Part 2 of 6: Our countdown of 150 Colorado Cultural pathmakers over 150 years continues with those ranked 101-125

I called Bret Saunders on June 20 to tell the adored and enduring morning radio personality he has landed at No. 117 on The Denver Gazette’s new Colorado 150 — a sesquicentennial list of cultural pathmakers who have shaped how the world sees Colorado — and how we see ourselves.

Five days later, Saunders was laid off by I(HaveNo) Heart Media after nearly 30 years on the air at 97.3 KBCO.

Aug. 8 would have made it 29. Long enough so that, after decades of waking up at 3:45 a.m., “I haven’t had to set my alarm in about eight years now,” he told me. “My brain is ready to go as soon as I wake up, and that’s because I’m really excited to come in and be part of the community every day. This has never been just a job to me. I just can’t imagine not coming in every day and doing this.”

(My eyes are welling up typing those words.)

Saunders was tickled to hear of the many other radio icons whose names also appear on the list, which we are revealing in groups of 25 over the next five Sundays. Names like Bob Martin, Gene Amole, Irv Brown, Dave Logan and Pete Smythe (and those are just the names we’ve already revealed).

“It’s a great compliment, but I don’t think I belong on that list,” Saunders said before calling out Logan as the best broadcaster in the NFL. He does that three times in our brief conversation: Asked to acknowledge his own contributions, Saunders instead deflects praise onto someone else. It’s his way.

Saunders was born in Montana and raised in Detroit, but he always, he says, had his sights on living in Colorado. He came here in 1988 and worked at a small station in Craig, where he first heard KBCO on the air. “They played John Hyatt and then (R&B duo) Sam and Dave, and I said, ‘I’m going to work there someday,” he said.

Saunders developed a huge following for being witty and wry, kind and sage. As in, his deliciously antithetical, antagonistic and adversarial alter ego, “The Sage of World Class Rock.” That’s the pompous, alarmingly all-knowing character who took weekly trivia questions from listeners hoping to stump Saunders for prizes — which they rarely won. Saunders thought of it as his personal weekly tribute to Andy Kaufman.

“It’s funny you should mention that, because Kristin and I were at a dinner party just a couple of weeks ago and I met a woman who said, ‘I always listen to you, but then I heard The Sage and I thought, ‘Wow, this guy’s a (bleep),’” Saunders said with a laugh. “So yeah, not everybody is in on the joke.”

Kristin is Saunders’ longtime partner, Kristin Johnson. The couple were married a year ago Sunday at a service presided over by U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper — in Hick’s own backyard.

“The guy’s my friend,” Saunders said. “It’s not about politics. I’ve known him since I was in my late 20s. One of the wonderful things about being part of this community is getting to be friends with all kinds of wonderful people.”

It’s hard to know just how much money Saunders has raised for worthy causes through his voice, but it’s a lot. The annual KBCO Studio C compilation album series has raised more than $5 million for the Food Bank of the Rockies and the Boulder County AIDS Project. Persons experiencing homelessness. Marshall Fire victims. So many causes.

“I think it must be a weird life to be a DJ, because you’re this anonymous person, but Bret has been really involved in the community,” said Wesley Schultz, lead singer of the Lumineers. “I mean, he helped us raise something like $600,000 for Colorado Gives Back.”

That was a virtual benefit event to aid music crews, gig workers and restaurant staff paralyzed by the pandemic shutdown.

“Bret has no ego,” Schultz said. “I think that’s kind of a rare thing. He’s just this guy who is very humble.”

And very eclectic. He’s been writing a weekly column about jazz for The Denver Post for 20 years.

At 61, Saunders is only a few years from retirement age — but he’s not there yet. He has a son with nonverbal autism, another cause he champions.

“That’s one of the reasons I don’t plan to retire,” said Saunders, who was ecstatic to announce in April that he had re-upped with KBCO. “Because I have to take care of my main man.

“I can’t imagine being anyplace else.”

This week’s 25 Colorado pathmakers:

101. Ed Dwight (b. 1933): After systemic racism kept him from becoming the nation’s first Black astronaut to fly in space, Ed Dwight turned to bronze sculpture, where his monumental body of work prompted the largest Catholic church in North America to proclaim him “the definitive sculptor of our age for representing the Black experience in America.” Dwight produced more than 130 public monuments and 18,000 gallery pieces out of his Park Hill airplane hangar studio, which is now home to the dance company Wonderbound. “His works bridge historical erasure by celebrating the Underground Railroad, civil rights leaders and cultural icons,” his biography reads. Dwight’s significance as NASA’s first Black astronaut candidate is chronicled in the 2023 Denver Film Festival documentary “The Space Race.”  

