2005 Hall of Fame Inductees
Fred Arthur
Born in Ohio, Fred Arthur came west to Denver to become a broadcaster. His first attempts to land a job in Denver radio were unsuccessful, so he moved to KVOC in Casper, where in addition to his on-air duties, he began writing and performing comedic spots for the stations advertising clients.
Arthur made it back to Denver a few years later, working on-air at KIMN, KTLN and KGMC. He continued his spot writing at KGMC producing spots on spec as a way of luring advertisers to the low-rated station.
In 1961, he started Fred Arthur Productions. Soon he was writing and producing radio commercials for advertisers and agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada, including over 600 spots for the American Lung Association.
In Denver he is remembered for such spots as Gray Moving and Storage, Grease Monkey, Mountain States Bank and Hugh Tighe’s Skyline Dodge.
In 1975, Arthur was selected to appear long with Stan Freberg, and Chuck Blore as one of the country’s three leading exponents of Humor in Advertising. and was featured on a CBS series “Sense of American Humor” hosted by Roger Mudd.
Honored with 9 Clio Awards among many other accolades, Arthur claims that his greatest honor came when Vick Knight, a former producer of the Fred Allen show said his spots were “as funny as anything we ever presented on the Allen series when I was producing it.” Those commercials were for Johnny Haas Lincoln-Mercury in Denver.
Check out his classic radio spots in the Fred Arthur Archive.
E.G. Beehler
Elmer Beehler was one of the earliest pioneers in broadcasting, not just in Colorado, but nationwide. With little formal eduction, Beehler became an engineer and inventor. The backspace key on the typewriter is among his many patents for which he received $25 and a free typewriter.
Beehler started Colorado’s third oldest radio station KGEK in Yuma in 1921. The station featured his hand-built transmitter and broadcasting equipment. To increase his audience, E.G. sold radios from his own electrial store.
From 1921 to January of 1925, his station was licensed under the Department of Commerce with the call letters KGEK. It was the 3rd oldest station in Colorado.
In 1934, he moved KGEK to Sterling where he continued to own and operate the station, turning over the business side of the station to son-in law Al Ross in the 1940s. Beehler then concentrated on his engineering duties at KGEK until it’s sale in 1966.
The following year, Beehler and Ross built and operated KNAB in Burlington with Beehler again overseeing the engineering. Beehler represents the spirit of the small-town radio station operator who legacy on the airwaves of Eastern Colorado continues to this day.
Art Peterson
Art Peterson decided at the tender age of nine that he wanted to be a radio announcer. The year was 1927, and after listening to a boxing match on the radio, he said to his Mother and Father “When I grow up, I’m going to be a broadcaster”.
He achieved that goal in 1940 when he was hired as a staff announcer at Station KFBC in Cheyenne. That started a broadcast career that spanned 41 years, and ended in Denver on Channel 9 in 1981. He went into military service in November of 1942 and spent his entire military career at Fort Francis E. Warren in Cheyenne, as an instructor in public affairs. He received a medical discharge in 1944, returned briefly to KFBC, then joined KVOD in Denver later that year.
In 1960 he went into TV at Channel 2, then moved to Channel 9 in 1962. He was an anchor on the 10PM news in the early part of his career there, then was named “Man On The Go”, traveling as a foreign correspondent for the station with assignments in Vietnam, The Dominican Republic, Europe, South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
He retired in 1981 from Channel 9, and was named Public Relations Manager for St. Anthony Hospital and Flight For Life Helicopters. He served there until late 1984 and then at age 66, retired for good.
Russell Scott
"Blinky The Clown"
Inheriting his love of the circus from his father, Russell Scott began developing his clown persona while exhibiting a miniature handmade circus he built in while working at Sears in Oklahoma.
The popularity of his display as a marketing tool led to a sales job in Colorado Springs and the attention of the city’s television stations who wanted him to host a daily kids show. One station passed because Scott wanted to use the show as a way of educating kids and parents about safety. KKTV was the station that gave him the freedom to create the program format that was to last almost 4 decades.
Taking the name “Blinky”, Scott spent six years at KKTV before Tribune Broadcasting lured him north to KWGN in Denver where he spent another 32 years mixing vaudeville-style humor, safety tips and cartoons on one of the longest running childrens’ programs in the nation.
“Blinky’s Fun Club” spanned the generations, and it was common for parents who’d been on the show while they were kids to bring their own kids to the show decades later.
An the end of the show’s run in 1998, Blinky’s show was the last local clown kids show in the country and an example of the kind of locally produced programming for children that seldom exists today. Not ready to retire, Scott operated an antique store in Denver where he enjoyed talking with customers who knew him from his television days.
Russell Scott died in 2012 at the age of 91.