The Message

According to Steve Kelley, his July 25 debut as impresario of Good Day Colorado, Channel 31's morning program, went so smoothly that "we knew there was going to be a problem" on day two -- and the longtime KOA radio star, who's taking his first shot at TV under the auspices of the local Fox affiliate, couldn't have been more correct.

The trouble started about 8:30 a.m., when Kelley bid farewell to a pair of in-studio visitors, KHOW yappers Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman. Suddenly, a graphic labeled "Top Stories" popped onto the screen and wouldn't leave. After a clumsy pause, Kelley, who'd been looking around uneasily seconds earlier, said, "We can run this prompter or I can just start talking. Whatever you like. I don't know if it's possible to take a break...." But rather than an advertisement, viewers were next shown a live shot of the space shuttle Discovery, just eight minutes from liftoff, followed by a graphic for "Out the Door Weather" that usually precedes predictions by forecaster Stacey Donaldson. Kelley, though, chose to introduce traffic guy Ken Clark instead, creating another train-wreck transition. Donaldson eventually managed to offer a brief update that fed into more live shots from Discovery's launchpad. "We'll listen to NASA and some of the back and forth," Kelley declared, but that proved to be a false promise. "I'm not hearing anything right now," he noted. The situation briefly stabilized during the remainder of the segment, but as the half-hour wound down, Kelley announced that the show was going to commercial, only to have the director cut to a waving, glassy-eyed Donaldson. He proved himself to be a keen observer when he conceded, "There was another one of those unusual and awkward moments."

Blessedly, meltdowns like these weren't frequent occurrences amid Kelley's first week or so on the show. Not that Good Day Colorado is hitting on all cylinders: For instance, an ambitious attempt to weave interaction with a live audience into the program's 8 a.m. hour hasn't paid off, and may prove to be more trouble than it's worth. Yet Kelley represents another casting coup for Channel 31, which successfully turned longtime sports deliverer Ron Zappolo into the outlet's main news anchor. Whether his presence alone will be enough to pull the production out of the ratings pit in which it's been mired is unclear, and Kelley isn't making bold predictions. Indeed, upon commenting about how hard it was for him to leave Clear Channel-owned KOA, where he worked for nineteen years, he half-jokingly says, "The more I'm talking about this, the more I'm starting to regret it." Still, he contends that the challenge of tweaking his radio persona for a visual medium "has been a lot of fun -- and whatever happens, I have faith that I'll be taken care of and that I'll be able to take care of those who depend on me."

The word "faith" comes up often in Kelley's conversation. He feels his Christian beliefs helped him cope with the death of his brother, Danny, who spent most of his life in mental institutions, and the breast cancer that slowed down but didn't stop his wife, Kathy Jo. Likewise, he said that he'd been "called" to try his hand at television in his emotional July 22 goodbye on KOA's Colorado Morning News. "I don't know if you want to associate that with the Holy Spirit," he cautions. "God doesn't speak to me audibly, and He didn't say 'Take this job.' But to the extent that an inner voice said 'You've always wanted to do this, and if it makes sense, why not,' you can associate the two things. This opportunity shouldn't have presented itself; it shouldn't make sense -- which is why, in a strange way, it made sense to me."