Dan Harder tribute

“Welcome to Kid’s Point. It’s Saturday morning, and it’s time for Kid’s point on AM 91 KPOF Denver Colorado.” Dan Harder former host of Kid’s point on 910 KPOF radio. Jeremy Levy back with you a tribute to Dan Harder former host of Kid’s point on 910 KPOF radio who passed away on July 29, 2021.  He was born on September 15, 1968. He passed away from complications of a stem cell transplant for Leukemia at the age of 52. He was a husband, father, Uncle, and brother. It said on the 910 KPOF website obituary that he had a great attitude and smile. Dan joined the staff of 910 KPOF in 2003. He was also the systems engineer of the station.  Dan is survived by his wife Amy, daughter Abby, and son Zach.  I learned from the obituary on the internet that when Dan was young, he really enjoyed talking to people, and performing. Dan also played the piano. In the obituary also, I read that Dan said he could do it all and was instrumental in getting 910 into a digital radio station.   The first time I listened to Dan was when he was with 91.1 KWBI when that was a Christian music and teaching station in 1997. I was flipping around the dial on a Saturday night, and I came across the station KWBI. This was the third radio station I found when discovering FM radio. The other 2 being Kosi 101 and Kool 105.  

Dan, this particular night was filling in for Mark Howington who was sick. Back then Mark was doing Saturday nights where he would play music. Mark had a throat cold. Dan imitated how his voice sounded. Dan said after twisting his arm and nearly breaking it he agreed to fill in for Mark Howington. Dan was very happy to do this. Dan started at KWBI in 1994. His story sounds similar to Glen Haskell’s story that I read about in the audio theatre Central blog back in January of this year. Glen and Dan were Christian voice actors on the radio. Glen in a small city and Dan at KWBI radio. I also heard Dan doing introductions for a show on the station called Home Schooling live. He would introduce the host at the beginning of the show.  This hosts name was Vikki Brady.

The way I really started to love Dan's work was on the program called Kids Connection on Saturday Mornings. On this particular show, he would play different audio theater programs and kid’s music. There was also a segment where he would have a question for the kids to call into the station to answer the question that he was asking. Sometimes during that segment, he would have a guest with him, and sometimes the guest would be a puppet or a different voice. The guest I really enjoyed was a guest that was a girl. On that particular show, the callers really had some good answers to the question he asked. One Saturday morning Dan Harder was going to be on vacation. He had a volunteer woman on with him before his vacation to learn the ropes because she was his fill in. To wrap up the show, Dan would have the birthday club where he would read the names of kid’s that would send in their names to the station. On that particular Saturday, Dan and the woman volunteer read the names for the birthday as a tag team. Dan would do some of the days and the woman would do the other days. The reason that his show drew me to it was his patience with kids that would call into the segment.  He had a very calming voice and reminded me in the early 2000’s of Ardie Wandel who was my Bar mitzvah teacher. Their voices sounded very similar. I learned in the obituary that after many positions were cut from KWBI, Dan moved to Texas for a couple of years before returning to Colorado. Some of the shows that he would play during this time slot were Adventures In Odyssey, the children’s bible hour, and Jungle Jam and Friends. I will always remember on the 4th of July weekend the Children’s Bible Hour they played the 50 states in rhyme song by a choir. That was a great tribute to the 4th of July. I memorized the song and I know all of the 50 states because of that song.

In the early 2000’s, I was listening to a share-a-thon, which is fund raising for the station. Dan was on with a couple of other volunteers from the station, and I really enjoyed how Dan was able to interact with the adults on the station and also talk to the adults that were listening about why supporting the station was important.  The Jungle Jam episode that was on was about Millard the Monkey. Millard at the end of the episode was in the hospital because of clunking a coconut on his head and had the hiccups because of it. The lady on the share-a-thon said something about kids liking the demise of Millard the Monkey. Dan assured the listeners that Millard was just fine. He heard in further episodes following that one that Millard was fine. I liked the way he did that for the kids listening.  

When Adventures In Odyssey came on, Dan had some important lessons that the listeners could take away from the episode which was Blackard’s Revenge, and  whenever  I hear this episode I will always remember the lesson that Dan talked about that day which is that when things aren’t going well God is in control.

Part of his show was teaching lessons to the kids that were tuned in. This was similar to what Ardie did for me as well. After KWBI radio went off the air in 2002 or 2003, Dan was off the air for a time. I was listening to 910 KPOF radio in Colorado a couple of years later, and I found out that he had been hired to do Saturday mornings on that station. The name of the show was Kid’s Point. This show didn’t have the call ins from the kids, but the show had the wonderful kid’s programming. Some of the shows that were-on-were Down Gilead Lane, Paws and Tails, Adventures In Odyssey, and Ranger Bill. I was tuned in most early Saturday mornings to this block of programming which I’m sure many kids were. One of the things that was different was Dan played children's Christian music on the show. This is where I learned about Veggie Tales and the Eugene Sings albums. This is also where I learned about the group called Go Fish. I still listen to some of these artists today. Dan was also a voice over artist. Many people would have him help them with their voice projects. His wife and kids would help him on voice over projects that he worked on for people all over the world. I also enjoyed at 8:50 in the mornings he had a birthday club on the show where kids would either e-mail him or send him a card when it was their birthday, and he would mention their name on the show. This was really special.

After Dan’s passing Jack Pealing has taken the Kid’s Point programming over, and I think he does a great job. When he does the birthday club, it is different. Back in 2015 I e-mailed with Dan, and he was always happy to hear from me. I really want people out there to know how special Dan was to me and I always think of him the week of what would have been his birthday.

RIP Dan Harder. Many people still miss you.

Thanks for tuning in.