102. Bob Martin (1930-92): The words are seared into the memory of anyone listening to KOA Radio on Jan. 1, 1978. Or, more likely, watching with the TV sound down and Martin’s voice up: “It’s over! The Broncos are in the Super Bowl!” Martin was the original “Voice of the Denver Broncos,” calling 499 games, a streak stopped one short of 500 by cancer on the eve of Super Bowl XXIV in January 1990. In 1965, Martin hosted the first-ever sports talk show in Colorado (“Sports Line” on KTLN) and was first to take calls directly on air. He was only 59 when he died.

103. Firefall (1974-): Boulder’s own folk-rock supergroup grew from a migration of major California musicians wanting to live in the mountains above Boulder. They were members of The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Zephyr and more. “Their pioneering a melodic, harmony-laden blend helped cement Colorado as a premier creative hub in the American music industry,” wrote the Colorado Music Experience. The band’s 11 chart-toppers included “You Are the Woman” and “Just Remember I Love You.”

104. Cassandra Peterson (b. 1951): “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” launched her campy, comic cult career out of her childhood home of Colorado Springs. She won her first costume contest as a 7-year-old dressed as Miss Kitty from “Gunsmoke” at Ivywild Elementary School. She was a member of the influential L.A. comedy group The Groundlings in 1981 before joining a Los Angeles TV station looking to revive its late-night weekend horror show, “Fright Night.” She went national thanks to syndication, Coors Light ads and her eponymous 1988 film. Audiences found her to be a brilliant blend of high-camp humor, sharp wit and approachable sex appeal. She remains the ultimate champion of misfits, geeks and horror nerds, most recently having starred in “Thirteen Nights of Elvira” for Hulu.

105. Melissa Benoist (b. 1988): The summer of “Supergirl” is upon us, but to legions of Coloradans, Supergirl will always be our own Arapahoe High School graduate, Melissa Benoist. And to some of us, Benoist will always be the teenager who charmed audiences off their bobby socks as Kim McAfee in the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center’s “Bye, Bye, Birdie.” Heck, she closed the Country Dinner Playhouse in 2007 as a dictator’s teenage prostitute in “Evita.” There was “Glee.” There were six seasons of “Supergirl.” There was “Girls on the Bus.” Most impressively, she bravely spoke out about her personal experience with domestic violence. Benoist now runs her own production company and stars in Netflix’s family drama series “The Waterfront.”

106. Freddi-Henchi Band (1966-2009) is, no, not just another dude with a band. Denver’s signature funk and soul party band was actually a duo made up of charismatic co-frontmen Freddi Gowdy (b. 1930) and Marvin “Henchi” Graves (1944-2009) — the so-called Crown Princes of Funk — backed by a full, revolving lineup of musicians known as the Soulsetters. Freddi is still performing with Chris Daniels and The Kings.

107. Carlos Lando (b. 1950) is a longtime radio host, program director and general manager who retired in January after nearly four decades at KUVO Jazz. Born at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and raised in Puerto Rico, Lando began his radio career in the 1960s and became an institution in the Denver radio scene. He was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2024.

108. Jill Sobule (1959-2025) was a celebrated, fourth-generation Denver indie rocker, activist and icon who rocketed to fame with the 1995 radio hit “I Kissed a Girl.” Sobule was enjoying both a career resurgence and reinvention when she died last year in a Minnesota house fire. She was days away from bringing her big-buzz new stage biomusical, titled “F*ck 7th Grade” (based on her experiences at Hill Middle School and St. Mary’s Academy) to Colorado for a series of stops in Denver, Basalt and Fort Collins.

109. Flobots (2000-) Denver’s beloved socially conscious hip-hop band has entered into its second 25 years, having achieved global prominence with their platinum single “Handlebars,” while also promoting civic activism, community-building and youth autonomy. The band founded Youth on Record and Flobots.org to empower at-risk youth through arts education. Co-founder Stephen Brackett (aka Brer Rabbit) is Colorado’s official Music Ambassador. The band truly made it when an influential YouTuber released a viral parody called “No Handlebars” in 2017.

110. Dave Logan (b. 1954) is true Colorado sports legend — one of only two athletes ever to be drafted by teams from the NFL, NBA and MLB in the same year. He’s also an incredibly successful high school football coach. But he’s already immortalized as the “Voice of the Broncos” who got to proclaim John Elway and Co. as back-to-back Super Bowl champions on KOA Radio. He’s the best because he can speak with the IQ of a head coach, but in a way that sounds like he’s sitting next to you at the bar.  

