July 15, 2025 • 30 mins
As the biggest name in Denver talk radio, Alan Berg knew a thing or two about which topics got callers and listeners riled up. And nothing got the phonelines buzzing quite like the nexus between religion and race. That realization inspired Berg to invite a number of high-profile white supremacist leaders onto his show. It's a formula that earned Berg plenty of enemies. So many that his shocking 1984 murder left Denver police absolutely perplexed.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live Wire is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media.
Previously on live Wire The Loud Life and Shocking Murder
of Alan Bird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
By nineteen eighty four, talk radio had become quite the
phenomena phenomenon in the United States, so prominent that sixty
Minutes did in January eighty four a show on some
of the rising talk show hosts. They chose Allenberg to
be on that program.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Isn't there something a little dangerous about this kind of broadcasting?
There is a danger. I agree with you. I guess
the danger that we exhibit an all free all rights
of free expression. Be a columnists who write newspapers. Yeah, indeed,
But you say yourself, you often go on there. You
don't know quite what you're going to say. Hopefully my
legal training will prevent me from saying the one thing
(00:52):
that will kill me. I've come awfully close.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I'm pretty upset about what the government is doing as
far as bringing you know, the repuge.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
You know, like people, because they're showing a work ethic
that's better than most Americans.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
God bless them.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Well, I'll make a shake up and do something and
work and earn something and not want a free ride sweetheart,
mind what you're on KOI.
Speaker 7 (01:17):
As his.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Radio career was progressing, the radical right in the United
States was sort of gearing up through you, through younger people.
Speaker 8 (01:29):
Hard to believe. I'm in a bar with a guy
named Charlie Martin and the light beer guy comes in
and says, they just tried to co Allen.
Speaker 9 (01:37):
However, I don't know about the Nazis. They didn't like
him very much. They hated him. It wasn't that he
was Jewish, it was that he was so outspoken. It
could have been that he was anything else, but he
was outspoken.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
After years of growing into one of the most divisive
and popular radio pressonalities in the nation, Alan Berg had
earned a reputation for tweaking his beliefs to benefit his show.
His producer, Susan Ryman, loved him for it.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
You can't go on the air and not be one
hundred percent determined to take your stand and either be
on this side or not. And that's where a lot
of talk show hosts failed is because the audience could
smell that. They smell that. But Alan on the other hand,
would take topics that he didn't even believe in and
(02:32):
make the audience believe he did.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Alan enjoyed amping up the outrage, doubling down on the disbelief,
all in service to stirring up as frantic a furor
as possible. Essentially, he was the maestro of Mayhem, looking
to antagonize callers into an absolute symphony of rage.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I all think they hate may I think they hate
the fact that.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Someone speaks differently than they do. Dobbs, you couldn't hate
the person you.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Don't know the delicten to you to make say.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Well, there's also a certain degree. I think a lot
of the people who really say they hate.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Me actually love me.
Speaker 10 (03:09):
Oh yeah, they love you.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
And I love them what they don't understand if they're
as wacky as can be. I love those people because
they make entertainings.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Arc Oh, I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You give me a.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Bunch of people like you? So far? What do we
get out of this call with you?
Speaker 11 (03:25):
Not?
Speaker 8 (03:26):
And I love you for liking you. I love you
for liking me about day.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
True, though I did this all day, I'd be out
of work.
Speaker 8 (03:32):
In a month.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But there were certain topics that got alan Berg so incensed,
so rapid, so reactive, that they were clearly a genuine
core part of his personality. Certain topics that got host
and color are like so riled up that there was
no way the exchange could be mistaken for a cynical
attempt at boosting ratings. And without question, religion and race
(03:57):
were the two topics that continuously got alan Berg and
his callers really heated.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
I mean, if there's a morality of all these people,
the reborn Christians they claim they are, then you know
what if they all took care of all the underprivileged
like Christians are supposed to do, we wouldn't need a
welfare state.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
That's true.
Speaker 12 (04:14):
And another thing I daking PRIs it's.
Speaker 13 (04:16):
On it's like a free enterprise is his ideas of
what free enterprise is is simply the large, huge corporations,
in rich corporations being able to take a free hand
into anything they want with no regulation and no cost
or pull of concern whatsoever.
Speaker 12 (04:30):
In other words, is left of an opening.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Hey, as mister Stockman said, the very Reaganomics exclusively and
almost exclusively worked for the rich and was a trickle
down theory, the benefits flowing almost exclusively.
Speaker 14 (04:41):
To the richer.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Well, that idea of trickle down, I just don't think
it works.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I mean, it trickles down to so little I'm lucky
to get a drop of water at the end of it.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Yeah, you've got literally literally people that have been at
work for for generation. They grow up knowing they're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Well, I don't believe that at all.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I don't think that's I think that that See, that's
a very alse immage to create.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
I can't believe.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
You can't believe that.
