media group in Fort Collins He was hosting an oldies show back then. I remember e-mailing Ed about his start with the Town Square media cluster and he was very happy that I started be coming a fan of his. I really wanted to maybe check out this new station in Grand Junction when I was there for a special Olympics event, but didn’t get a chance to. This station focuses on country hits from the 70’s to the early 2000’s. If I ever go to Grand Junction again I will certainly check out this station.There is good news on KYGO’s radio front. KYGO has found it’s next program director Bryan Michel. Bryan has programmed stations in Maryland. Good luck to Bryan. I certainly hope that he enjoys programming KYGO radio. Mike Casey has retired from Intercom’s 99.5 the mountains morning show. I really thought he was a great host for that station and I will really miss him on 99.5 The Mountain. Allie Hartwick is now hosting solo in the mornings. She also does news in the morning for EZ 1430. There is no word yet on if the station is making any changes. Also Jessica Farias is the new sales manager for the Colorado Springs and Pueblo Iheart radio stations. She was working in Denver in a sales position with Iheart media.Armen Williams has left KKFN radio and has now joined Entercom sports radio in Houston. He is now programming 610 Kilt AM in Houston. I will miss him in Colorado, but Armen wanted to be closer to family in Texas. Good luck to Armen. Who has taken over programming the fan? Well it’s Raj Sharon. Raj has programmed 105.5 radio in Colorado when it was a sports station. Congratulations to you Raj. He said in the radio insight article that this has been a dream of his. That is wonderful news. Also 104.3 The Fan back in Februarylost one of it’s most popular talents in Alfred Williams. Alfred is no longer with The Fan’s afternoon show with D-Mac Darren McKee. This is surprising news to me. This was the first change that Raj Sheron had to deal with. This was announced on the drive with Big Al and D-Mac show by D-Mac. D-mac wished Al good luck with what ever his next opportunity would be. I thought this show was just okay. I didn’t like it when Alfred and D-Mac would argue on the air. From this show I learned that D-Mac and Alfred were okay after they argued. During some of the breaks Alfred and D-Mac would laugh after some of their arguments. Good luck to Alfred with what ever his next career moves would be. In one of Jason Barett’s sports media blogs of his top 20 list of best afternoon shows D-Mac and Alfred Williams were ranked in the Top 20. They came in 15th. Congratulations to them for this. Also Brandon Stokley and Zach Bye were rated 20th in the list of the Top 20 mid-day shows. I got to meet Brandon Stokley recently at one of KKFN’s events at Brothers BBQ and he really was a nice guy. I plan to do an interview with him down the road. Mike Evans and Mark Schlereth were rated 6th in his list of top sports morning shows. One of the things I do like from Alfred is when callers ask him how he is doing he says I’m solid man! I’m solid.Wait! Wait! Don’t stop reading just yet because Alfred has found a new radio home. He is either going to be joining Orange and Blue 760 or 850 KOA radio. This will be announced soon. There are other changes happening on The Fan that I would like to cover first. Cecil Lammey and Michael Pritchard are no longer on from mid-days from 9 AM-12 PM. Cecil is still with The Fan. His role has been reduced to a writing roll. He still fills in as a host and he is still going to do the fantasy football show on Wednesday evenings. There is no word yet on where Mike Pritchard has gone.What has replaced this show? Well John Davis and Nick Ferguson who used to play with the Denver Bronco’s have taken over mid-days on 104.3 The Fan. John Davis is still on some weekends. I like this show. I have been listening throughout training camp and they make a great team. John Davis was on a couple of weekends ago with Nicki Jhabvala from the Athletic. I really thought they made a great team. I also like John with Orlando Franklin.Who has replaced Alfred Williams on The Fan? Tom Nalen is now D-Macs partner on the drive from 3-6 p.m. Tom Nalen was on Altitude Sports radio with Nate Kreckman. D-Mac said in an article I read, it has always been a dream of mine to work with Tom Nalen. I might tune in more to this show. When Tom Nalen was on vacation the second and the third weekend in August. Nick Ferguson was filling in for him.Back last Winter, Orange and Blue 760 made some cuts in on air personalities. Andy Lindahl was cut from the morning show as well as Marc Stout and Ray Crockett. Mark Stout has been doing some fill ins on KRFX radio. I really miss Andy Lindahl on Orange and Blue 760. After Andy’s departure James Gomez was a fill in. Julie Browman was also a fill in. James got a different job in the service. Julie was a great fill in, but she has a new job as a spokesperson for one of the fire departments. Julie has also been doing some fill ins on 850 Koa radio both in the mornings and afternoons. There is no word yet on where Ray Crockett has gone. Andy Lindahl has found a new radio home. He is working with Nate Kreckman from 2 to 6 PM on 92.5 Altitude Sports radio. It is so good to hear him back on the air. Nate Kreckman and Andy Lindahl make a great team together.Hang on for just one second. What has been going on on Orange and Blue 760 at the beginning of July? Orange and Blue 760 is no more. That station has been replaced with national programming from different national hosts Glen Beck, Sean Hanity, Rush Limbaugh, Dave Ramsey, and other political hosts. The new station is called Freedom 760 93.7 which used to be an oldies format with DJ’s Hal Moore, Bryan J, Rick Marshall, and some other hosts. There is no word yet on where these hosts have gone. Hal Moore has retired from radio. That is surprising news. I was a loyal listener to Hal Moore since 1997 when he was doing shows with Murphy Huston on News Talk 630 KHOW. I have followed him when he moved to KEZW for afternoons, Kool 105 for a morning show with Jack Regan, and then to the station 1510 and 93.7 radio. Hal has always been a fun host to listen to because of his energy and I learned something new from him every time I listened. I found a tape of when he was with Murphy Huston and the Gabby Gourmet. They were talking about different ice cream flavors.They were having people call in with their different ice cream flavors to watch the Avalanche with. In my opinion that is what a morning show should be. A morning show should be a show with fun topics so that callers can interact with the topics. It is really a shame that KHOW doesn’t have this format now in the mornings. Hal Moore said in an article that I read in "Westword" that 1510 and 93.7 have been very good to him. One thing I didn’t know was that Brian J was actually the owner of the station's son. He did his show from Chicago where he lived. The owner of the station is Hunt communications. Hal also said that the station was going only to AM. He wanted to be both on the FM and the AM dial. Hal is happy with the way it all worked out. Peter Boyles said in the same article that Hal is certainly a legend in this business. I certainly agree with him. I can still hear his voice saying at the end of his show on different radio stations. “I love you Denver!”What happened to Ryan Edwards? Ryan has moved over to 850 KOA radio and he is doing the afternoon show with Benjamin Albright. This show will be switching times at the beginning of September. It will be called Bronco’s Country tonight. Dave Logan and Rick Lewis were with them for a couple of weeks to get them situated. There is no word yet on where Steve Atwater or Andrew Mason have gone Andrew Mason has been doing some interviews on KOA radio. Susie Wargin will be joining the Bronco’s side lines as their new side line reporter. Dave Logan and Rick Lewis will be moving their show from 4-7 PM on KOA radio to 9 to 12 in the mornings on KOA radio.I will post more updates on the new schedule once I hear them Brandon Krystzal is the Bronco’s insider for 850 KOA radio. There is no word yet on where Justin Adams has gone . Justin was Brandon’s partner on Orange and Blue 760. Kathy Lee had her baby at the beginning of July as well. It was a little tough for her, but she is back on the KRFX morning show and she will be returning to Lewis and Logan when they start their new show. Also Grant Mandy’s call screener is going to be come Rick Lewis’s and Dave Logan’s producer for the new show and Angie who used to be the producer for the Michael Brown’s show is now producing for the Mandy Connell show. Bryan Beard who was with The Fan 104.3 has now joined KOA radio to help Alfred Williams on his new show starting in September. Krista Kafer and Michael Brown are no longer on 850 KOA radio and 630 KHOW radio. These moves were made to hopefully make room for Alfred Williams and to also make room for Bronco’s country tonight. Michael Brown is doing podcasts. Krista Kafer might make ocasional fill ins on Iheart media stations. I will really miss Krista. I really thought she was an entertaining host.Back in the early 2000’s there was a DJ on KYGO radio named Wingnut. Wingnut has now joined KNUC 98.9 the Bull radio in Seattle for mid-days. He is also the assistant program director. That is wonderful news for him. He was also on KWOF radio for a time. KTSA radio 550 AM radio in San Antonio, Texas had a new line-up starting in the early part of June. Sean Rima is hosting with Trey for two hours before starting his own show from 9-11 AM. I think this is an interesting move. Sean did some work for KOA radio back in the early 2000’s. I haven’t listened to his show in San Antonio yet, but I will over the next couple of monthsThe last thing I would like to share is that Jerry O’Neal, a sports radio host in Orlando, has retired from 740 and 96.9 The Game. The reason why I bring this up is that Mandy Connell worked on this show with Jerry O’Neal and the Shot Doctor back when she was on that station during her sports career. Jerry was the Orlando colleges football team announcer and he is now fully retired from the station altogether. Congratulations to you Jerry. I really enjoyed listening to you when I visited Orlando. As you notice there are a lot of changes. Some of the changes are still coming and you can be sure that Jeremy Levy will keep you posted on them as they come out.Thanks for tuning in.