111. Donovan Marley (b. 1937): There will be local theater figures higher on this list, but Marley is perhaps the most significant creative theater-maker in Colorado history — a legacy forged over 21 seasons leading the Denver Center Theatre Company. He also struck me as a bit of a cult leader. When Marley moved to Denver in 1984, he brought 66 members of his previous company with him from Santa Maria, Calif. When he retired 243 productions later, 10 of them were still working here. Dude won Denver the 1988 Tony Award for best regional theater. GOAT. 

112. Mandy Patinkin (b. 1952): The stage and screen star only really lived in Colorado for the summers of 1971 and ‘74, but tiny Creede has been in Patinkin’s bones since he first came here as an 18-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Kansas to perform with the unlikely Creede Repertory Theatre, now one of Colorado’s three oldest companies. Patinkin once told me the monumental volcanic cliffs that tower over Creede are his Statue of Liberty. Patinkin built a second home just outside of Creede and serves on the theater’s advisory board. He spoke glowingly of his time here in the award-winning 2025 documentary “Creede USA”  

113. Hazel Miller (b. 1954): Colorado’s so-called “Hardest Working Musician” is a Kentucky-born force of nature. A legendary vocalist. The four-decade queen of R&B, blues, jazz and soul. Miller has sung for Bill Clinton at the White House and for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She has also become synonymous with the Colorado band Big Head Todd and the Monsters. (That’s a name you will see again.)

114. Yonder Mountain String Band (1998-) Formed in Nederland and pioneered the “jamgrass” movement. The what? That’s “a progressive, high-energy fusion of traditional bluegrass, rock and improvisation,” according to Colorado Music Experience. Their distinct amalgam of traditional bluegrass instruments with both a rock-and-roll ethos and extended improvisation “birthed a movement that permanently altered the acoustic music landscape.” In 2007, they made history as the first bluegrass act to headline a sold-out show at Red Rocks. But they’re more at home at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival — 23 appearances in their first 25 years. You can catch them on Aug. 15 at the Arvada Center.

115. Nick (b. 1950) and Helen Forster (b. 1955) co-founded the now-globally adored, environmentally conscious radio show “eTown,” which since 1991 has released 2,616 episodes heard by a weekly audience of close to 1 million on 300 radio stations. Nick’s band Hot Rize is inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. Helen is an original co-founder of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The couple was married one month after the first “eTown” episode aired in 1991. The show (and the marriage) just turned 35 in April.

116. Mandy Moore, choreographer (b. 1976): Ryan Gosling would be nothing without Colorado’s own Samantha Jo Moore (no, not the other Mandy Moore). Our Mandy has won three Emmy Awards for choreographing reality TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.” Her film credits span “Silver Linings Playbook,” and Gosling’s “La La Land” and “The Life of Chuck.” It was Moore who masterminded Gosling’s “Barbie” Oscars spectacle, and the following year’s amazing “K-pop Demon Hunters” dance. Moore grew up in Breckenridge as a part of a beloved theater family that includes actor dad Bob and sister Missy, artistic director of the Thunder River Theatre Company in Carbondale.

117. Bret Saunders (b. 1964): See above

118. AnnaSophia Robb (b. 1993) is best known for childhood roles as Violet Beauregarde in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and Leslie Burke in “Bridge to Terabithia.” But unlike most burgeoning Denver TV stars who split for Hollywood, Robb kept attending Arapahoe High School (Class of 2012) even while simultaneously starring in blockbuster films. She remains a tireless advocate for There With Care, a Colorado nonprofit founded by family friend Paula DuPré Pesmen to support families facing critical childhood medical crises. Most recently, Robb starred in the NBC mystery series “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” and the Netflix action film “Rebel Ridge.” 303 Magazine called Robb “the quintessential Colorado movie star.”

119. The Grawlix: Stand-up comics Adam Cayton-Holland (b. 1980), Andrew Orvedahl (b. 1976) and Ben Roy (b. 1979) are an influential and accomplished Denver-based comedy supertrio that is always shining the national spotlight back on Denver. The three created, wrote and starred in the snickeringly funny sitcom “Those Who Can’t” for three seasons on truTV. It was set in a fictional Denver high school and drew from the local landscape. They also throw a live monthly comedy party at the historic Bug Theatre. And they host the world’s only competitive advice podcast, “Advice Fight.” Cayton-Holland additionally co-founded the late, lamented High Plains Comedy Festival and wrote the film “See You When I See You,” which drops this fall. Roy plays in two active bands: the hardcore Arson Charge and the pop-punk juggernaut (his word) SPELLS. Orvedahl (a name I am spelling correctly for the first time in my life) co-hosts the long-running live storytelling show and podcast “The Narrators” at Buntport Theater.

