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Spanish Peaks Speaks

Writer's picture: James PagliasottiJames Pagliasotti

Chip and Elaine Baker late of KSPK-FM in Walsenburg, Colorado
Chip and Elaine Baker late of KSPK-FM in Walsenburg, Colorado

Rock the Rockies is a euphemism rarely realized, but Chip and Elaine Baker in the 1980s rocked Walsenburg, Colorado so convincingly they eventually were run out of town. Before that happened, though, they founded and ran one of the most successful radio stations imaginable in one of the more remote spots in the Rockies. KSPK-FM quickly became the consummate community radio station in a very tough market.


Knowing music is a good place to start if you venture into broadcasting and Chip knows his tunes. He was an accomplished musician who played in what many believe was the first jazz fusion band, The Free Spirits, with Larry Coryell, Bob Moses, Jim Pepper, and Chris Hills in 1967. Later he was a member of the infamous Anonymous Artists of America, the musical arm of a commune that acquired land in Walsenburg, which is how he and Elaine came to reside in that little former mining town hard by the Spanish Peaks.


If you've ever lived anywhere in rural America, you quickly learn a small coterie of landed gentry runs the show. Chip and Elaine had pretty strong ideas about how to grow an audience and, once they did, how to speak to that audience about change. Very quickly, the little station KSPK-FM had a 50 share and a 60-some cum with an audience of some 70,000 people all over the southeastern slope of the Rockies.


It wasn't long before Huerfano County and its county seat saw some startling political changes: new commissioners, new mayor, a lot of new in a place that was unused to it much of anything except what was. The time came, inevitably, when the vested interests flexed their formidable, well-financed muscle and all good things, as the saying goes ...


Hear Chip's tale of founding a station and putting it smack dab in the center of the community (HERE) and Elaine's keen insights into why it all worked (HERE). Hear too about how the powers that be lowereed the boom. In their 60 years together, the two of them have had plenty of highlights, but their time together shaking up Walsenburg with a big dose of fun is among the best of them. It's a great story about the power of media in the hands of capable and soulful people.



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