July 10, 1943: “The Billboard Magazine” announces that KFEL Denver is the first place Regional Radio Station winner in the 6th annual Radio Publicity Survey. Per Billboard: (KFEL) “won its acceptance on one program that started out as a special war service job, “It’s a Date at Reveille” and ended as the Columbia Picture “Reveille With Beverly.” “The nation now knows KFEL because of Beverly. The station won because of a small public service idea that grew up to be a bigger baby than the station itself.”

In 1941 Jean Ruth Hay pitched KFEL owner Gene Fallon on the idea of a daily broadcast directed to soldiers stationed in the Denver area. He put her on the air as one of the first female DJs in the country and possibly the first in Denver. By 1943, she’s moved to Hollywood and a film was made (loosely) based on her life. Though she’d left Denver, KFEL promoted the movie heavily.

Jean Ruth Hay was inducted into the BPC Hall of Fame in 2014.