8 DECEMBER 14-20, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | are McKee and three former colleagues who received pink slips of their own: Nate Jackson, a past Denver Broncos tight end turned acclaimed author (his 2013 memoir is titled Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival From the Bottom of the Pile); Chad Brown, a CU Buffs legend who became a stalwart for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots; and Sean Brennan, The Fan’s marketing direc- tor for nearly a decade (he was promptly snapped up by Altitude). Although none gave a reason for their reticence, most radio- industry severance packages contain non- disparagement clauses that void payouts if the designated recipient shares negative information about an ex-employer. There’s one exception to the silence: Orlando Frank- lin, another ex-Denver Bronco — he was a standout on the offensive line — who didn’t sign a severance agree- ment after The Fan told him to clean out his locker. Still, Franklin limits his comments because he’s considering le- gal action against the sta- tion; among other things, he believes promises were bro- ken in October 2022 when Sharan and company chose Broncos wildman Derek Wolfe as McKee’s new side- kick instead of him. But he does offer a handful of takes about what’s gone wrong at The Fan, saying that Sharan was a hands-off boss more in- terested in splashy hires than in helping individuals new to the medium learn how to master it — even though the retired pro athletes he typically drafted were both accustomed to coaching and desperate to receive some. Radio Daze Back in 2008, when The Fan was founded, many pundits were already writ- ing radio’s epitaph. But the medium has proven to be much more resilient than doomsayers expected. In 2022, according to Nielsen Media Research, 82 percent of Americans ages twelve and older listened to terrestrial radio — a station that broad- casts using old-fashioned, broadcast-tower- oriented technology — on a weekly basis. Moreover, the radio industry generated approximately $15.47 billion in revenue last year, an annual increase of 4.5 percent. The Fan has made bank over the years by attracting loads of male fans valued by adver- tisers, who are charged based on ratings — a measure tracked by Nielsen in which each point translates to 1 percent of the popula- tion as a whole or a given demographic. In the fall of 2020, for example, The Fan scored a 7.9 ratings share in the 25-54 male demo, fi nishing fi rst in that category. And no won- der, since the ratings revealed that nearly 8 percent of the most coveted Denver-area men had tuned in the signal despite heavy competition from dozens of stations offering a wide variety of styles. The strength of the 2020 numbers was especially impressive in light of turmoil involving The Drive, the station’s weekday afternoon anchor and money magnet. Start- ing in 2010, the show was helmed by McKee and NFL veteran Alfred Williams, and the combination had proven to be a ratings winner year in and year out. But on the last day of February 2019 — the same month Sharan was promoted to program director, replacing Armen Williams, who’d just split to take charge of a station in Houston — the outlet tweeted, “Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan announces that Alfred ‘Big Al’ Williams has chosen to leave the station effective today. We thank Alfred for his many contributions during his years with The Fan and wish him the best in his future endeavors.” Williams’s exit was paved with gold: He signed a mammoth contract to jump to KOA, a heritage station nicknamed “The Blowtorch” for its 50,000 watts of power on the AM dial. KOA is also the broadcasting partner of the Buffs and Broncos, for whom Williams played, creating the sort of natural kinship that the station’s brain trust hoped would result in a ratings bonanza. (Spoiler alert: It didn’t.) First to step into Williams’s enormous shoes as D-Mac’s partner was Broncos center emeritus and Empower Field Ring of Famer Tom Nalen. But Nalen lasted only from his introduction in April 2019 until October of that year, when he decided to move back to his home state of Massachusetts. The Fan then tried to double its chances for success by signing up two more mem- bers of the Broncos fraternity to keep D- Mac company: Nick Ferguson and Tyler Polumbus. But management ultimately de- cided that the studio seemed too crowded, essentially cutting Ferguson but keeping Polumbus around. The move appeared to be a wise one: Polumbus grew in his role, and his chemistry with McKee seemed built to last. But while the pair maintained their popularity lead over Altitude and KOA in The Fan’s main demo, they didn’t have the sort of cultural impact that Williams and D-Mac achieved. Against this backdrop, a new option ar- rived in the imposing form of Wolfe, a hero to Broncos loyalists owing to his no-holds- barred success as a defensive lineman during a seven-year period that included Denver’s triumph in Super Bowl 50. Suddenly, Po- lumbus was out (he was quickly snared by Altitude, where he was recently reunited with McKee) and Wolfe was in. Like so many of his predecessors at The Fan, Wolfe was a novice as a radio host — and there were early indications that he had other priorities beyond mastering the sports-talk art. His debut on the air was delayed for around three weeks, near the start of football season, to accommodate a hunting trip. And in an interview with Westword published in early November 2022, he peppered comments about his fi rst forays on The Fan with enthusiastic hype about a completely different project: a hunting-centric YouTube channel called Wolfe Untamed that positioned him for the sort of fame achieved by rocker/Second Amendment zealot Ted Nugent. On The Fan, Wolfe lauded hunting when- ever possible, and he was engaged when dishing about football as well. But he was less enthusiastic when talk turned to the Nuggets and Avs, obviously a specialty of Altitude Sports Radio; on occasion, he didn’t even bother to watch their games. And then there was his tendency to slip in right-wing political observations that alienated a por- tion of the audience. One example: When Broncos strength-and-conditioning coach Loren Landow was being blamed for so many players getting hurt last season, Wolfe sug- gested a possible link between the injuries and the COVID-19 vaccine. “I don’t think a vaccine should be political at all,” he told Westword. “It should be your choice if you get a vaccine or not. It shouldn’t be a mandate. This is supposed to be a free country, where we have free will to make our own choices. And I just wanted to bring out a different point of view.” Medical experts offer zero support for this theory, but Wolfe didn’t back away when asked about it. “I love that radio is opinion- based,” he maintained. “I can’t really be wrong, because it’s just my opinion.... I’m always going to speak my mind, and if you get offended by it, fi ne, but it is what it is. You can’t keep everybody happy.” Wolfe defi nitely gave The Fan a ratings boost: Nielsen stats from February for all listeners ages six and above saw the outlet landing in Denver’s top ten, and the numbers for The Drive, the pro- gram he shared with McKee, were a big rea- son why. Still, the con- troversies continued. In April, Wolfe happily posed for a photo with a golfi ng foursome that included former pres- ident Donald Trump and conservative poster boy Kid Rock, even as he missed more shows in order to hunt. After Wolfe and The Fan parted ways in late July, ending a run of only about nine months, rumors arose that he’d been given the heave-ho for his love of the MAGA movement and planned to sue the station for discrimi- nating against his version of free speech. But he denied such whispers in a text to Westword, thumbing, “No, idk where you heard that but it’s defi nitely not true.” For his part, Sharan portrayed the parting as Wolfe’s decision. “We were very pleased with Derek’s performance,” he insisted. Sharan certainly didn’t need another chore to tackle, given that he was also the point person for Denver Sports, a revamped website positioned as a digital powerhouse built on The Fan’s foundation. He portrayed Denver Sports as a Colorado variation on concepts pushed by Bonneville in other cit- ies where it owned radio stations, including Salt Lake City, Seattle and Phoenix. “It’s a big initiative across our entire company,” Sharan stressed. “We’re trying to create strong radio brands, but digital brands as well — and Denver Sports is more of an umbrella brand we’ve created for different audiences. ... The way I describe it is Dropping the Ball continued from page 7 continued on page 10 Longtime host Darren McKee (top left) and former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson both lost their jobs at The Fan; new program director Amanda Brown (above) started hers on December 4. BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL
