Earlier this week I was given the opportunity to tour sports radio 104.3 The Fan with a Denver Broncos Quarterback Club group. It was a great experience to see the behind the scenes working of the top sports radio station in the Denver market. Pictured above is our QB Club group with Fan hosts “D-Mac” and Alfred Williams.
In their Greenwood Village studios we learned that The Fan shares the space with three other stations – KOSI 101.1 (adult contemporary), KYGO 98,5 (country) and ESPN 1600 (mostly features ESPN Radio’s national programming). All the stations are owned by
Bonneville International, which has 22 stations across the country.
Our host this evening was The Fan’s program director Armen Williams, shown above explaining the inner workings of the four stations as he escorted us around the Bonneville Denver facility.
One of the highlights of the tour was watching The Fan’s board operator, Bryan “Big Sexy” Beard, monitor Alfred Williams and D-Mac’s radio program (seen through the window above). There is much more involved in the radio production than I realized! Beard makes everything run smoothly through his control panel and through communicating to the hosts through off air mikes.
Armen also told us of the importance of the board operator to make a successful show, and described to us the technology all around us.
The show is over – time to meet D-Mac and Alfred!
Were D-Mac and Alfred ready to go home after their 3 hour radio program? No! Both were very friendly as they greeted everyone in our QB Club group individually. They also spent a few minutes answering our questions and giving their opinions on the Broncos.
“Can I get your autograph?” asked QB Club member Betty Campbell. “Sure!” replied Alfred. Betty said she had met Alfred before, but there was always too big of a crowd around him to get an autograph. Not so tonight – Betty went home with Alfred’s signature!
What a special night this was for our QB Club group! Thanks to Armen and The Fan for giving us an inside look at their operations.
Due to size limitations, we were limited to 10 guests for this tour. We are looking into the possibility of scheduling another tour of The Fan in the future so more QB Club members can experience what we did.