Changes in Colorado radio

Jeremy Levy back with you to write about changes in Colorado radio. Most of these changes occurred earlier in the year, but we are just now catching up.Christine Noel Is leaving channel 9 KUSA TV for the same position at the TV station in Houston KPRC 2 tv. . Good luck to Christine. There is no word yet on who her replacement is. I got this information from Mike McGuff’s blog.Mix 100 is looking for it’s next mid-day host. Emily that was on the morning show and the mid-day show is no longer with the station.There is a change to Nina Blanco is joining 95.7 the party’s morning show. She was with 107.1 radio before that. Good luck to Nina. She creates the opening left by Diana Regalado that I blogged about a couple of blogs ago. Nina has served multiple rolls at 107.1 radio including night host and mid-day host. 107.1 KFCO is looking for it’s next mid-day host also Brian ‘Wingnut Degross has exited his position with Max Media. He has worked for KBPI and other Denver and Colorado radio stations. He is looking for his next opportunity. . Also in the Springs on 1040 KCBR has switched formats to comedy. They are playing comedy from a national network. I used to get this station and used to listen to some of their programming when it was a talk station. One Sunday I found the Bobby Likis car clinic national show on this station and I enjoyed listening to this show when there was nothing else good to listen to on a Sunday. I am not sure how the comedy format will do on KCBR. We will find out. Some of you might remember on KALC radio that there used to be a mid-day and night host named George Mcfly. After Denver George went to Hawaii to do some work at a station there. Now he has left Hawaii to take a radio job in New Mexico at KABG radio. Good luck to George. I really enjoyed listening to him on KALC radio during the 2006 or 2007 radiothon for children’s hospital In this particular year George was working the phone bank. He really made the phones ring that day because of his popularity at the station. .Some of you in Colorado Springs and Denver might remember a radio news personality named Paul Ihander. Paul was with KCSJ radio for a couple of years and He was a KOA radio news reporter for a couple of years. Paul is in Los Vegas. He is now programming KXNT radio an intercom radio station. Paul was also recently with Bonneville’s KTAR 92.3 FM in Phoenix. Paul was one of my favorite news anchors on KOA radio and it is wonderful for me to hear that he is still in the radio industry. Good luck to Paul with this new station Also Michael Flannigan of fresh air a Colorado music station owned by Colorado Public radio has retired. I remember Mike Flannigan being on Colorado Public radio during some of the pledge drives. He did a good job. Good luck to Mike .KEZW made a change back last September. They are now called EZ 1430 instead of Crusin 1430 radio. They went in a softer music direction. They play a lot of Frank Sinatra and that era of music again. Rick Crandall is still in mornings but, Chuck St. John is no longer with the station. Steve Edwards is now the afternoon host at EZ 1430. Steve was a producer for a lot of years with EZ 1430 and he was also an afternoon host for a couple of years as well. It is wonderful for me to hear that Steve is back on the air. Congratulations to you Steve. I am looking forward to hearing your second journey with the station. There is no word yet if Chuck St. John will resurface. Also Dan Mitchell of the mountain is back for an hour on the Mountain 99.5 KQMT radio. He is back on Saturday mornings with the Breakfast with the Beatles show. This show is on from 9-10 A.m. Congratulations Dan.Altitude 950 made a big change at the beginning of September. They are now on the FM dial as Altitude Sports radio 92.5. The country music when the station was 92.5 the Wolfe now can be found on 106.7 the bull. There are 2 country stations now in Denver 106.7 the bull KUBL and 98.5 KYGO radio. When I first became a radio listener I really enjoyed listening to KYGO radio because of their DJ’s and radio programming. I really miss the local radio programming on KYGO radio with Kelly Ford and Mudflap and Jo Jo Turnbeau. I really enjoy listening to the bull. I think that station is doing better in the ratings. I like their local programming with Denise Plante and Chelsea and Bryan. Washington.When 92.5 was the Wolfe they had a morning show with Jennifer D. Jennifer has moved to Kosi 101 doing mornings. I don’t know what happened to Sean Henry. I really think this was a great decision hearing Jenny D. Sean was an alright DJ. He needed a good partner. Jenny D will be joined by J Cruz December 19th. Good luck to Jay and to Jenny D. There is no word yet on where some of the other hosts from KWOF 92.5 radio have gone. You can be sure that if they make it back on the air then Jeremy Levy will be bringing it to you.Jackie Selby is now back on mid-days and Melissa ford has taken over afternoons on KOSI radio For those of you who remember my Murphy Huston interview Melissa Moore started on Kosi 101 with him. Melissa Moore used to be on KYGO radio. Sheena has taken over mid-days on KYGO radio. Also Kosi 101 did their annual radiothon for the Ronald McDonald house. It was good to hear Murphy Huston on that morning with Jennifer D. It was also good to hear Jackie Selby during the day. Kosi 101 raised a lot of money for the hospital. Some of the other Bonneville radio stations were able to participate. Brandon Stokley was on for a couple of segments from KKFN radio 104.3 the fan.Altitude 92.5 radio made a scheduling change a couple of months ago. The new schedule is as follows. From 7-10 Vick Lombardy and Marc Moser. Then from 10-2 Josh Delver Scott Hastings, and Ryan Harris. Then from 2-6 Nate Kreckman with Kreckman and Company. I think it is a good line-up, but I really miss Julie Browman hosting with Scott Hastings. They were a wonderful pair on the air. For those of you that are not aware Julie was Scott Hastings producer when he and Dave Logan started the Sports Zoo back in the early 90’s I contacted Dave Tepper who is the new program director of Altitude 92.5 radio to get his comments about the new line-up and I wrote some nice comments about Julie and Scott working together and he said that he was happy with the work that Julie and Scott did together on the show. Julie Browman is exploring other radio opportunities. . Vick and Mark Moser make a good team. When I was recovering from eye surgery, I enjoyed listening to their analysis of the Bronco’s games. My favorite segment of their show was when they did Diary and note book. This segment is where Mark and Vick take turns reading their analysis of the Bronco’s game. Vick has his diary and Mark has the note book. They have soft music for Vick’s diary and they have loud music for Mark’s note book. They really have a good segment going for that show. I need to make a correction about Ryan Harris. Ryan is still doing Notre Dame football, but he is still with Altitude Sports radio. There are changes happening to the KHOW afternoon show and to KOA radio during the night times from 7-11 P.M. Michael brown has moved back to KOA radio from 7-11 PM. .He has moved back to the station that he started on back in 2008 or 2009 when he first became a radio host. This is a good change for him. Dave Ramsey is no longer on KOA radio any more. I will let you know if he resurfaces in Denver any time soon. During Michael Brown’s last show on KHOW radio Michael had the pleasure of introducing who the next afternoon hosts would be on KHOW radio. They are 2 very familiar hosts to that time slot. They would be Dan Caplis and Krista Kafer. The new afternoon show on KHOW is called Caplis and Kafer. The Michael Brown show on KOA radio is called it’s a heck of a show with Michael Brown. This show is a little bit different then the Michael Brown show on KHOW radio because Michael takes some calls on the KOA radio show where he didn’t on the KHOW show. I really enjoy listening to the Michael Brown Show on Fridays because he has Christian To Toon to talk about movies and he also has Lori Lynn Barker on to talk about food and drinks. This is the best day to listen. I am really excited that Krista Kafer is back on the air. It has been a little while. I enjoyed her fill in appearances. Dan Caplis used to be in the afternoons, but it has been a while. He used to co-host with Craig Silverman. How will these changes be for these 2 stations? We will have to wait and see.Colfax is no longer with KBPI radio. He got let go from the station. I will really miss his work with the I heart media cluster of stations. Good luck to him. I hope that he gets another radio job soon. KBPI said in a statement that they wanted to give some people from the Fort Collins or the Springs areas that time slot. The reason is that KBPI has a bigger signal now that it is at 107.9 radio instead of 106.7 radio. This makes sense. I will still miss Colfax though.Kelly Ford is no longer with the Tie Chuck and Kelly national country radio show. The reason why I mention this is because Kelly used to be with KYGO radio before she went off to do this national radio show with Ty Bentli and Chuck Wicks. Where will Kelly go? We will have to wait to find out. Good luck to Kelly in whatever her next career will be. Kelly started with the national country radio show with Blaire Gardner and Chuck Wicks back in 2013. Lance Tidwell has exited his position with Town Square media’s fort Collins cluster of stations. He was only at this position for 6 months. Lance joined Town Square media from Cumulous radio in Kansas City. He was the operations manager of the Town Square cluster. He has moved around the united states. Colorado wasn’t his only radio stop. I have learned over the years that some people in radio only stay in a place a short amount of time.The last thing that I would like to mention is Greg Thunder has found a new radio job. He is now on KMNB radio the Wolfe in Minnesota. He is the main host on the morning with Mandy PT’ Thomas and Mandy James for mornings starting Mike Dubs who used to be in the morning slot moves to evenings. I am really excited to listen to this new show and I am really excited that Greg Thunder has found a new radio home. Kerri Nobel is no longer with the previous station in Minnesota that Greg was on. She is no longer in radio. She is teaching people how to sing or to act with their voice. One piece of Orlando news to report Mandy Connell used to work at WTKS radio and she worked with Jim Phillips. Jim Phillips has retired from WTKS radio. In October I visited Orlando and I listened to his show and I really enjoyed listening to this show. Jim Colbert will succeed him. Good luck to Jim Phillips and Jim Colbert. In February I am looking forward to listening to Jim Colbert to see how this new show will be. Mandy Connell learned some really good things from Jim Phillips while she was working with him.Thanks for tuning in.

Country Radio

Hi to all,My name is Lucas Miller Cain and I reside in Pinopolis, South Carolina. I’m here to tell you all about country radio in South Carolina. I first started listening to country music when I was at the age of four. I started learning and distinguishing between male and female voices when my mom and I were riding in the car. The station I started listening to was Hot Country 103.5 W.E.Z.L. Back in 1992 was when artists like Travis Tritt were first getting their start in music.I also started listening to artists such as Billy Dean, Garth Brooks, and Alan Jackson. We haven’t heard any new music from Travis, Billy or Alan recently because country music has changed tremendously over the years and it’s sounding more like pop music. In 1998, I met three of my favorite radio personalities, TJ Phillips, Gary Griffin, and Lori Nix. As I got to know them more, I started calling into the station and requesting songs that were my favorites during that time period. I also have inherited a wide country music collection in CD’s and tapes of all sorts of artists including some of the artists mentioned above.My first interview will hopefully be with TJ Phillips and hopefully this will be when my buddy Jeremy Levy from Colorado comes to South Carolina again.