Speaker 15 (05:02):
There's been so many specials, but document and proof how
how the.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Father don't workfare, the son goes.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Up to being warfare, that son's son goes up to
being warfare, unemployment, whatever, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Well again, I don't know if I can inctually document
in that fashion. But then if that be true, that's
a cultural problem, an educational problem, an opportunity problem, as
much to do with minorities who aren't apported a chance
to work. Oh, I know, that's that's garbage. Can it's
not garbage plaitnte.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
You go down, you go down in the ghetto. Okay,
I'm a white middle class a watch you go down
in the ghetto.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
You the was wants to blame everybody else in the world.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Let me finish.
Speaker 15 (05:42):
I'm not blaming anybody for an You.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Got every advantage going for you because you are a wash.
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, let me finish what
I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And when alan Berg found the nexus point between race
and religion, the temperature got raised considerably, as did the stakes,
and the results could be nuclear. That is where certain
individuals on the fringes of American society went from seeing
alan Berg as an entertainer and an instigator to seeing
him as a threat and a target. I'm filmmaker and
(06:13):
journalist Talpinchewski and this is episode five the Danger Zone.
There were a number of things that made alan Berg
such a trailblazer as a radio host, and one of
the things he truly championed was bringing on anyone and
everyone as a guest, so long as they could get
the phone lines buzzing. Berg might host an author promoting
(06:36):
their latest book, a local politician, and a Rondom individual
claiming they had received a message from Jesus Christ, all
on the same show. He wanted to talk to all
of them and, if possible, antagonize all of them. He
even had a notorious run in with movie star Gloria
Swanson when she called into his show to promote her memoir.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
This is so silly.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Why don't we talk about something more important?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
What's not being in the world?
Speaker 15 (07:04):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (07:04):
What would you like to talk about? This one?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I do like to talk about children?
Speaker 16 (07:08):
Go ahead, what a dreadful part and we're leading them
and we're.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
The bulls and worthy ideals of were the manic and
words of it out?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Excuse me, miss Watson one moment. Now, are you going
to tell me about the morality of our day.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And our time?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Oh? I'm not going to tell you because I don't.
I don't think you. Excuse me, excuse me, miss Wanson.
I do not believe that your book necessarily.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Spoke of such high morality, did it?
Speaker 16 (07:35):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
The talking about the book that you wrote, not.
Speaker 16 (07:38):
Children having a chance in life to have a wonderful
body instead of having the make believe make.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Believe food, food morality or sexual morality.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I'm not doing okay, then, knows are you in the
food right now?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
All right?
Speaker 13 (07:58):
We apparently don't have good ear?
Speaker 6 (08:01):
I gad children?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Do you want to bring it around to something else?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Mis Watson?
Speaker 7 (08:04):
Not there?
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I excuse me?
Speaker 5 (08:06):
All it here one second. I know you're a famous lady.
I know you were on Tom Snyder's show last night.
I attempted to do and initiate this interview on a
friendly basis and covers the ground as to your filmmaking career.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I don't think what.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I've asked you thus far has been rude or offensive
or wasteful to you. Now get now, dear, we hold it,
Hold it, dear, You're not going to push me around
on my show? Now, what point did you want to make?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You couldn't blame listeners if they accused alan Berg of
being some sort of satirist, a character engaging in a
series of antagonistic exchanges that got everyone worked into a ladder,
no matter how low the stakes actually were. Here's Allan's
old colleague at KOA, Don Hartenoff.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
They just don't understand alan you know, and they might
hate him. It's kind of like, but it's it's it's
a show. And we always told people, remember it's entertainment.
It's not it's not realistic and realism and a real program.
It's just entertainment where people people want to wanted to
(09:09):
listen because they didn't know what was going to happen next.
And that's some of the best radio that you can find,
is when there's unexpected activity going on and people go, wow,
did he just say that? Or did that caller just
say that? Or I can see why he hung up.
That guy was dumb, you know. I think that's what
you find going on in a lot of places like that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
But these arguments touching on religion and race, they were
the real deal, and alan Berg knew it. It's the
main reason he brought on guests like Richard Butler, the
Idaho based leader of the Area Nations and a spiritual
leader of the white supremacist movement in America.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He always wanted to interview Richard Butler, and Richard Butler
worried me because Ellen would humillion this man, completely humiliate
Richard Butler.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Guests like Richard Butler made for explosive episodes on alan
Burg's show, which made Berg even more insistent that his
producers book more of these devout white supremacists on his program.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
He was so brave, he just would not back down.
But it was so easy for him to go out
him because they're just idiots. They were just insane. When
it came to what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Here's Allen Berg's former colleague Tom Martino.
Speaker 17 (10:39):
I remember thinking this is a little weird.
Speaker 10 (10:43):
You know.
