Backyard Hero: Alf from KTCL

Tim Wenger | March 1, 2014 | 0 Comments

by Tim Wenger

Most in Denver’s music community are familiar with KTCL Channel 93.3. The station itself has undergone many different phases since its inception in 1965 including moving from Fort Collins to Denver and joining the Clear Channel Media and Entertainment family. The station has developed a solid reputation for promoting top local alternative bands, and no one at the station has helped that happen more than their resident Sunday night star, Alf.

Alf has developed quite the reputation around town for his work on Adventure University, Locals Only, and The All Request Retro Show, as well as 93.3’s annual Hometown For The Holidays competition. With all that going on, he’s still a good enough guy to take some time to meet a journalist for lunch at Park Tavern to discuss his career path. Colorado Music Buzz got the lowdown on how he stumbled upon radio, how he’s grown the Locals Only show into a more-than-respected destination for Colorado’s homegrown talent, and what he loves most about the whole shebang.

When shipping off to college in 1988, Alf originally planned on obtaining a math degree to become a teacher. While at school, he picked up a shift at the college station and decided to make the turn from numbers to airwaves. “I decided I liked that a lot more,” he says. “I got to tell my parents that I found a field that pays less than teaching.”

He did some accounting work after college before landing his first DJ gig at a station in beautiful Farmington, New Mexico. “They offered me $600 a month to do the overnight shift,” says Alf. So he made the move from San Luis Obispo, California to Farmington and launched his career. “I bought a car from a friend and drove. It was a ’73 Volkswagon Beetle.”

The station was small and tight knit, giving Alf experience in a variety of duties. “I had that job for about eighteen months,” he says. “I actually learned a lot there. One of the nice things about working at a station like that is you kind of have to do everything. You can’t just be a wacky morning guy, you have to write commercials, you have to record commercials. You have to be good at production and writing. When things break down, you can’t call anybody, you have to fix it yourself, so you get good at a lot of stuff”

The station shut down, leaving Alf looking for a new opportunity. Colorado came calling. “I got offered two gigs the same day,” he says. “One was at KTCL and one was at The Peak.” He visited both stations but landed on KTCL for his new home. “I decided that, even though TCL was in Fort Collins and they were paying less, I liked the vibe there more so I decided to go with them.” So in May of 1996, Alf again packed his things and headed for the Mile High City.

KTCL had a local show on at the time, and Alf had the opportunity to fill in for the jock that ran it on occasion. “It was tough,” he says. “It was pre-internet, so you couldn’t just go online and find out about these bands. All we had was a shelf of cd’s. So you’d be like ‘Oh this one looks interesting!’”

He began doing the Adventure University show and kicked off a “Local Spotlight” segment where he would spin one song from a local act during each show. Eventually, he had enough material to expand the segment and begin Locals Only. “At first it was four songs long,” says Alf. “Then we finally got it up to an hour.”

The show basically fell into his lap. “I never listened to the previous incarnation of it, not because I was snobbish, just because I didn’t like the way that it was done,” says Alf. “It seemed to be very much a closed set at the time. There was a certain number of bands, and either you were friends with them or you weren’t. I’ve tried to do my best to keep it as open as possible.”

Watching bands progress and get better became the biggest thing that appealed to Alf about doing the show, and kept his interest level high. “I thought I was just being helpful at the time,” he says. “It wasn’t until I started getting to know these bands and kind of watching the genesis of (them) from the very early stages that it really appealed to me. Seeing bands figure out their voice, figure out what they’re doing. Seeing them ‘Ok, we lost this member, now we’ve added this member, now we’re going in this direction.’ To me, it’s fascinating. It’s interesting to see that interplay.”

Slowly, the amount of submissions began to increase and the show became more popular. “Having Love .45 added to regular rotation was kind of the catalyst to having people start to send a lot more stuff in. Then The Fray happened, and after that it was fine.”

Locals Only now features thirteen bands per week, handpicked by Alf. “I do enjoy helping out bands,” says Alf. “I like to think I try not to be snobby about things. I try to help bands more than I criticize.” If your band plans on submitting to Locals Only, make sure your track sounds good and is ready for radio play before submitting. Production is key.“Also, my thought process is I’m playing thirteen bands that presumably people listening don’t know. So you’re going to want to have a hook of some sort because otherwise, halfway through the next song no one’s going to remember I played you.”

Alf’s other shows currently are The All Request Retro Show and Adventure University. Check him out Sunday nights from 8 pm to midnight. If you look hard enough, you might just catch him DJing stages around town as 45+1.