Lois Melkonian blog part 2

Jeremy Levy back with you for the second part of my Lois Melkonian Blog interview.I recorded this blog last summer at a barbecue that I had at my house. In front of us were some delicious chocolate cupcakes, so we both might have been a little distracted It is a little bit long, but I Lois has been one of my favorite personalities and she was so gracious to spend so much time with me . I am hoping you will read all of it. Thank you, Lois, for sharing such a wonderful interview with me.Here is my interview with Lois.Jeremy Levy: I know that you started your radio career in San Francisco at KCBS radio, but is this where you got your start in radio?Lois Melkonian: I first got my start at KFRN radio in Long Beach California. I was news director there. Then I worked at KJOY radio a radio station in Stockton California. I was their news director My first big news story was covering the challenger explosion. I was able to work many hours covering city council and then being their news director going to work at 4 in the morning Jeremy which you do when you work in news because there were so many floods and difficult politics in Stockton California in 1984 through 1986 I was able to get a very good job at KCBS radio in San Francisco later on because there was such a lot of great news to cover.JL: When you worked at KCBS radio you worked with Al Hart. What was it like working with him and what did you learn from him?LM: Al Hart was a true legend in San Francisco radio Jeremy. He was the most significant part of my life when it came to radio. No one holds a candle to him because of his experience and his warmth and his kindness. When I first started working with Al I was a little intimidated until he made it so easy and we had such a great rapport. We could bounce ideas off each other and we seemed to understand life from a similar prospective. He didn’t take himself too seriously and he taught me not to take myself to seriously either. That was a big lesson he gave to me. The other thing is it doesn’t matter what other people say it matters how you perform and how you act, and how you ask questions. Also, how you treat people. He treated people with such kindness that I knew that’s what I needed to do. I also learned from him that nice people do succeed because he had a wonderful career and people admired him and loved the work that he did and he never hurt anyone in the process. He taught me that I could do the same thing.A side comment from Jeremy. I certainly agree with this. I have heard it first hand from when Lois used to do interviews.JL: Did you have other friends at KCBS radio and if so, what did you learn from them the years that you worked at KCBS:LM: I had so many friends and colleagues at KCBS Jeremy. All of them were such professionals they were out to tell stories and to tell them from a very strong truthful perspective. All the years I was there no one told us what to say, how to believe, or what to think. They told us to go out there and get the story and to get both sides of the story. There was never one side to a story, it was telling the story as it stands. I learned that and there were a lot of legends working in San Francisco radio at the time you might remember from the San Francisco Chronicle. Herb Cane was still writing at the time and he was powerful as a columnist and he influenced many of the things I covered. All my colleagues were great and good story tellers and they wanted to tell the truth.JL: When you started in radio in Colorado on KOA radio you worked on Colorado’s morning news doing the business reports. You worked with Steve Kelley, April Zesbaugh, and Alan Roach. Who did you take over for on this show and what was your job on this show? What did you learn from them and what was it like working with them?LM: I was working in the mornings doing the business reports. That’s what I was doing first Jeremy of all things on KOA. I was getting up in the morning doing financial news. The one thing I learned was that in radio that you need to do some new and different things. I was doing a lot of sports and news in San Francisco and on KOA radio I was doing financial news. I had to study up on the market and I had to look at all the publications that had to do with business. I very much enjoyed what I was doing and they were a great team. All of them were great. All of them were legends in Colorado. I learned team work from all of them. All of them put a great show together that you want people to listen to. It was a family atmosphere. When people sit down at home or while they are driving to work they feel like they are part of a family or they are with friends. I felt like I was working with friends.JL: When you were waiting for the show to start, Rick Barber was on. Was there anything that you learned from him?LM: You know it was great to come in in the mornings and Rick was there. He was quite the gentleman and a very strong personality. A very kind man. I remember that and I was very sorry to hear of his passing. He was very delightful. You can still listen to his recordings today.JL: Sometimes you worked on the Saturday Colorado’s Morning News Show. You worked with Corey Lopez, Brenda Stewart, John M, Kim Hubbard, Joel Hillan, and others. What was it like working with these people and was there anything that you learned from them?LM: Mainly that everyone was committed to getting a great show on the air as I was. They were wonderful at their craft and they were passionate about telling the stories and being there on time. Each one of those people were fabulous. It was a real pleasure to work with them.JL: That is when I first heard you.LM: That is great. Working weekends isn’t always fun, but You must do it sometimes. It was a good thing for me. I was very glad to be there Jeremy.JL: There were other sister stations in that group one of them being KHOW did you get to know any of the hosts on that station?LM: Not so well. During that time Caplis and Silverman were on that show at that time. I got to know them at that time. JL: Also you got to know Jerry Bell during that time. Was there anything that he taught you and what was it like working with him?LM: Oh my goodness what an amazing man. He was in San Francisco when I was. We knew of each other when I came to KOA radio. He was also at KCBS. He continues to this day as a stellar reporter and a wonderful man.JL: He really is. I love listening to his reports during different news casts. In 2005 Scott Hastings left the show called the Sports Zoo. They were looking for a person or host to work alongside Dave Logan. Were you familiar with Scott? Also how did you get picked for this position?LM: I have no idea. Chris Olinger who was the program director at the time called me and brought me in to meet with Dave Logan Scott and I didn’t know each other. I had done news before on their show as a fill in. I didn’t know the team like that. Dave and I were brought together to look at sports from 2 different angles. He of course being the sports announcer sports athlete and host and myself being the fascinated with sports and having 3 sons that played sports who were all active in sports. I could speak from a fan prospective. I was asked if II could try it out so we auditioned together. It worked! It really worked. It was a wonderful run for 5 to 6 years. JL: Around this time the morning show was going through some changes with Steve Kelley leaving the morning show and Stefan tubs succeeding him. Did you know Steffan and did you learn any tips from him?LM: I knew Steffan and April as a very strong news team . They did a wonderful job hosting that show. I worked so many years as a news anchor myself I brought those skills with me Jeremy. I didn’t know Steffan that well I didn’t lean on him for those kinds of things.JL: What were 1 or 2 of your fondest memories of working on that show from 2005-2011?LM: One of them was the very strange story of the Balloon Boy. The family in Colorado, Karen Lindsay and I worked on that story together. She was the news anchor in the afternoons, and she is a very good friend of mine. That was a very fun thing to work on. The other great thing was to deal with the Bronco’s and the Rockies. Are you kidding? I got to sit and do interviews with some of those players. I got to go to games. I loved every moment of it. I got to watch the team move to the orange crush colors. I was such an orange fan. I loved doing all of that. All these things were huge fun for me as a talk show host.JL: What did you learn from working with Dave? Also when you were working with that show you got to know the hosts that came after you 2 of them in particular were Gunny Bob and Sean Rima. Was there anything that you learned from working with them?LM: I like being with people who are passionate about what they do. Those 2 people were very passionate about what they did. It didn’t matter if we saw eye to eye on everything but, it was great to work with people that were passionate about their shows. I still do. They are fun to listen to. Dave Logan is a legend In himself, isn’t he? It was wonderful to sit alongside him. I think our rapport was fabulous we were able to go back and forth without knowing each other and without trying. It was just a very good comradery. I have nothing but fond memories of that time.JL: I have some very fond memories of that time being a listener as well.LM: We laughed a lot didn’t we? I embarrassed myself a lot on the air Jeremy. It’s true. I had fun doing it.JL: One of my favorite memories was when you did the story of the cologne that smelled like hamburger meet.LM: It smelled like Burger King in the studio. That was funny. I still remember we did the story about Snuggie robes. We did weird things like when the wind affects you.JL: I know you did a whole 4 hour show just on that.LM: People called in about that. Of course you are going to talk about that. JL: During the show also you got to do interviews with Jack Corrigan, Jeff Kingery, and Jerry Schemmel. What did you learn from them?LM: That they know a lot more about baseball than I do. I love baseball I love the Rockies I got to go to the world series games. I got to go to games. My favorite saying with the Rockies was woohoo! It was just fabulous, and I am just so excited about where they are right now Jeremy.JL: Me Too. I am hoping that this year that they go further into the playoffs.Comment from Jeremy Levy. They did go a little bit farther.JL: Did anything surprise you about working on a talk show rather than just a news program?LM: No because I am used to surprises Jeremy. So, in news as well as in talk you just need to go with the flow. I loved being able to talk about important topics of the day, silly topics of the day, and sports topics of the day. The one thing they did at KOA is if there was serious going on than we covered it as well. I feel I got the best of both worlds.JL: Were there any favorite interviews of players or coaches that you interviewed?LM: I always loved going to Cheyenne Frontier days. That was a lot of fun to go up there and meet some famous cow boys. That was so much fun for me. I loved hanging out with people Jeremy. It was really an honor. We had a lot of comedians come through. I had a great team. Amani Ali was our producer and Reid Fisher was behind the glass. It was just a lot of fun.JL: When Dave Logan would be coaching during the football season you would have different co-hosts on the show until he was able to rejoin the show. Some of them being Lou From Littleton, Dave Krieger, Mark Johnson, JJ McKay, Amy Van Dyken, Jon Caldara, Andy Lindahl, and Mike Rice. What was this experience like?LM: They were so much fun. They made my job easy. It was who am I going to work with today. And this is awesome! Every single one of those people brought joy and energy. Also they brought a different prospective to the show. It was a joy and total fun.JL: One of my favorite shows during that time period was when you were co-hosting with Amy Van Dyken.LM: She is so much fun, isn’t she?JL: You were talking about chocolate. And a caller called in saying that he worked in a grocery store and had to give up chocolate.LM: That must have been so hard. I’m glad I have some chocolate cupcakes sitting right in front of us Jeremy and I can’t wait to eat one of them Jeremy.JL: One of my favorite parts of the show was when Reggie McDaniel would come on for his movie reviews for the week. Would you please talk about Reggie and what he brought to the show?LM: Reggie McDaniel you never knew what to expect from that man. He would watch everything. He had an energy a vivaciousness about him. He loved movies. He loved food. And he really enjoyed people. You felt so welcome. You felt at home when you were with him. I took away from him Jeremy I need to always people feel at home. He always did that with me. I never had the suits that he did. I never looked as good as he did. That was his specialty.JL: You had a lot of sports guests on the show. Were there any that stood out as being your favorites?LM: I just enjoyed them all Jeremy. I’m trying to think if I had a favorite. Rod Smith was great because he had a lot of energy. Some of the guests felt like they had to come on. Jay Cutler being a good example. He wasn’t always sure if he wanted to come on. I think everyone had their gifts. JL: in 2009 through 2010 Steve Kelley came back as an alumni of KOA radio and he worked with you for those years while Dave would be coaching . He was doing a talk show format not a news format.JL: What was that like doing a show like that with him?LM: He was delightful and so well rounded. He was really good at asking people questions. He enjoys people. If you love people and you like hanging out with folks, then you are going to do really well in this business. He absolutely has that gift.JL: Karen Lindsay who u mentioned a couple of questions ago was the news anchor for the ride home show. What did you learn from her over the years?LM: She is just a pile of energy. I love that woman. She is funny and resourceful. She loved TMZ so she had those stories from TMZ. She was a really good friend.JL: in 2011 the ride home was making some changes that didn’t include you. Did you know this? And did you get the job in Houston before you knew this?LM: The decisions they were making were internal. They informed me. Then the position opened up at KTRH radio. I could stay in the Clear Channel family.JL: What made you decide to move to Houston?LM: I had 2 sons in college that I had to keep paying their tuition. For me to stay employed it was important for me to keep working.JL: When you were working at KTRH in Houston you worked with Matt Patrick doing news for his show. What was it like working with Matt?LM: That was a different experience for me. I will admit. I loved working with him. He was a professional and he really knew what he was doing. It was a turbulent time in politics. There were lots to cover. Houston is an exciting place even now. My family enjoyed visiting all the wonderful places. It was something I will never forget. The best thing was that I had the best neighbors on the planet. I loved where I lived. I will never forget that Jeremy I’ll never regret living there.JL: There was a woman named Samantha Jordan that helped on that show. What did you learn from her?LM: She was absolutely crazy! She has sons that are in the military. She was a funny woman. She is still on the air in Florida. JL: I knew that you left Houston to help your father with his Alzheimer’s. Did you have to train your replacement at KTRH radio?LM: I did not. They were able to adjust. I was not involved with training or handling my replacement.JL: When you came back to Denver you and Karen Lindsay did an audition show on KHOW for their morning show. How did this come about and what did you think about doing this kind of show?LM: It was great coming back on the air with Karen. She and I had never done a show just the two of us. We were just exploring some possibilities Jeremy and it turned out that it wasn’t the best fit for KHOW We thought it was a great thing for us to audition for that show. We enjoyed doing it very much. We heard that the position was opening, and we put ourselves in the running for it.JL: Dan Mandis was the program director at the time did you know of Dan and did Dan have any expectations of your show?LM: I didn’t know Dan very well.JL: Do you miss being on the radio?LM: I don’t I am very happy with what I am doing now. I think that there are still great people in the radio industry. I am very happy for them.JL: in July this past summer you got to go back into the studio on KOA with April Zesbaugh to do an interview about the more to life podcast and the workshops. What was it like getting back in to the studio with April?LM: It was great. April and I really worked together because she worked mornings, and I worked in the afternoons. It was so fun to go into the studio with her. She is really talented and she really did her research. She was asking us some questions about our workshop. We had just a wonderful time. Shannon Scott was producing that day and he was a really great friend of mine. It was wonderful seeing him as well. That was a really fun experience. April and I just had a great banter back and forth and it was just a wonderful interview. When you are friends with someone and then you don’t see them for a while and then you see them for a while you just pick right back up from where you left off. JL: That’s how I felt when I first met you that I already knew you and we were already friends. What gave you the idea of starting the More to life podcast with Faith?LM: Faith and I have known each other for years. She is a therapist and I am now a life coach. Our years of experience working with people might provide some good information. We came up with more to life with Faith and Lois to look at life when you are in a place for either when you are happy or when you are sad and where you go from there. We want you to know that no one has to stay stuck and the ways to look at life. We explore different topics every week. Weather it is identity, weather it is your dreams. Whether it is considering. We just want to take your experiences and blow them up for you. We just want to remind you that there is more to life.JL: Wat kinds of things have you learned through podcasting?LM: I am glad to be back in this medium that I love and thank you Jeremy for because I love doing this. I haven’t lost my voice. That is probably the biggest piece.JL: What would be your advice for someone wanting to get in to radio or podcasting?LM: Never give up! Stay at it. If that’s really what you want to do, then keep working at it and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.JL: What would your hopes be for your podcasts and for your workshops?LM: We want to continue to influence people’s lives Jeremy and to have our voice out there. We hope that obviously we get more listeners and that people are excited about where we are going. Weather it is working with you in your work place, working with you in your workshop We want you to know that there is more to life and that we are going to keep putting our voice out thereJL: This last question is for me. I am interested in getting into radio and doing some podcasting. What advice would you have for me?LM: To start podcasting To get yourself out there In terms of what your voice sounds like and what it sounds like in an interview setting or straight broadcasting and to take that and to share it with different radio stations and try and find out where will the best fit would be.Thanks for tuning in and go Rockies I am posting this on Rockies opening weekend of 2019. This is one of Lois’s favorite times of the year.