Speaker 17 (10:43):
Now he felt very strongly about that, but even that
person in the studio, he wouldn't be nasty to them
during the breaks or anything, or if they were on
the phone. He really did feel, you know, he did
feel disdained for white supremacy.
Speaker 10 (11:03):
And all that.
Speaker 7 (11:03):
Of course he did.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 17 (11:07):
That wasn't why I had him on the show. I mean,
he had him on the show because he knew it
would be interesting. He wasn't even feeling strongly about that.
I mean, I'm not saying he was in favor of it,
but he just you know, it could just as well
be somebody else that he was rattling on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But there was a darkness that permeated these interviews, something
way more sinister than Alan Berg and a caller disagreeing
about how the United States government should function, and that
morbid energy deeply concerned Burke's colleagues.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
He said to me, so you're suggesting I don't do
these shows because I should be afraid, that I should
be shut up, that I shouldn't bring this to my
listener's attention about how crazy these people are and how
wrong they are, and I just said, no, I'm just
saying I'm scared. It's really I don't know that that
(12:00):
was a bad interview. Ellen, was that was a bad interview?
He said bad because I did a bad interview. And
I said, no, you just humiliated this man, Ellen. These
people are crazy. They're crazy, They're not right in the head.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
For two or three months before they murdered him, I
kept saying, Alan moved to a gated community. Please, you're
getting too popular and there's too much angst about your
show and the aggression and the you know, the extremist right.
(12:38):
We knew they were out there, and we said, why
don't you move into a gated community. No, he wanted
to live in Capitol Hill where it was all the
you know, the action and it's like, you know it.
Ultimately was his downfall because he was an easy mark.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Right.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
If he was in a gated community, they couldn't have
gotten him that easily.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Through all these live on air humiliations of people espousing
the most startling hate speech, not to mention the angry
letters and threats that inevitably followed, alan Berg remained defiant.
He never wavered, even when he handled the latest hateful
letter with all the urgency of your standard junk mail.
(13:22):
Here's Berg's longtime friend and colleague, Peter Boyles.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
He would open the letter. We'd be sitting this a
little office and he'd open it and he'd flip it
on the back, and if it wasn't signed, he threw
it out. Never read it. He taught me that. And look,
look on a back or at the bottom, if there's
a signature, read it. And eighty nine out of one
hundred letters that we got, they hated us, or they
(13:49):
hated him, or whatever it was. And he would We
was sit there and he'd just take his fingers open
the mail pulled out all right, and I figured it
wasn't signed.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And it's probably not a coincidence that all of this
was happening at the same time. As Alan kept insisting
on booking and humiliating white supremacists, his ratings absolutely exploded
and the mountain of hate mail grew. Remember this is
around the same time that Allenberg appeared on Sixty Minutes
and said these chillingly prophetic words.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Hopefully my legal training will prevent me from saying the
one thing that will kill me, and I'd come awfully close.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It all came to a head in early nineteen eighty
four with an appearance by two individuals who would forever
be tied to Alan Berg.
Speaker 10 (14:34):
The pair of.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Guests appeared to be just a couple more white supremacists
jumping at the opportunity to espouse hate on whatever media
outlet would have them. The first was Jack Moore, a
popular preacher and author who dealt in white Christian identity
as the leader of the Citizen Emergency Defense System, an
anti Semitic, malicious subgroup of a larger, more influential organization
(14:58):
known as the Christian Patriots Do de Fence League, a.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Great many of the Jewish leaders of fact through the years,
the is the mom Jewish leaders will very proudly have
lit in the fact that communism was a Jewish was
a Jewish thing.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
The second guest was Reverend Pete Peters, a minister from
nearby Laporte, Colorado, who also used his pulpit to espouse
white supremacist views, including what he believed was biblical proof
that Caucasians were God's chosen people.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Look before everybody, let me say this, huh I have
been on programs like this many many times before, and
I run into dromos like you know that, interrupt and
try to stop.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Now, Jack, you have barely been interrupted, albar Jack, So
don't give me that. Don't give me that, guy, But
you haven't been interrupted at all.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
In his signature fashion, Allenberg attempted to publicly flog the
pair over the airwaves during their nineteen eighty four appearance
on his program, But it was when More dealt into
the theory that communism was a Jewish creation that things
suddenly escalated and the results were incendiary.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Moore says, the Jews aren't conspiring to take over the world.
When you hear these lines, I wanted what you think?
