Darren "D-Mac" McKee Lands at Altitude Sports Radio After Getting Dumped by The Fan

"I attended my own funeral," says Denver radio star Darren "D-Mac" McKee, who debuted at his new station, Altitude Sports Radio 92.5, on November 1, "and it was kind of glorious."

There's definitely some good-humored hyperbole in this reference to a famous scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In contrast to young Tom, whose family actually thought he was dead, McKee was simply fired by 104.3 The Fan in mid-September after having served as the afternoon-drive linchpin at the outlet since 2009. But both Mark Twain's classic character, who could be something of a troublemaker, and D-Mac, a merrily divisive personality in his own right, were showered with praise when they temporarily disappeared from the scene.

"I did not expect for people to reach out just to say how much they appreciated me," McKee acknowledges. "That has been overwhelming."

McKee was blindsided by his ouster, receiving a heads-up from management at The Fan, owned by Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International, just shortly before the station publicly announced sweeping changes in its lineup. McKee was ejected along with three other personalities — ex-Denver Broncos Orlando Franklin and Nate Jackson, plus Chad Brown, a University of Colorado Boulder legend who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Management also separated Zach Bye and Brandon Stokley, the city's finest sports-talk duo, in order to team Bye with Buffs and Broncos favorite Phillip Lindsay, who played with the XFL's Seattle Sea Dragons earlier this year, on D-Mac's old program, The Drive. Stokley, meanwhile, was paired in an expanded midday show with Josh Dover, who'd worked in a similar time slot with former Denver Nuggets player Scott Hastings and another onetime Bronco, Tyler Polumbus, at Altitude Sports Radio.

Altitude's hiring of D-Mac exemplifies just how incestuous the Denver radio market is. McKee will take the place of Dover on Altitude from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays — and the move reunites him with Polumbus, his partner at The Fan until the broadcaster let his contract lapse in September 2022 to make room for onetime Broncos wildman Derek Wolfe. The audience numbers generated by McKee and Wolfe were strong despite controversy over the latter's tendency to share his MAGA-style political views along with his gridiron analysis. But in late July, Wolfe resigned to spend more time on other projects, including Wolfe Untamed, a hunting-centric YouTube channel — a decision that set all the other shifts in motion.

While the shared history between McKee and Hastings is less direct than D-Mac's past ties with Polumbus, it's still significant. The two were at The Fan simultaneously for a stretch but didn't interact over the airwaves very often — and Hastings was a KOA mainstay during a period when McKee was a staffer at one of the famed AM signal's sibling stations, hard-rocking KBPI. "Scott and I have been circling each other for 24 years," McKee notes, adding that he and Hastings have an even more personal connection: "Scott's current wife was my intern at KBPI."

Why did The Fan blow up its schedule? Ratings were undoubtedly a major factor: An October 5 post by the radio-industry site Barrett Sports Media revealed that over the summer, Altitude Sports Radio topped The Fan among male listeners between 25 and 54, the demographic at which both stations aim, for the first time ever. Moreover, The Drive with D-Mac, Wolfe and various fill-ins that followed was tuned in less frequently than Altitude's rival tandem of Nate Kreckman and Andy Lindahl.

It's too soon to know if The Fan's actions will reverse the ratings shortfall; from a qualitative standpoint, the early returns are mixed. Stokley sounds fine alongside Dover, a true pro behind the microphone, but Bye is struggling to find a rhythm with Lindsay, a radio novice who comes across as an extremely nice guy who seldom has anything interesting or thought-provoking to say.

McKee declines to offer an opinion about The Fan's new sound. But he's clearly happy to have found a new home at Altitude Sports Radio, which, like the Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, is in the portfolio of gazillionaire Stan Kroenke. In his words, "It's always fun to be on the varsity — and that's what it feels like to me."

McKee was only absent from Denver's airwaves for around a month and a half, a relatively brief span given the local radio biz's continuing fondness for non-compete clauses that were supposedly, but not actually, blocked by a Colorado law passed in 2022. But that's not the way it seemed to him.

"To me, it felt like forever, because I'm a creature of habit," McKee concedes. "I'm a radio guy, and to be off radio for six weeks...brother, that was the most I've been off the air in a long time."

Not that he spent the entire patch in limbo. "There was interest by multiple places right away, and all of them were great," he says. "And Altitude was really amazing — but I have nothing bad to say about Bonneville, either. They were part of this, too, working everything out. I'm literally grateful for everybody — that's not a line, that's the truth. But I've still been waiting for a couple of weeks now."

In the meantime, McKee kept posting and podcasting as if he were still in his old position at The Fan, as a way of letting his colleagues and sports crazies in the greater Mile High know that he was as revved up as ever. "It was critically important for me to stay involved," he says.
McKee was able to attend games, practices and other sporting events because he remained a credentialed member of the media thanks to the largesse of Bob Richards, his former program director at KBPI, who recently purchased three radio stations in tiny Monte Vista in conjunction with his wife, Jeanna — among them the classic-rock specialist 96.5 The Fox. "I do some writing and some on-air hits about sports with him, and he's my buddy," McKee points out. "He was incredible to me during this transition, and even though Monte Vista is more than four hours away, it allowed me to keep my access. And I needed to stay in the loop. I never didn't want to be in the loop."

The day of McKee's return was a whirlwind. He arrived at Altitude's headquarters early (his introduction took place at 9 a.m. on November 1) sporting an outfit that included "my 'Pedal with Polumbus' green socks, because Tyler over three years raised close to a million dollars to benefit ovarian cancer patients," McKee says. "I was so proud to play even a small part in that event, and I wore them out of respect for him. That's what I think of Tyler; I'm so thrilled to be back on the air with him."

Thanks to his familiarity with Polumbus and Hastings, McKee didn't sound like an outsider trying to find his way into the conversation, and he quickly began to overshare in his trademark manner. He revealed that he and his wife are selling their house, though he emphasizes that the downsizing was inspired by the emptiness of their nest — their kids are now adults — rather than financial distress triggered by getting sacked. "If anybody's interested in a house behind Smoky Hill High School, give me a holler," he says.

Such a call is entirely possible, since McKee also gave out his personal cell phone number during his early hours on Altitude, so that listeners can contact him directly. He declines to do likewise in print, partly because "it's part of the fun for people to maybe catch it or maybe not." But he stands behind the sort of transparency that's ultra-rare on today's entertainment landscape. "You wouldn't believe how many tips I've gotten over the years from fans who know stuff," he allows. "And I will text back with literally everybody. I've got so many texts now that it's going to take a while, but I'll get back to everyone."

The rush of newness has its downside: Westword reached McKee by phone as he was trying to figure out how to exit Altitude's building minutes after signing off. "It's like the first day of school, and I haven't been to school in a long time," he points ouit. But he's excited about the challenge of establishing himself at a new dial position, and not put off by working middays, a lower-profile block than mornings or afternoons.

"The way people consume media is just so different than it used to be," he says. "Now, it's not about when you're on. It's if you're on with the right people — and I'm definitely on with the right people. And it helps if you can sleep in, too."

He's under no illusions that the current lovefest he's enjoying will go on indefinitely. "I think part of the fun with me over the years is actually not liking me," he admits. "Lately, people have been saying 'hi' to me on the street in a very positive way and saying how much they miss me and asking me, 'What's going on?' But that's because radio is so personal. You become part of people's lives. They graduate from school, they get married, they have kids, but you're always there. And when they're driving around, it's like one person talking to another person."

He adds: "If you do that long enough, you're part of the family. Maybe you're the drunk uncle who annoys everybody. But you still want that drunk uncle there."