Email Author Michael Roberts

Awards

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 11, 2008

  "The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down"

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1999 Stories by Michael Roberts

• Two Days in the Death of JonBenét

  published October 21, 1999

  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12 6:20 a.m.: Flop -- copies of the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News hit the driveway.... More >>

• Getting Out of the Led

  published October 21, 1999

  Bassist John Paul Jones isn't the unluckiest founding member of Led Zeppelin; at least he's not slowly decomposing like drummer John Bonham, who... More >>

• This Is Only a Test

  published October 14, 1999

  Denverites love their oldies. According to the most recent Arbitron ratings (representing, in the jargon of the industry, "Summer, Phase 2"),... More >>

• Beyond the Fringe

  published October 14, 1999

  Over the course of the last decade or so, rappers have made a tradition of exaggerating the misery of their childhoods. Some emcees truly grew up... More >>

• Hammer Time

  published October 7, 1999

  It's four o'clock on a late September afternoon, and Sam Hammer, the flying traffic cowboy for Country 104.3 and 950 AM/The Fan, would... More >>

• It's Getting Harder

  published October 7, 1999

  Travel with us now way, way back...to the early Nineties. It was a time when modern rock was the popular music of the moment, and indie... More >>

• A Tangled Web

  published September 30, 1999

  The wild, wide-open medium known as Internet radio is booming in these parts, which is good news for Sam Stock. After all, his colorful... More >>

• The Janis Fund

  published September 30, 1999

  It's a lucky thing so many rockers die young, because a big chunk of the music industry is dedicated to making money off past greats presently... More >>

• Station to Station

  published September 23, 1999

  When KBDI-TV/Channel 12 debuted in February 1980, it was as a public-television station dedicated to taking chances -- and in the years since... More >>

• Red Alert

  published September 16, 1999

  Previous... More >>

• Ball Carriers

  published September 16, 1999

  Denver Post sportswriter Adam Schefter is among this town's most prominent Denver Broncos reporters/commentators. In addition to... More >>

• On the Mark

  published September 16, 1999

  Mark Ribot is best known for contributing singular guitar racket to several Eighties-era Tom Waits albums put out by a major label, Island... More >>

• Firing Line

  published September 9, 1999

  Bob Visotcky, who was recently profiled in this space ("The Man You Hate... More >>

• The Eyes in the Sky

  published September 2, 1999

  Viewers tuning in to KMGH-TV/Channel 7 around 5:30 p.m. on August 23 expecting to see World News Tonight with Peter Jennings soon... More >>

• Looks Like He Made It

  published September 2, 1999

  Like many rock-music lovers who came of age during the Seventies, I grew to despise the songs of Barry Manilow, and the passage of years has not... More >>

• The Man You Hate to Love

  published August 26, 1999

  Bob Visotcky attracts negative press like the Backstreet Boys attract preteen girls. The overseer of six Denver-area radio... More >>

• The Fun Is Over

  published August 19, 1999

  he roller coaster is already gone, as is the Yo-Yo, a contraption that set riders spinning on metallic swings attached to slender chains -- and... More >>

• Back-to-School Special

  published August 19, 1999

  It was 4:45 a.m. Monday, August 16 -- the day students came back to Columbine High School for the first time since April 20, when twelve students... More >>

• Where's the Beef?

  published August 19, 1999

  There's a good reason that so many members of the public see music critics as twerps: Plenty of us are. Scribes with pretentious stripes routinely... More >>

• Leon Huff & Gladys Knight & the Pips

  published August 19, 1999

  As if you hadn't noticed, the low cost of manufacturing CDs still hasn't been passed along to the average consumer -- but at least it's... More >>

• Playlist

  published August 5, 1999

  Tortoise and the Ex In the Fishtank (Konkurrent/Touch and Go) The only commonality between Tortoise and the Ex, apart from the... More >>

• Playlist

  published July 29, 1999

  The Donnas Get Skintight (Lookout! Records) Fresh out of Rock and Roll High School, these California girls unapologetically ooze... More >>

• The Wide World of Rap

  published July 22, 1999

  A quarter-century or so after its genesis, hip-hop has finally been acknowledged by the mainstream--but that doesn't mean that all of the... More >>

• Playlist

  published July 22, 1999

  Tom Waits Mule Variations (Epitaph) Old Tom's career has followed the rarest of trajectories: He started out pretty good, only... More >>

• Feedback

  published July 22, 1999

  Barry Fey and Chuck Morris met in 1972, when Fey was the undisputed king of Denver concert promotion. After Morris joined Fey's company, Feyline,... More >>