Ross Kaminsky thought he had the best talk radio job in the Rocky Mountains when he was hosting middays at 850 KOA.
The only thing that could have made it better, from where he sat, was moving the show to morning drive.
Well, that wasn’t ever likely to happen. The heritage news/talk brand in the Colorado capital has long featured an all-news block in the daypart, before giving way to local news/talk and sports shows, and that wasn’t likely to change anytime soon.
Until it did.
As part of widespread layoffs at iHeartMedia last month, former morning show co-host Marty Lenz exited. In his place, the station moved Ross Kaminsky from middays to morning drive to host a more opinion-driven program than previously occupied the window.
Kaminsky said he’s relishing the opportunity to help the station make that change.
“Listeners want to hear a little bit more analysis and commentary along with their news,” he shared. “I love the idea of being the guy to bring that kind of a show to people in the morning on KOA.”
When asked what his reaction was to being presented that opportunity, he had a simple answer: “LFG.”
For the uninitiated, the acronym stands for “Let’s”, a word that uses similar letters to the word “firetrucking”, and “go.”
“I said it in that meeting. I didn’t have to wait and think about it overnight or anything like that,” Kaminsky admitted. “They said ‘We’re thinking about this, would like you to do it?’ I asked a couple questions, and then said ‘LFG.'”
Moving from any daypart to morning drive can be a challenge personally as much as it is professionally. But Ross Kaminsky had a leg up in the potentially most challenging aspect of the change.
“For some reason that I do not fully understand, I was already waking up at 4:30 or 4:45 in the morning. I cannot explain it,” said Kaminsky. “Maybe it’s just getting old. That’s the question I get the most from people who hear about the changes: ‘Oh you must hate having to get up so much earlier.’ And the answer is no, I’m not getting up any earlier at all. I don’t even set an alarm. I got up at 3:50 today — which does not please me — without an alarm.”
He joked that he will need to investigate a new hobby, because the new schedule gives him more time to himself in the middle of the day, meaning “it would annoy my wife when I’m home so much.”
The changes at 850 KOA are obviously dramatic. While Lenz’s co-host Jeana Gondek has stayed in the daypart to deliver news updates every 15 minutes, in addition to an hour-long newsblock at 5 AM, the focus has gone from a strict news presentation to that of Ross Kaminsky giving his opinion and analysis of the news. It’s definitely a different show than what’s aired in the window for decades.
And while change is always difficult, it’s something he’s embraced.
“I think it’s incredibly exciting,” he shared. “Of all the people who are impacted by the change, it probably affects me the least, in the sense that I was already doing a talk show on the same station.”
He called having a co-host in Gondek an “interesting new dynamic for me” after having previously hosted middays solo.
“I love having her there. I’m very excited to be working with Jeana. I think talk radio can almost always benefit from having a younger female voice, and I think it’s a massive positive for the show,” he added.
Kaminsky has a week under his belt in the new role, and — aptly, as the station serves as the radio flagship home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos and MLB’s Colorado Rockies — used a sports analogy to define how he’s looking at the new endeavor and improving at his craft.
“If I were a professional baseball player, I feel like the work I’m doing now — working with my fantastic program director, Dave Tepper — would be like a hitting coach giving me advice on small changes to make in my stance or how I hold my wrists, rather than saying ‘You have to change everything you’ve been doing,'” Kaminsky said.
“And part of the thought process for putting me in this position is that whoever makes these decisions believes that my show, as it was, is a very good foundation upon which to build this show. We just make those changes that are needed to make sure we’re doing the right things for the morning drive audience.”
Ross Kaminsky on the News with Jeana Gondek airs on 850 KOA from 6-10 AM.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