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.

Jeremy’s Irv Brown memories

Jeremy Levy back with you with some sad news to report. Irv Brown the Godfather of Denver sports radio has passed away at the age of 83. Irv was sick at the time with lymphoma. This was his most recent diagnosis a couple of days ago. Irv was a coach of all sports before he got into radio. Irv was on different radio stations for a lot of years. Since I listened to him, he was on KHOW, KTLK, 950 the Fan, 104.3 The Fan, 1600 KEPN, and Mile High Sports 1340 and 1510. Irv and Joe Williams did a very informative sports radio show. They didn’t always agree. No one that Irv worked with had a bad thing to say about Irv Brown. Irv was a true legend in Denver radio.I first remember listening to Irv and Joe back in 1997. I remember first listening to them when they did a remote at the Black-Eyed Pea. That was the first remote that I remember Their song on that show was Let’s Get Ready to Rumble- the Hockey Theme. They got me really interested in Sports Radio. One thing that is similar about Irv and me are our memories. Irv would talk about things and players that happened years ago. Sometimes I remember things and people from many years ago that people are surprised that I remember; for example, I remember Casey Bloyer saying that Irv Brown was one of his mentors growing up. Sometimes Irv and Joe didn’t agree on sports topics that they would talk about. Their chemistry working together was amazing. I first really started getting interested in their show back in the early 2000’s when their show was on the Fan. They were really fun to listen to while I was recovering from eye surgery. Irv and Joe also had Jim Armstrong as a co-host while they were with the Fan. Those were fun shows to listen to. Also, when they were with the Fan, Mark Moser had a show right after them. They talked with Mark about what he was going to cover on his show. That was fun to listen to. When their show moved to Mile High Sports radio 1340, Irv and Joe were so happy to be on 1340 radio when it first started up. Their theme song to start out this show was Positive 4th street by Bob Dillon. Whenever I hear this song I think of Irv and Joe. I know a couple of people that knew Irv and Joe. One of them was my ocularist at Denver Optics Company, Walter and Ted Johnson. Ted used to come on with Irv and Joe to talk about the Kentucky Derby. One time he knew that I would be listening so he mentioned me to Irv and Joe. I think they knew of me. I really wish that I could have met both of them. I always enjoyed their segment on Fridays called the Hour of Power where they would make predictions about the different football games that would be on. They would make circles around which teams they would think would win the games. I will really miss this. Irv and Joe have worked with some fantastic people with their time together on the air including Gil Whitely, Scott Hastings, Dave Logan, Josh Dover, Mike Evans, Sandy Clough, Vic Lombardi, Les Shapiro, Mark Kisla, Brandon Krisztal, Scott DeHuff and Mark Moser. I really enjoyed listening to Irv and Joe’s last show together. As I wrote about back then, it was a memorable show with Dave Logan and other guests, all to wish Irv good luck and goodbye.Mike Boyle also knew him. Mike had Irv do a commercial for his show for a couple of years about JD’s Bait Shop. I always wondered how Mike got Irv to do that for his show .At the end of their show Irv used to say for my partner Joe Williams, I am Irv Brown -You make this show good, night everybody.” Then a sound affect would play that said come home baby now.” Then Irv Brown would say ”I’m on my way.” This was a great way to end the show. Irv was certainly a legend in Denver Sports radio and a lot of people will miss him terribly including me.RIP Irv Brown.Thanks for tuning in.

Recent passings from the radio world

Jeremy Levy back with you from Hawaii with some sad news to report. Pierre Wolfe, the host of some local and national radio traveling shows in Colorado has passed away at the age of 93. This happened in the middle of November. I would like to share a couple of memories of Pierre and his shows.The first time that I remember listening to Pierre was when he did a local travel show on 92.5 KVOD radio which was a classical station back then. He did this show on Saturday mornings. This was back in 1997. This show was on for an hour with some classical music in the middle of it. The first week I tuned in was when Pierre Wolfe was traveling to Israel. He had a guest on to talk about the country. It was interesting.The next memory that I have was when I first tuned into Pierre’s syndicated show called America’s Dining and Travel Guide which was on 710 KNUS from 4-6 P.M on Sunday afternoons. This was back in 1997 but, later in the year. The first show I remember from this show was when Pierre Wolfe was broadcasting from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Pierre had a guest from the chocolate factory there and it made me think that Hershey Pennsylvania and the chocolate factory might be a place that I would like to visit one of these days. I haven’t gotten there yet but hope to get there sometime during all of my traveling. Another memory that I have is back in 2003 or 2004 when Pierre was on a cruise of Spain, Morocco and Portugal. Pierre couldn’t broadcast from those places. They didn’t have the equipment back then. Pierre needed a fill-in host. He knew a lot of people that could fill in. He picked Mike Boyle to fill in. When Pierre had his restaurant Mike would visit the restaurant. Pierre would have Mike on his TV show that he had back in the early 90’s. I really thought this was a wonderful fill in. I called in one of the weeks that Mike was filling in to talk about Cheese Burger in Paradise in Oahu Hawaii which used to be one of my favorite hamburger places. When Pierre Wolfe would travel around the world on cruises, he would have other people fill in like Jimmy Lakey, Jim Connor, Allen Scott, and Paul McGregor. That was my second favorite fill in on Pierre Wolfe’s show was when Allen Scott and Paul McGregor filled in. In 2010 or 2011 I really missed hearing Pierre’s traveling shows and really wished that he would show up on a different radio station in Denver Colorado. This didn’t happen. I will really miss his travel shows and I haven’t found another wonderful travel show since that time.RIP Pierre.Tony La Monica long time traffic reporter for KHOW radio has passed away. He had been dealing with an illness for a long time. Tony started with KIMN radio in the 1970’s. He worked with Don Martin doing news. Tony then went to KHOW radio to do traffic reports for KHOW radio. This is where I first heard him. He did traffic reports for the Peter Boyles Show and the afternoon shows on KHOW radio. I also remember his commercials for Johnson Storage and Moving. I really thought he did some wonderful traffic reporting.RIP Tony. I will really miss you.Thanks for tuning in.

