2004 Hall of Fame Inductees
Jim Bennett
Jim Bennett began his career by working at his local newspaper, The Las Animas Leader. In 1941, Bennett’s took his first radio job at KOKO Radio in La Junta, Colorado. Then he moved to Denver and worked for KFEL and KOA in Denver. After serving in the Navy in World War II, he studied Journalism at the University of Denver. In 1947 joined the news staff at KLZ radio. In 1953 KLZ-TV Channel 7 in Denver went on the air. He moved to television as News Cameraman, In 1955, he was Weatherman Bennett on the 10 p.m. News with two other BPC Hall of Fame members, Carl Akers and Starr Yelland.
He was a Channel 7 News photographer, News Writer and Newscaster before being promoted to News Director in 1957. He held that position until 1971 when he joined Colorado State University as Director of Communications.
At Channel 7 Bennett received numerous local and national awards. He was the Producer of the documentary Road to Nowhere which won the Sigma Delta Chi award for television documentaries, the Radio/Television News Directors Edward R. Murrow award for television public service, and a National Emmy Award. In 1968. Jim Bennett was named Outstanding Journalist by the University of Colorado.
Mr. Bennett served as President of the National Press Photographers Association and the Colorado Chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, and also served on the Board of Directors at the Denver Press Club.
After his retirement from CSU, he became active in Poudre Canyon Fire Protection District and donated over 2000 hours to Poudre Valley Hospital.
Dick Schmidt
When KMYR went on the air in the early 40’s, Dick Schmidt was one of the young, talented on-air personalities who helped the station compete with the big radio stations in Denver. Schmidt and his good friend, Gene Amole, regaled audiences with on-air hijinks on shows like “Meet the Boys in the Band” while at the same time often airing sports events, newscasts and other more serious broadcasting fare.
In 1943, while a student at the University of Denver, Schmidt got a summer job at KOA and then worked his way through college and law school at KMYR. Thus, the field of law and the media were combined in his long and prestigious career. He never intended to practice law. He went to law school because his father thought it would be good training for whatever Dick ended up doing. In 1949 and 1950, he was deputy district attorney for the city and county of Denver.
In 1950 , he went into private practice where he often helped many local broadcast types with legal issues. He want up against fine lawyers including Supreme Court Justice Byron White, Lured to Washington, DC in 1965, he served with the US Information Agency and later with the famed legal firm Cohn and Marks. Among his clients was the Mutual Broadcasting System. Ultimately, Schmidt became General Counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a position he held for 30 years. Leaders of that organization hail him as their hero, savior, counselor, defender and friend.
Charles Upton
Charles Upton passed the FCC test and received a Radio Television First
Class license when he was only 19 years old. He started in the business in Bangor, Maine at WJOR, a 250 watt radio station. Two years later he joined WARE radio in Ware, Maine. In 1950, he moved to Colorado Springs as an Engineer at KRDO Radio.
For the next 54 years, with a couple of years out to serve in the US Army, Mr. Upton was assigned all kinds of tasks for KRDO AM and FM, KRDO-TV, KJCT-TV and KHII (now KSXX). He moved the radio station into the new building when KRDO-TV went on the air in 1953. Upton became Chief Engineer in 1960 and worked on KRDO’s first color broadcasts, first live production truck, built a microwave system from KBTV (now KUSA) to KRDO-TV, built KRDO-FM, and implemented KRDO’s first portable cameras and VCRs. He moved the TV transmitter to the top of Cheyenne Mountain in 1959 to expand the station’s reach and installed a more modern transmitter in 1980. He built KJCT in Grand Junction in 1979 .
Upton led KRDO’s entry into the digital age by automating the TV and Radio stations
with file server playback systems, culminating the delivery of digital TV signals from KRDO-DTV in 2003. He even installed new phone systems in all three KRDO buildings.
Married with five children and 11 grandchildren, Charles Upton is thinking about retiring but says he will miss broadcasting.
Ken Wilmot
Ken Wilmot was inducted into the Army on graduation from High School.
While serving in Heidelberg, Germany, he was assigned to Soldier Shows, which combined with the USO in 1946. These actors, musicians and artists that created plays and concerts for the troops.
Discharged and returning to New York in 1947, he became a Lab Tech at Agfa-Ansco, and attended Pratt Institute. Graduating in 1951, Ken took a full time position as Art Director for Eastern Corporation and married Marie Self of Englewood, Colorado.
While in Denver, he talked to Clayton Brace, Program Director for a future television station, KLZ. Brace was waiting for the FCC for KLZ-TV approval to go on the air. In September of 1952, Wilmot, Bill Witt and Jerry Wyatt were hired to form the nucleus of KLZ-TV ‘s production department. For the next 23 years, Wilmot worked at KLZ as Art Director, and Graphics Manager and later Manager of Time-Life 7 Productions. In 1965 he was elected President of the Denver Art Directors Club. Some of the KLZ included designing and building a reflex telescope for TV camera close-ups of DU football games; redesigning the black and white TV sets from 8 shades of gray and black to produce a warmer color; and the many changes moving into video tape, color cameras and color film.
In 1976, Wilmot joined KRMA-TV 6, and became Manager of Film and Graphics. He designed the new logo for KRMA, putting them on an equal footing with the other TV channels. Ken remained there until he retired in the 90s.