120. John Edward Williams (1922-94): Denver’s master of mid-century realism achieved his highest critical acclaim as the author of three landmark novels: the revisionist Western “Butcher’s Crossing,” the cult classic “Stoner” and the epistolary “Augustus.” After earning two degrees from the University of Denver, Williams transformed its graduate literary program into one of the most rigorous and respected in the U.S. “The Denver Quarterly,” which he founded, remains the oldest continuously published literary arts journal west of the Mississippi.

121. 3OH! 3 (2004-): If you think of this 150 project as a cultural map of Colorado, then Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte took the assignment literally by turning the 303 area code into what one newspaper has called “a global subculture brand for millions of teenagers via MTV and the Warped Tour.” This Boulder electronic-music duo is a primary reason the “303 Day” initiative spearheaded by Denver P.R. agency Grasslands has evolved into an annual, massive celebration of Colorado culture and local pride every March 3. See them Sept. 19 at Red Rocks.

122. Sheryl Lee (b. 1967): Laura Palmer, the doomed homecoming queen on David Lynch’s cult TV series “Twin Peaks” (and her cousin, Maddy) were both played by Lee, who grew up in Boulder, graduated from Fairview High School and briefly attended both the University of Colorado and the Denver Center’s National Theatre Conservatory. (She starred there in a 1986 production of the play “Crimes of the Heart.”) 

123. Peter Heller (b. 1959) is an acclaimed Denver author widely recognized for bestselling thrillers like his 2012 dystopian breakout “The Dog Stars,” “The Painter,” “The Last Ranger,” and “Burn” (not to mention his net-zero house near Sloan’s Lake). Heller transitioned into fiction-writing at age 50 after two decades as a globe-trotting adventurer and environmental journalist. He is celebrated for his gripping storytelling style and vivid imagery, but he also won a Michener Fellowship for his epic poetry.

124. Ken Curtis (1916-91): You (OK, your grandparents) remember this beloved actor for his iconic role as the cantankerous, lovable deputy Festus Haggen on “Gunsmoke.” But did you know Curtis was also a renowned big-band singer who briefly replaced Frank Sinatra in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra? Or that Curtis Wain Gates was born in Lamar and raised in Las Animas amid a very “Gunsmoke”-like environment? His father was the local sheriff, and the family lived above the Bent County Jail. (His mom cooked for the inmates.) Curtis later said he based Festus and his distinct drawl on an eccentric Colorado local known as “Cedar Jack” — a frequent occupant of his father’s jail. At Curtis’ request, his ashes were scattered across the Colorado flatlands.

125. Kalyn Rose Heffernan (b. 1987) is 3½ feet of good trouble. The Denver-based MC, musician and activist fronts the raucous rap band Wheelchair Sports Camp. Brittle-bone disease has reduced her stature but not her status as a fierce advocate for disability rights, persons experiencing homelessness and LGBTQ+ causes. She’s a rapper, educator and one-time Denver mayoral candidate. (She got 4,481 votes in the 2019 election.) Her work spans music, live theater, film, TV, museum installations, politics and public protest. She describes herself as confrontational, humorous, loving and deliberately difficult to categorize. She just this month won a $50,000 Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Social Impact Award. She’ll use the money to create an inclusive, artist-led space for disabled young people to make some noise.

Next week: Nos. 76-100.

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Denver Gazette used a variety of research tools to determine, compile and compress the Colorado 150 into these capsule summaries, including newspaper databases, news services, the Denver Public Library, History Colorado and Google, which now integrates AI into its basic functionality.

The series so far

• 126. Blinky the Clown
• 127. Lowell Thomas
• 128. Maya Lin
• 129. Gene Amole
• 130. String Cheese Incident
• 131. Philip K. Dick
• 132. Tony Garcia
• 133. Irv Brown
• 134. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• 135. Luis Alfonso Jiménez Jr.
• 136. Otis Taylor
• 137. Pete Smythe
• 138. Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay
• 139. Illenium
• 140. Reynelda Muse
• 141. Andrew Novick 
• 142. Lynne Taylor-Corbett
• 143. Lonnie Hanzon
• 144. Thomas Hornsby Ferril
• 145. Tig Notaro
• 146. Ji-young Yoo
• 147. Pat Milbery                       
• 148. Lannie Garrett.
• 149. Sandra Dallas
• 150. Rich Moore and Mollie O’Brien