Susan Gatschet interview

This week I’m going to share my Susan Gatschet interview. Susan is on from 9-noon on week days on KUVO radio 89.3 FM. I met her during my internship. A friend of mine, Brenda Mosby, introduced me to her through e-mail. When I started my internship at KUVO I really thought she was a host that I would like to interview. I had been trying to schedule an interview with her for a couple of years. After a couple of weeks of my internship I e-mailed her and told her I was the same Jeremy Levy from the Colorado radio blog. It took a little time, but we were finally able to schedule this interview which I am really glad about. I have also heard her sometimes during one of the pledge drives on KUVO and she is one of my favorite people on KUVO because she has a gentle voice. I also love her knowledge about jazz music that she shares on her show. During the pledge drives she makes a lot of sense with the way she gets people to call in and support the station. During this last pledge drive I supported the station because of her encouragement. I am very proud to say that I am a member now of KUVO radio. I would encourage everyone to check out her show and you will learn a lot about jazz music just like I have done.Here is my interview with Susan.Jeremy Levy: It says in your bio on the KUVO website that you have been a fan of jazz music since you were 14. What got you interested in jazz music?Susan Gatschet: I would say growing up in Kansas City, Missouri was very influential. I saw Count Basie there. I was able to attend a lot of concerts that peaked my interest. I also have to say that my brother Charlie who is a guitar player he started playing guitar when he was 11 years old. He was playing rock but, after a year he started playing Wes Montgomery and Charlie Parker. I used to listen to him practice because our bed rooms were next to each other. I used to listen to him play scales and play different songs. I started to really like it a lot. A big thing that really made the difference was in the 70’s early 80’s the Kansas City recreation center had free concerts in the summer time. They would be at different parks in the city. I saw Dave Brubeck, I met Dizzy Gillespie. There were so many great jazz musicians that came. The community would gather together, and we would have picnics and listen to the music. I also started hanging out at record stores.JL: in 1996 you started working at KUVO radio How did this start? Also did you have any experience in radio before this?SG: I had absolutely no experience in radio before that. I had moved to Colorado in 1988. The first thing I did was I set up my stereo and found KUVO radio. I loved it! I thought Oh this is going to be my station. As I listened I noticed that there weren’t females on the station. I thought well, I know the music but I bet I could learn how to run the board. I came down to KUVO and I talked to Bob Burke who was the morning guy at the time. He introduced me to Carlos Lando I told Carlos you need more women on the station. He said you’re right. I said I would love to learn how to do it. He let me come in and hang out with some of the on air hosts. I learned how to run the board. After doing this for 6 months I believe I sat in for Andy O’Leary on a Sunday night. I was really nervous. It was fun. I really loved it. Then I just kept doing it. I started out as a volunteer Carlos gave me the Thursdays 9-12 slot. Then a position opened as a receptionist at KUVO radio I got that job Carlos wanted me to be on the air during the week Monday through Friday9-noon That was my first full time gig.JL: I started listening to KUVO radio in 1996, but I didn’t start listening to you until the 2000’s era what makes KUVO radio such a wonderful place to work?SG: I would have to say the people. Being able to play music is another thing. I think it is a very special job. I don’t take it for granted at all. The thing that I love about all of the people here is that everyone is so passionate from the weekend hosts to the hosts on during the week Everyone loves the music. I think that you can hear that when you listen.JL: You have worked with a great team like you mentioned Carlos, Matthew, Andy, Steve Rodney I have also noticed from my time with my internship this summer everyone is so helpful and so pleasant What is it like working with this great team of people?SG: It’s inspiring! That is the best word for it. Every morning when I wake up I am so excited to get to come to work and play music. They have also shared their knowledge with me. Sometimes if I have trouble pronouncing a word in Spanish I go to Carlos or Arturo and they will help me with pronunciation of Spanish words. Rodney is really good with names from Portugal. Cenr is really good with her language. It’s just a great group of people I am proud to be a part of it.JL: It also says in your bio that you have interviewed some famous jazz artists from all over the world. Are there one or two artists that stick out as being your favorites?SG: Monty Alexander is an interview that is one of my favorites. I was extremely nervous I did a lot of research I like to ask a little bit of the artists past. There is also something new going on as well. I’ll try and ask questions about that. Monty Alexander was so nice and he brought in his wife. She was a singer so I had to interview both of them. This interview lasted for an hour. At the end of the interview I felt so good about it like I had shared some wonderful information with the listeners. They got some insight into who Monty was. Another one would be drummer Jeff Hamilton. Jeff played with Ray Brown. He has played with so many people. We just had a lot of fun. This interview went for an hour. Those 2 interviews I am really proud of. It was a real joy to get to know them.JL: You have done interviews with Colorado jazz artists as well. Are there 1 or 2 that stick out as being your favorites?SG: I really enjoy interviewing Paul Romaine the drummer. He has an organization called the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts. They mentor high school students from different schools. It is a great program. The students that I have met through this program have gone on to be great musicians. Paul has just some wonderful stories. He is a funny cat as well. Another one is Rich Chiaraluce the saxophone player. He told some wonderful stories about his journey getting into jazz and him growing up back east. He was at a fair once and this big truck comes pulling a flatbed that had Cannonball Adderley’s Band on it. He knew at that moment that he wanted to play jazz. Also, that the saxophone would be his instrument of interest. He is just a wonderful saxophone artist that lives here in Colorado.JL: I have heard of him when I was doing research back this summer. I am a big fan of piano jazz music. Are there any favorite interviews that you have done with any jazz pianists?SG: I have interviewed Orin Evans. Freddy Cole is another one that I have interviewed. That was probably the worst interview that I have ever done. He came from the airport. He wasn’t in a good mood. He answered all of my questions with a yes or a no. I was so scared at that point. He was playing up at the Mount Vernon Country Club and I was there that night and I went up to him and I apologized. He said that it wasn’t a bad interview. He came back a couple of years later. I was going to interview him again and I was so nervous. We ended up having the best time. He opened up and shared a lot of stories. That really made me happy.JL: Have you interviewed any Blind jazz musicians?SG: Henry Butler. He just passed away a couple of months ago. Henry moved to Colorado from New Orleans after Katrina. He moved up to Boulder. I just did a show dedicated to him with performances from the performance studio. He taught me a lot about life. He was just such a wonderful man. We just miss him so much. I have interviewed him about 5 times.JL: Another blind musician that I have known over the years is Karen Karsh. She is a wonderful person.SG: She is a wonderful person and I have interviewed her a couple of times.JL: It also says in your bio that you are a voice over artist. What got you interested in voice over work?SG:I have a theatrical family. My grandfather ran a summer theatre camp my whole entire life. Every summer I would go to the theatre and I would prompt the actors with their lines. They also did lots of musicals too. Everyone in my family can sing and or play musical instruments I didn’t play a teacher because I didn’t like the teacher. I just started off on the wrong foot. My brother and I took guitar lessons. My brother was the one who stuck with it. . One of my aunts did a show in Iowa on Iowa public TV. She did this for several years. This is where she started doing voice over work. I think she inspired me to start voice over work. I do voice over work for Rocky Mountain PBS. I do voice overs for Channel 12 which is another PBS station. Usually those are under writing spots or spots for up-coming programs. Right now I am working on a documentary about the woman painters. The exhibit came to Denver a couple of years ago. It was at the museum. Joshua Hassell down stairs at Channel 12is putting a documentary together of these painters. I am voicing that documentary and I am also picking out the music for itJL: What would be your advice for someone wanting to get into voice overs and radio?SG: Having a pleasant voice that people like to listen to is important. Knowing the music is important as well. Do a lot of research about the station that you would like to work for. Listen to the station and make a demo tape. If you are wanting to get into voice over, you might need to get an agent. Public radio is different than regular radio. Here at KUVO radio some of our hosts have been volunteering for 33 years. Jack Mudry, Dan Feinberg and Geoff Anderson have been here for a long time. When people get a gig in radio they keep it for a long time. Also with voice overs you need to practice reading scripts and then you need to make a demo tape. When I do voice overs I don’t like to do different voices. I just like to use my voice. You must decide whether you need to use your voice, or some people do different characters. Also practice timing yourself. Practice reading the scripts and time yourself. Some of the spots that are on KUVO are 20-25 seconds. You can write public service announcements and then practice treading them and time yourself and shoot for 20-30 seconds.I really appreciate Susan sharing her knowledge with me. I look forward to checking out her brother’s musical, as well as the other jazz artists that she mentioned soon.Thanks for tuning in.

KUVO radio station Manager Carlos Lando interview

Jeremy Levy back with you to share my interview with Carlos Lando.As you read in my last post that I did an internship at KUVO radio back this summer. I was a casual fan of KUVO radio ever since 1996 or 1997. I first heard Carlos on the air on a night when KUVO radio moved into their new performance studio. I remember that he was in the studio with some jazz performers. Rodney Franks, who now works from 4-8 o’clock, was celebrating in the regular KUVO radio studio. They went back and forth with the celebration from the regular radio studio to the performance studio. They had a couple of bands that were live that night. It was a really special night to listen to. I have heard Carlos during some of the pledge drives. I remember him doing a show with Steve Chavis a couple of years ago and I really thought they made a great team. KUVO radio was a wonderful place to intern and I am very appreciative and thankful that I met Carlos. When I first met Carlos, Tina Cartegena introduced me to him and she joked with me to not butter him up. I was so excited to meet him that I forgot what she told me and I said that I had been a big fan of his for a long time. . Carlos is now the station manager at KUVO radio. Here is my interview with Carlos.Jeremy Levy: I first started listening to you in 1996 or 1997. How did you get your start in Colorado radio?Carlos Lando: I came to Colorado in 1980. I went to work for KDKO radio Which is what they called an urban contemporary radio station. It was a commercial radio station. We played Soul music. It evolved into disco and then it evolved into Rap a little bit. I had a background in jazz music before, but I couldn’t find a job in jazz radio when I moved to Colorado. My other true-love of music was R & B. I got a job at KDKO radio and I was there for 5 years.JL: When you worked at KDKO radio. Who were some of the people that you worked with and what did you learn from them about the radio industry?CL: The first person I worked with was the General manager named Rod Louden. He was an old radio guy from the 50’s. I admired him a lot. I became the program director of KDKO radio in 1982. I had a great team of radio personalities that I worked with. Kevin Brown was on mornings, I had a guy named Cooch that was on in the afternoons. I had a guy named Danny Harris . It was a great team and a great staff. I worked there until 1985 and the station was sold. Then I left and worked for KBCO radio. I worked there for 1 year and then I came to KUVO radio.JL: When you started KUVO you have worked with some great people, Rodney, Ed, Andy O, Susan, Steve, and others What is it like working with this great team of people?CL: The best part of working with people like Rodney, Steve, and the others is their passion for the jazz music that they play. Also, their motivation for the community. The other part is they are very strong communicators They believe when they turn on that microphone They are representing KUVO and the Colorado community. It is a great team.JL: Yes I have noticed that when I have been doing my internship here. I know that you did a show with another host in the mornings for some time. I can’t quite remember his name though What was it like working with this host and what did you learn from him over the time that you 2 were partners on that show?CL: You must be talking about Steve Chavis when the show was called Lando and Chavis. The show was called Lando and Chavis and we did that for 5 years. It was a lot of fun We were able to do more community discussions and interviews. It was a good show, but the reason we are not doing it any more is that our management responsibilities got in the way. When I started that show at the beginning I was also the program director and the general manager It was a lot to do we did it as long as we could then Steve took over as the program director For all of us to grow as an organization and to grow our hosts We just found that it was too much to do a show and manage and program the station at the same time. We decided to restructure the station a little bit and the on air shifts. We asked Victor Cooper to come in during the mornings because we have plenty of on air talent we have more talent than most stations. We were able to get the morning show covered so that we could focus more on our programming and our managerial responsibilities. Steve is available to fill in and so am I.JL: This is where you met Mathew Goldwasser. Mathew told me that this is how he got his start at KUVO by doing movie reviews on your show. How did this come about? What have you learned from Mathew?CL: The segment was called Jazz on film. Mathew is such a great researcher. Mathew, Steve, and I would sit down and talk about what were some great films with jazz music in them to talk about. Mathew basically started to research the film era called film Noir from the fifties. We also did jazz documentaries. What I learned is that people get turned on to music through film sometimes you are watching a movie and you think to yourself what is that song? You wait until the end of the movie to see the ending credits or who played the music for that movie that’s how I got turned on to certain styles of music that I wouldn’t normally listen to . Mathew was very good about detailing the artist and the style of the music.JL: I am looking forward to checking out some of these on the KUVO website. In 1996 you moved into the performance studio. I was listening that particular night and I really thought it was a special time. What made this night so special for you?CL: Jeremy it is interesting that you asked that because I was looking at a DVD of that night and we had someone filming that night. Manfredo Fest, the great Brazilian pianist was there. I knew him when he was in Florida. He played with the Colorado Symphony. So it was wonderful that Manfredo and his crew were able to be there. That was an amazing night. It was a big party for the community. Our doors were open for anyone to come and visit the new studio. There has been over 1000 performances in that studio.JL: I know that working at KUVO you get to meet some famous jazz artists. Are there any jazz artists that stand out in your mind as being your favorites?CL: One of my favorites was Benny Golson who was one of the great jazz composers of all time. Benny used to work with Art Blakey in the 50’s. He always had such great stories. One story was about Johnny Coltrane used to come to his house and mentor him because there were from the same neighborhood in Philadelphia. He would tell stories like that. Another interview that wasn’t jazz related was Jefferson Starship. One of the members was doing some art work and she came into the studio. She told us about her love for the music. We have had so many people come in. It just has been wonderful the many people that have come to do interviews with us.JL: What have been 1 or 2 favorite jazz artists from Colorado that you have met?CL: One of my favorites was Billy Toles. He was a saxophonist. He used to do concerts at El Chapultepec, which is a jazz house here in Colorado. Another one would be Freddy Rodriguez. He is still playing marvelously. Ellyn Rucker would be another one. I love her piano playing.JL: What would be your advice for someone wanting to get into Colorado Radio?CL: The first thing is to think about it first. Radio has changed a lot over the years. It has changed because how people access radio these days is different. The internet has changed. You can listen to radio People want to hear things when they want to hear them. If you want to get into radio these days you must be prepared to understand That radio is just another platform for how people access content The internet is so important these days with podcasting and other forms of audio. Also you need to be an effective communicator. People are streaming you from all over the world weather it is on your phone or weather it is on the computer. The main thing is the immediacy of turning on the radio and hearing someone say something that you would find relevant, like the weather or traffic or news or a song that you would enjoy. You also need to be prepared to be involved in the community.JL: What are 1 or 2 strengths and one or 2 weaknesses of Colorado radio today?CL: One of the Weaknesses is there are not too many stations left that have live DJ’s. A lot of it is pre-recorded. They are not locked into the community. They have a morning show Colorado has a very healthy radio market. It is not like it was 20 years ago. Then after the morning show is done then it is all automated. Then you lose a lot of the immediacy of the station. The other part is not allowing for new ideas younger hosts not taking a lot of risk with content not wanting to branch out. In terms of strengths We are in a very good market for public radio. If you consider what KUVO has accomplished over 30 years. When you consider that the Rocky Mountain radio group consisting of 18 stations in this state all serve their community really well. The state of public radio in Colorado is good. I think they are all providing a great service.JL: Have you met any blind musicians or blind singers?CL: Henry Butler was one who just passed away. He was a pianist. He came to Colorado from New Orleans after Katrina. Manfredo Fez was blind He was also a piano player. When Manfredo inaugurated the studio, it was the first time I had seen a quintet with 2 blind musicians. All of their audio cues were fantastic. They used all audio cues. In terms of singers Dianne Schuur would be the one that I have thought of.II have really enjoyed and very appreciative that I have learned so much about KUVO and jazz music from Carlos during this interview. At the beginning of October, I heard Carlos with Victor during the pledge drives and he did a wonderful job.Thanks Carlos for sharing your knowledge with me.Thanks for tuning in.

My KUVO internship

This summer one of my goals was to get my College certificate in radio broadcasting. I needed 4 more credits from Pikes Peak Community College. This would hopefully help me get a job in the Colorado radio industry. My College radio instructor and friend, Sharon Hogg, helped me get an Internship at KUVO radio in downtown Colorado. KUVO radio plays jazz music. I was a casual fan of this station. I would listen ocasionally when they would have a pledge drive and I would also listen to some of the jazz music during summer evenings when there wasn’t a Rockies game going on. I was also familiar with some jazz music through my piano playing. Uri, my piano teacher and I have done some jazz music. My 2 favorite songs are Motorway Blues which was written by a British composer Pam Wedgwood and Capluey Louie which was written by my teacher Uri Rovner. I also enjoyed some of the KUVO radio personalities such as Susan Gatschet, Rodney Franks, and Carlos Lando. I never dreamed that I would have an internship there.I am now going to explain what my job was at KUVO. One of the volunteers there, Matthew Goldwasser, was working on a project to try and find the 100 best jazz artists from Colorado. This project will be used when they move into their new building in 2020 as it will be a featured exhibit. Matthew had a list of these artists that he would send to me to look up using my laptop computer. I would try and find music videos on YouTube and also try and find interviews of these jazz artists. I would copy the links into a word document and then I would send the file to him. I discovered that I liked jazz more than I thought, and I discovered I really like some of the Colorado jazz artists as well. My 2 favorite were Nelson Rangel and Amy Booth. An artist that I would have loved to hear more of her music was Ellen Rucker. The first time I heard Ellen on KUVO was with Rodney Franks during one of the pledge drives and I really thought she was a great volunteer that night. I also job shadowed one of the hosts, Andy O’Leary, host of Afternoon Jazz with Andy O from 1 PM to 4 PM. Tina Cartegena, Chief of Radio Operations, wanted me to get some experience listening to what Andy did on the air. I learned a lot from Andy. I learned how to get prepared for a show and I also learned what types of music that Andy liked to play during his show. All in all, my internship at KUVO radio was a success, the people who work there could not have been nicer or more helpful, and I am looking forward to receiving my certificate in radio broadcasting as I got an A for the Internship. I am also looking forward to volunteering at KUVO one day a week at the end of September or the beginning of October.Thanks for tuning in.

My Broncos Training Camp and Prediction

Jeremy Levy back with you. Today I’m going to do something a little bit different. At the beginning of June, I got to go to the NSCD’s football camp for people with disabilities. I would like to first thank the NSCD for putting on this event. This event was at the indoor practice facility in Highlands Ranch Colorado. Outside this facility is where my dad and I have watched training camp. I had never been to a camp like this before and wasn’t sure what to expect. Since I have started writing this blog I have tried a lot of new things. Parking at this facility was really easy and convenient. We only had to wait for a couple of minutes for the event to start. Once everyone was registered we went inside the practice facility. I smelled the artificial turf that they had inside the facility I also heard the excitement that the crowd was making . My dad explained to me that they use artificial turf indoors so that it would be softer for the players to practice with. There were 4 different stations at this event. Each station had a different drill for us to do and each station had a Bronco. One thing that could have been improved was the leaders didn’t explain the events very well so that a blind person could follow what was going on. My dad had to explain to me what we were doing. I got to meet Jordan Leslie who is an up and coming receiver, and Garett Bolles, one of the offensive tackles of the Broncos. They were my 2 favorite players at the event. As you can see in the picture Jeremy Levy has the ball he is running with it into the in zone! Touchdown! Touchdown for the Denver Bronco’s by Jeremy Levy! Wow! That was amazing! That was a nice dance too! It was so much fun to be a football player for an evening. I got to learn some of the drills that football players do and I am hoping that I will get to do more events with the NSCD in the future.The next thing I would like to blog about are my predictions for the Bronco’s season.I went with my dad to training camp again this year at the end of the summer. Last year when I went to the Bronco’s training camp it wasn’t the best experience. It felt like to me that they were not too happy to have the fans there. It felt very confusing and I had trouble figuring out what the Broncos were doing on the field. It was also confusing that there was a quarterback controversy between Trevor Siemean and Paxton Lynch Also in the middle of the year Brock Osweiler joined the team, which made it even more confusing. Last season was a very disappointing and frustrating season. This past training camp was a lot less confusing. It seemed like all the staff were more energetic and wanted us there. In my opinion the players were enjoying it more that they knew who their starting quarterback was going to be. I am looking forward to hearing how Case Keenum is doing. I am also looking forward to hearing how Emanuel Sanders plays at wide receiver I have heard that Emanuel and Case have really good timing together. I am also really enjoying hearing how Bradley Chubb does this year. I think that was a good move getting him in the draft. Royce Freeman’s journey as a Denver Bronco is interesting to me. I have heard that he is supposed to be a fast running back. I am also looking forward to Jake Butt playing tight end as well. I have heard from Andy Lindal and Tyler Polumbus that they are expecting him to do well. He missed last year. In my opinion the Bronco’s need to up the tempo of the offense. I like it when they do that. I am so excited for Phillip Lindsay! He just got his first Bronco’s regular season touch down. I followed him when he was with the CU Buffs and he really did a wonderful job in college. Mark Johnson and Garry Barnett were really wowed by him. I am also impressed with Courtland Sutton this year. He seems like a strong wide receiver. My prediction? I think that the Broncos are going to be 9 and 7 this season and they might get into the play offs. This season promises to be an exciting Bronco’s football season. The Broncos are now 2 and 0 on the season. The Raiders came into Denver, and it was a struggle, but Denver got the win 20-19.

Summer 2018 radio changes

Jeremy Levy back with you to talk about summer 2018 radio and tv changes.Sally Mamdooh has left KMGH channel 7 to take another news job in Houston Texas. Sally has been in Colorado since 2015. She is starting a new journey in Houston. I got this from Mike Mc Guff. Thanks Mike for the tip. I always enjoy reading your blog posts. I hope that Sally does well in Houston.Larry Ulibarri and Kathy J are now on mornings at 107.1 radio. They have reunited with Kendal B on that station. I am not a fan of this radio station because of the hip-hop music that they play, but I wanted to congratulate them on finding a new home. Larry and Kathy recently left 107.5 radio. Also 107.1 and 107.5 radio are now competing radio stations because they play Rap and Hip-hop music . The owner of 107.1 is Max Media 1 radio is excited to be competing against 107.5 radio. They are also excited to have Larry and Kathy J on the air at 107.1 radio.Tashamakia has moved to afternoons at 107.5 radio. She is now the music director and afternoon host of that station. I got this from both Radio Insight and inside radio people moves. I check these 2 websites frequently to get radio news for my blog. Tashamakia came from Texas.Denise Plante is no longer with Kosi 101.Kosi and Denise Plante couldn’t agree on a new contract. I really enjoyed listening to Denise’s show since she was on KALC radio. Before that I remember her being with KIMN radio. I heard about this through the Channel 6 auction. I remember when she was on KALC radio on the Children’s hospital radiothon. Her favorite interview was the parent of a child with cancer. Denise wasn’t sure what questions to ask him. He said to her that nothing you say to me is going to hurt me. I have been through so much I have seen my boy go through so much. “No question is silly so just shoot.” This is the way that I would answer questions. I tried to get an interview with Denise at Kosi for this blog but couldn’t. This was my first memory of Denise. I met Denise with Murphy Houston at Kosi and she was a wonderful host. I really appreciated her questions to me about my pac-mate (a braille technology tool) which I brought into the studio I always enjoy sharing my knowledge with radio people. Sometimes radio people don’t realize all of the wonderful technology that is out there. . I am really going to miss Denise on Kosi 101. She will still be on Colorado and Company on Channel 9.Update! Update! Don’t stop reading this post just yet because Denise Plante has landed a new radio job at KUBL 106.7 radio doing mid-days from 10-3. What happened to Chelsea who took over that time slot a couple of months ago? Well, Chelsea has been paired with Brian Washington, so the afternoon show is a team of hosts. I really think this is a wonderful move by I heart media. Congratulations to you Denise! I am thrilled for you, and congratulations to Chelsea and Brian as well. I haven’t listened to this show yet, but I hope to soon.KALC radio has their new mid-day show now that Sam Hill has left mid-days. The new show is called Carson and Amber. Carson has done some work with the Intercom family of stations while Amber has joined from being a contestant with the Bachelorette TV show. I haven’t listened to this show yet, but I wanted to give a shout out to them. I think this is going to be a great show for them. I did listen to a YouTube of them and they sound good together.Sticking with Intercom radio, Chuck St. John is not on Cruisin 1430 anymore. He left the station to spend more time with his family. He sometimes does some fill in work on 93.7 The Rock. The station can also be found on 1510 radio. There is no word yet on who is going to replace Chuck on the station.Jenny D is going to be moving to Kosi 101 radio from Kroenke Entertainment. She was with KWOF radio 92.5 radio. Jenny is going to join Sean Henry for mornings starting in another couple of weeks. I am looking forward to this new show. There is no word yet what’s going to be happening with the morning show at 92.5 KWOF radio. Staying with Kroenke Sports radio group of stations, Ryan Harris, who has been on Altitude 950 radio in the afternoons with Nate Kreckman, is going to be leaving to take a color commentator job with Notre Dame football. There is no word yet on who Nate Kreckman’s new co-host would be. I was not a big fan of this show because I didn’t think that Ryan and Nate sounded good together. I still wanted to wish Ryan good luck though. I am looking forward to hearing the changes to Nate Kreckman’s show after Ryan’s departure. . There is a new program director at Altitude Sports Radio named Dave Tepper. Dave has come from Nebraska. I am thinking that he will do well as Altitude 950 sports radio new program director. He has been the program director of NRG Media in Nebraska. Melissa Moore is joining Kosi 101 for afternoons starting soon. Melissa was recently with KYGO radio doing mid-days. When Melissa started in radio she was with Kosi with Murphy Huston so it is a return to the station for her. What is Kosi going to do for mid-days you might ask? Well Jackie Selby is going to move back to mid-days. I am really looking forward to this. Jackie has always been one of my favorite DJ’s. This is a return to mid-days for her as well. There is no word yet on what KYGO is going to do for mid-days yet.Brian Taylor is no longer with KCCY radio in Colorado Springs. He is starting a new project. He was the assistant program director. The program director Jason Mccallum will assume the music director duties. Congratulations to Brian and to Jason.Also good wishes go out to Mike Evans of 104.3 the Fan. Mike had some heart surgery and was out for a couple of weeks recuperating. It is good to have him back hosting the morning show with Mark Shlereth. He sounds as good as ever.104.3 The Fan had a contest at the beginning of the summer where they were looking for a new host to host a show on Sunday mornings. The way the contest worked was that they would have people come to different restaurants around Colorado. Some of the Fan hosts would be there to co-host with these people and the fan hosts and the person would come up with a question for their audition. Then fans could vote for their favorite host after it was done. The result was that John Davis is the newest weekend host to join Sports radio 104.3. He is paired with Orlando Franklin. Yes, the former offensive Bronco’s player Orlando Franklin. . I listened the last couple of Sundays before Bronco’s season starts and I really like the way they sound together. John is still learning how to be a host. I think he will figure it out quickly. It’s nice to see that 104.3 trying some new things with their weekend line-up. You can check out the auditions by going to YouTube at 104.3 The Fan The program director is excited to have Orlando Franklin joining the station. Keeping with Bonneville, Eddy Haskell is no longer with KYGO radio as its program director. He is moving to I Heart Media in Fort Collins. Good luck to Eddy. One other host that I would like to mention is Greg Thunder who is no longer with Cities 97.1 radio in Minnesota. Some of you might remember Greg when he was with KALC 106 radio back in the early 2000’s. I was a casual listener and I have liked his work there and I have tried to follow him around the country. There is no word yet on where Greg will go or what they are doing with the morning show. For right now, Greg’s former co- host Keri Nobel is on the show by herself. They are changing the format of the station to late 70’s and early 80’s music. I hope that Greg does get another radio job soon. Also, before Bronco’s training camp started and throughout the Bronco’s pre-season, Andy Lindahl, Mike Rice, Justin Adams, and Tyler Polumbus have been fill-ins on the Lewis and Logan show when they have had a week off or when they have been traveling for pre-season games. I like it when these 4 hosts fill in. In my opinion Andy Lindahl and Mike Rice sound really good together. Congratulations to Brandon Krisztal of Orange and Blue 760 and the executive producer of the Lewis and Logan show. Brandon and his wife have a new baby. Brandon has been at home the last week on paternity leave.Also, in the baby department, Zach Bye of 104.3 the fan and his wife have a new baby as well. Zach was off for a week during the summer on paternity leave.Brandon Stokely, Dan Jacobs, and Chad Brown did some shows together. In my opinion Brandon and Dan sounded good together- better than Brandon and Chad. .The Colorado Rockies are in the hunt for making the playoffs. Yay! 850 KOA radio is going to have some special programming starting in September. They are going to be having a show before the pre-game show called Rockies Count Down hosted by Corey Lopez. Then after home games they are going to have a special show after the home games called Rockies React hosted by Jack Corrigan and Jerry Schemmel. They are going to have Bud Black’s press conferences and player interviews and they might take some phone calls. If there are any rain delays or any extra inning games then this show will not occur. I am looking forward to these shows.Rodney Franks of KUVO is on vacation until September. Steve Chavez, the program director is doing a great job filling in on KUVO 89.3 FM. On 630 KHOW Jon Caldara was a fill-in on the Ross Kaminsky show last Friday. Jon Caldara is one of the best fill-in hosts on 630 KHOW radio and sometimes for 850 KOA radio, in my opinion. He has some interesting topics to discuss. I like some of the strange stories that he covers.Thanks for tuning in.

Jerry Bell interview

This week I am going to share my Jerry Bell interview. I did this interview about 2 years ago, and I give my apologies to Jerry for the delay in getting posted. Jerry is a class guy and a true gentleman. Many things happened that caused this delay, but I’m happy to finally have gotten it done.Jerry is the main news reporter for KOA radio 850 A.m. and 94.1 FM. This means if there is a big event going on politically or sports related or just a fun event you would probably find Jerry Bell there. He has reported when there has been blizzards or floods. When I first started listening to Jerry he was the program director for 850 KOA 630 KHOW and 760 radio. I first heard his name during the “Zoo you hear what I hear” CD that I mentioned in my Andy Lindahl interview on this blog.Jerry has done a ton of news stories. I remember Dave Logan was saying on the Sports Zoo that Jerry was the current program director. He said that he and Scott shouldn’t forget about him otherwise they wouldn’t get anyone to buy the CD.The one story that I remember from Jerry relates to me as a blind person and as a listener to talk radio. This story was on a different KOA radio CD with different interviews and funny bits that KOA has collected over the years. This bit was Jerry relating the story of a lady named Barbara who loved the Rockies and the Rockies broadcasts on the radio. Barbra was a fan of the Rockies before I was. I can still remember the tag line for the story like it was yesterday.“Sometimes it is not what you see but what you hear that makes a difference.”That rings true for me because when I listen to the radio I hear everything that happens, since I can’t see, the radio is my way of listening to what is going on. When I hear a Rockies game I can hear the excitement in Jack Corrigan’s or Jerry Schemmel’s voice when a Rockies player hits a home run or makes a big play in the game. Also listening to Jerry Bell’s KOA Close ups lets me know what is happening in Colorado. Here is my interview with Jerry.JL: Please give a history of how you got your start in radio?Jerry Bell: I Started in 1976 I started as an intern K101 FM station in San Francisco as a reporter and assistant news director. I Worked there for 10 years. When I moved to Denver I started at KIMN in Denver as a part time newscaster. I was living in my in -laws basement.11/17/86 I started at KOA. I Started at the overnight desk. I became an assignment editor. Then became news director. Finally, I became program director for KHOW and KOA. I ultimately went back to my first love of doing the newsJL-What made the program director a tough job?JB:- There is a huge demand for ratings performance. You're interacting with different departments. A lot of moving parts plus contract negotiations. I Just enjoy doing the news.JL-I've been hearing you as the KOA close up reporter. What does that entail?JB:-In order to do a good close up requires a lot of time I . I use a special recorder and mic so I’m not sticking a mic in somebody's face. I'm picky about doing it right. I have to tell a story in roughly 30 seconds.JL- When you were a news director you worked with Steve Kelley and Gus Merkous What was it like working with legends in the radio industry?JB- They were wonderful people. Gus passed away. He Worked at KOA for 17 years. He was a Great guy. Crusty on the outside but marshmallow on the inside. Steve Kelley is a wonderful human being and knew how to connect with people. He Had an ability to set a goal and complete it.JL:- Favorite memories?JB : I Covered city hall in San Francisco and I covered Mayor Harvey Milk's assassination. I covered the SFO end of the Jonestown suicides. Xmas that year was terrible. I Covered Patti Hearst and her trial. I have a ton of stories. Here in Denver, Columbine was very very rough. I was one of the first reporters on the scene. I was also the first reporter at the Aurora theater shooting. I enjoy politics. My favorite close up was of a friend of mine that was a huge Rockies fan. He got pancreatic cancer, went on a tour of all major league ball parks. They ended up playing the close up I did at his funeral. That is probably my greatest honor because it seems I got it so right. A Henry Kissinger memory sticks out, Somehow I scored an interview with him as a young reporter. He comes into the room, takes off his watch and says OK kid, you have 5 minutes. If it happened now I'd probably be a little more forceful.JL- My favorite close up that you did was a blind woman who was a great Rockies fan.JB-She is an amazing lady. Big baseball fan. It's a big deal for her. She has a shirt that has an eye chart on it and it says, "hey ump you're blind."JL- What would be your advice for someone trying to get into radio?JB-You have to be involved in multimedia; Blogs, taking pictures. The medium is evolving and expanding. You must embrace change and the hours are bad and you have to work long hours and it is very demanding.JL- If you had a magic wand what would you like to see happen in Colorado radio?JB-If I had a magic wand I would create more news stations like it was when I first got involved in radio.Thanks to Jerry Bell for doing this interview with me and sharing stories of his long 42 year career with my and readers of this blog. It was an honor!Thanks for tuning in.Jeremy Levy

Spring radio and TV changes

Jeremy Levy back with you to write about Spring radio and TV changes Back on April 19th. I got to meet one of my favorite radio hosts Lois Melkonian. Lois is now doing work shops in addition to her podcast with Faith Donaldson. I went to their first work shop and it was certainly inspiring for me. I learned that sometimes it takes a while to accomplish your dreams or goals that you have, but everyone can accomplish their dreams and goals. I went to a second work shop with Faith and Lois. I will write more about this in a future post. The Rockies season has started with the coldest opening day on record here in Colorado. The Rockies are about 500 right now. It was so much fun listening to Mandy Connell, Dave Logan, Rick Lewis, Kathy Lee, Corey Lopez, and Mike Rice broadcasting live from downtown Denver on opening day. Each show interviewed Dick Monford and Jeff Bridich. Dick is the owner of the Rockies and Jeff is the General Manager of the team. Both of them were really excited about the Rockies this year about making the play offs and going further than last year. It was surprising to me that Altitude Sports radio 950 wasn’t broadcasting from Downtown Denver. I am hoping that the Rockies will have a wonderful season. Also Altitude Sports radio celebrated their 3rd year anniversary. In my opinion Altitude Sports radio has started off a little bit slow with hosts and programming. My two favorite programs on that station are the Scott Hastings and Julie Browman show, and the Mark Moser show. Julie and Scott are on from 10-1 p.m. and The Mark Moser show is on from 1:30 p.m. Mark Moser is also the Avalanche announcer.“Avalanche are going to the playoffs The Ave’s have guts!” Mark Moser quote.That’s right. The Avalanche were in the play offs The Avalanche haven’t been in the play offs for 4 years. . They played against Nashville. The Nashville Predators went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals last year, so there team is very good. They lost the Stanley Cup final game though. The Avalanche are proved that they were not scared of the Predators, although they lost the series in 6 games. I listened to the games on Altitude 950 with Mark Moser as the play by play announcer. They had a very impressive game on April 20th They used their third string goalie because their other 2 goalies were injured. He came from the Ottaua Senators and he played a great game giving the Avalanche a 2 to 1 win. This is wonderful for the Mile high city to have a team like the Avalanche making some wonderful news by playing in the play offs. I e-mailed Dan Mandis, who was in Denver and now is in Nashville, to get his thoughts on what was going on in Nashville and he said that it was exciting there in Nashville. He also mentioned that the Predators have been in this position before.This is not new for Nashville. The Ave’s lost the 6th game in the play offs so they are out of the play offs. No one thought that the Ave’s would make it to the play offs at all based on the bad year that they had last year .The NFL draft happened on April 26th. I listened to Sports radio 104.3 the Fan, KOA radio 850 A.m. and Altitude Sports radio 950 and orange and blue 760 radio to get the different opinions from the hosts about the Bronco’s picks. I flip back and forth to get these opinions. I think this will be an interesting draft class this year. I have heard that 4 out of the ten players that the Bronco’s picked in the draft will be on the Roster this year. This has been the best draft coverage I have heard. My 3 favorite players are Courtland Sutton, Troy Fumagalli, and Josi Jewel. I also think that Bradley Chubb was an excellent pick up. In my opinion both the draft and the radio coverage of the draft deserve an A. My favorite radio sports station covering the draft is 850 KOA and Orange and Blue 760. I think they deserve an A+ because they had the most in depth coverage with interviews with the players. One moment that I really liked on sports radio 104.3 the Fan’s coverage was when Bradley Chubb was getting drafted Alfred Williams was so excited. You could hear the excitement and the joy in his voice. Altitude Sports radio didn’t have the best coverage. They don’t have the staff that the other sports outlets have. That is disappointing.Casey Bloyer is leaving his Thursday night show on News/Talk 710KNUS, The Bloyer Effect. Casey's quote "It's been a blast to do the show with Warren Bloyer and Tyler Bloyer every Sunday Night since November 2015! With that being said this will be our last live show tonight. I love doing the show but I have too much going on to continue to do a quality show each week. I also have #3littlebirds at home who need me to be around way more." I'm going to miss Casey and I hope to hear him still filling in on The Mike Boyle Restaurant Show. Casey will still be producing.In an earlier post I mentioned that Dan Jackson had left the morning show at KKLI radio. I didn’t think that he would be returning as an on air host anywhere. He has made a return to KKPK 92.9 radio in Colorado Springs. He is starting to do some weekend shifts on that station. Congratulations to Dan. I am so excited to hear that you are back on the air. I was a big fan of his when he was on KKLI radioAmy Griesheimer has been named market president of the Colorado Springs and Pueblo market She will report to Tim Hager the president of I heart media in Denver. Congratulations to Amy.Jon Bowman has retired from fox 31 news. Also Dave Kreiger has been fired from the Boulder Daily Camera. I will really miss Dave. Dave Kreiger took over as Dave Logan’s co-host when Lois left the Ride Home show. He was let go by KOA in 2014 or 2015. It is hard for me to keep track. I loved it when Dave Krieger and Lois Melkonian would work together. Karen Lindsay and Dave Kreiger worked well together as well. If you are in the Springs and you watch KXRM fox TV than you might recognize a new sports anchor on that station. Julia Macguire is the new sports anchor. She came from Grand Junction Colorado at KREX TV. She grew up near Massachusetts. She has covered many sports stories at KREX TV and hopes to cover a lot more stories relating to sports at KXRM TV. I got this from Terry Terones from the Gazette news paper.Stewart Vanderwilt has been named president of Colorado Public Radio. Stewart is replaced by Max Wycisk. Stewart comes to Colorado Public radio from the Texas area.Samantha Cumm has been named Market president of the Colorado Springs Iheart media group of stations . Samantha will report to president of I heart media Tim Hager.Congratulations to you Samantha.Jeff Johnson has been elevated to sports sales for A.m. 760 and 850 KOA. This means that he will be the main sales person for these 2 stations.Chelsea Thomas has joined the new I Heart Country radio station 106.7 the bull for mid-days starting on April 23. Chelsea was recently in Kentucky at 99.7 WDJX. I read from an inside radio post that she is excited to get back in the Country format. Congratulations to you Chelsea. I am looking forward to listening to Chelsea. I am looking forward to hearing how she sounds.Angela Cortez has been named mid-day host at K280DD radio in Las Vegas. She will become the assistant program director for that station while still continuing to be on KPTT radio and Hot 98.3” KOHT Tucson, afternoons at “96.1 The Beat” KIBT Colorado Springs, and nights at “102.3 The Beat” KPEZ Austin. Cortez fills the opening created by Roxy Romeo’s move to morning co-host at “Power 99” WUSL Philadelphia last month.I got this from radio insight. Justin Tyler is out as OM of Town square media Fort Collins. He has been there since 2014. Replacing him is Lance Tidwell. Tidwell is moving from Cummulous media Kansas city. Tidwell’s other stops include Tennessee, i Heart Media in San Antonio and Tucson while programming Country stations in Hartford, Boise, Memphis, Monterey, and Columbia SC.Lance has been with Cumulous in Kansas City since 2016.Adam Clanton has been let go from sports talk 790 radio in Houston because of some comments that Josh Innes made. Josh is a younger talk radio show host . I am also a fan of Josh’s as well ever since 2014 when he was in Philadelphia. . Josh has been suspended. I will miss Adam. I thought he was a great host on 790 radio. I really liked it when he and Lance Zerlain worked together. I am looking forward to finding out where Adam’s next move might be.Sam Hill is stepping down from mid-days at KALC radio. She is going to be focusing on programming on KQMT the mountain 99.5. A host for mid-days has not been named yet. I really thought that Sam really did a wonderful job on KALC radio. I will miss her. The one memory I do have of her is she really did a wonderful job on the KALC radiothon of children's hospital. She did a wonderful job interviewing the kids and their families.Deanna Regalato is moving from the morning show with JJ McCade at KPTT radio to mid-days at the same station. Deanna also voice tracks mid-days at KSME radio and other I Heart media stations in the Colorado radio as well as a station in Tucson Arizona. J.J. will remain in mornings as Deanna moves into her new position. This position was formally occupied by Angela Cortez who is now programming station in Las Vegas. See above. Michael Coover has been named executive producer of Orange and Blue 760 radio. He will be producing different shifts at the station. It is really wonderful that Orange and Blue 760 is hiring executive producers for it’s local shows. Michael was with 104.3 the fan for a couple of years and he was also with ESPN radio as a producer. Good luck to Michael.Thanks for tuning in.Jeremy Levy

More TV and Radio Updates

Jeremy Levy back with you again to tell you about some TV and radio updates that I had missed.In a past blog post I have talked about when I was the Easter Seals Poster Child when I was 5 years old. As the poster child I was on their telethon on channel 2 news. One of the hosts of this was Dave Young. Dave has been with fox 31 news and Channel 2 news for a long time almost 30 years. This past December Dave retired from channel 2 news and from fox 31 news. Congratulations to you Dave. I enjoyed you on the telethon when I was the poster child. Also, Nick Carter has left fox 31 news last year as well. Nick Carter is living in Colorado Springs and doing weather on the weekends on ABC tv in Colorado Springs KRDO TV. Congratulations to you Nick. I will miss you on KDVR tv.I have learned from an article by Terry Terrones in Colorado Springs that Mike Larson, the general manager of KRDO TV, has left for personal reasons. KRDO is owned by ABC and I have been reading from 2 sources Mike Mc Guff, and Robert Feder that some layoffs are taking place at stations across the country. There has been no replacement named yet. That might be the reason why he is left the station.David Nancarrow has left KKTV Tv in Colorado Springs. He has become the managing director of the Falcon School district. The replacement for him is Adam Atchison. Congratulations to you Adam. Adam has previously worked at the station- so it is a return for him.I have a correction to make about Kendall Bee. Kendall Bee is on 107.1 radio doing mornings instead of 107.9 radio.A lot of the Denver Post staff have been let go. I will really miss Joanne Ostrow with the Denver Post. Joann had a wonderful take on different radio and TV topics.Kyle Dyer, from Channel 9 News, has started a website where she has started telling people’s stories like what Lois Melkonian was doing with the Angels with Shoes blog. Good luck to Kyle with this new venture.March 15th, Lewis and Logan are broadcasting from a house to benefit Children’s Hospital. They are really doing something nice for the community. I enjoyed their interview with the Spoke’s kid for Children’s hospital. This is a fun remote for KOA to be a part of.On KOA radio, Corey Lopez is broadcasting live from Spring Training for the Rockies spring training this week. This is a lot of fun and I really think the Rockies are going to have a great season this year. Corey Lopez hosts prime time sports from 7-8 o’clock on KOA 850 a.m. and 94.1 fm. Corey is now the sports director of KOA radio. Corey is one of my favorite radio personalities to listen to because of his gentle voice and his gentle personality.This week March 19-23 Ed Green has been filling in for April Zesbaugh on Colorado’s morning news from 5-10 AM. Ed is showing that he has some great news anchoring abilities. Ed has been doing weather on CBS 4 KCNC TV.Speaking of Sports radio Altitude sports radio 950 has been doing a fun contest for March Madness. I have been hearing on the Mark Moser show he gives the caller a question. It could be an Avalanche question or a rock music question and if the caller gets it right then the producer gives them a team to root for. I really think Altitude sports radio is trying to get the listener more involved. Good effort on their part.Vic Lombardi and Kathy Sabine have been announced as the new voices for the Denver Zoo.On 104.3 the fan did videos on their website about the best signings for the Denver Broncos. The staff did a wonderful job breaking down the best signings. This is great for the station when it is a slow time right now. I got this information from Jason Barrett’s sports media blog. This is a great source of information about sports radio. .Also, the DIA train voices have been announced. One of them is a hold over in Alan Roach. The other one is Kim Kristiansen of KUSA tv 9 news. Congratulations to Kim and Alan.Over the next couple of weeks on KNUS Peter Boyles is taking a vacation. Craig Silverman and Steffan Tubbs are going to be filling in for him. Randy Corporan filled in last Friday for Peter and will be filling in for Steffan Tubbs from 4-7 on KNUS April 9-14. These hosts are really fun to listen to.Thanks for tuning in.Jeremy Levy