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Do you believe that.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Kind of stuff? Do you have any evidence?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Or did his take it?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Because Nitwitz like this, throw this out for the meror's
sake of throwing it out, because I think he said
he was a I guess he said.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
It was a prisoner of war.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It was always a prisoner out there. I don't know
what they did to his mine, but it becomes quite.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Evident by every measure. This was just another angry bout
of yelling between Berg and a couple of white supremacists,
an exchange that by now have become commonplace on Berg's show,
allowing the popular shock job to feed his dueling passions
for lighting up the airwaves and verbally abusing racists. But
the tenor on this episode seemed a little different. A
(16:44):
little darker disappearance by Moore and Peters, coupled with previous
appearances from Richard Butler and the very real in person
death threat made by Fred Wilkins, had upped the temperature
around alan Berg to an uncomfortable high, and his colleagues
at KOA were starting to get concerned, including producer Susan Ryman.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I don't know, I think back to the I think
about back to Richard Butler more than anything, because that
eventually wasn't who carried that out, But I think it
was the beginning of bringing attention to being so voraciously
(17:26):
opposed to white supremacists and the Arian Nations and Hayden Lake,
Idaho and everything they represented and their hatred for the Jews.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Ryman wasn't just concerned about providing a platform to white supremacists,
after all, for years now, alan Berg had made it
imperative that they offer a sounding board to even the
most reprehensible individuals in American society. She was worried about
Alan's safety as well as her own.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
I was frightened for my own life. But they didn't
know who I was, you know, they weren't out for me.
But it was a really scary time, I think. I
think for me now, the stocking wasn't what it is
now that for me it was unheard of what happened
(18:16):
to Allenberg, that people would actually kill an on air
personality for whatever reason. It was always next. That's the
one word that I always remember about Alan was next,
Someone's always going to dislike me, Someone's always going to
hate me. I'd always say, not necessarily, Ellen, But he, uh,
(18:37):
he wasn't going to change because of it. He couldn't.
And in the end a bunch of crazy people took.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
His life for it. And it makes me so angry
that he got himself killed because he had a big mouth.
How did they know him on the raid? They knew
him from the radio.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Thatttsburgh's ex wife, do you Udith Burgh? As you'll recall,
Judith was out with Alan Berg enjoying a pleasant dinner
at Jefferson four forty on June eighteenth, nineteen eighty four.
By every measure, it was a pleasant and memorable evening.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
So we stopped over here, picked up dog food brought
on sixth Avenue, and we went back to the house.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Judith left to visit a friend and Alan started to
go into the house to feed the dog. Then the unthinkable.
Speaker 15 (19:33):
Bord of a tragic and shocking story tonight that apparently
Kawa talk show host Alan Berg was shot and killed
tonight in downtown Denver. Stanning Brye Live now with more
on this. Wendy Bergen is at fourteenth and Adams in
downtown Denver.
Speaker 11 (19:47):
Yes, Linda, apparently it happened just a short while ago.
When we arrived here, there was a man lying outside
of a volkswagon in front of this apartment of the
Lear Condominium complex at fourteen fifty five Adams. Police tentatively
identified him as Kowa talk show host Alan Berg. As
you said, he apparently died from multiple gunshot wounds. We
(20:07):
do not know whether they have a suspect, and they
are still investigating it. We should have some more details
later on this evening.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Even with all the fiery exchanges and the death threats
and the escalating rhetoric. The events of that night were
truly unimaginable. One of Denver's most popular media personalities violently
gunned down outside his own home, and word of his
death spread swiftly among his radio colleagues. Here's former KOWA
(20:36):
station manager Lee Larson, and I.
Speaker 18 (20:38):
Was watching the evening news getting ready to go to
bed when they broke into the newscast with a breaking
headline that talk show host Alan Berg had been shot.
I was obviously stunned because that was our talk host,
that was my friend, that was somebody that I had
(21:00):
been working alongside of. So I immediately ran to the
phone called the radio station newsroom to find out what
they knew about it, and they were just finding out
about it at the same time because the police were
putting it out. I think there was also chatter on
the police channel about a shooting and all of that,
(21:21):
and as the pieces were falling together, I got as
much information as I could from our newsroom, continued to
watch television to see if they had any updates, and
immediately got on the phone with my bosses at the
company headquarters to make sure that they knew what was
going on.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
As news broke of alan Berg's murder. There was a
bizarre balance being maintained over at the radio station where
the popular shock jock had enjoyed such incredible success. The
staff at KAWA were simultaneously grieving their fallen colleague while
also reporting the latest detail of his shocking murder, all
(22:02):
in real time.
Speaker 10 (22:03):
Ten thirty nine KO wait time, and I'm still trying
to piece information together Off the air. I'm finding out
that Channel seven has issued a report that said the
best investigative efforts of the DPD has indicated that someone
passing in a vehicle using a semi automatic weapon or
an automatic weapon. I'm not sure which fired upon alan
(22:26):
Berg when he was exiting his vehicle in front of
his home. Ten or more shellcasings, to the best of
my ability, or a number that would indicate an automatic
weapon was found in the at the scene. And alan
Berg has in fact passed on. He is no longer
(22:46):
with us. He'll always be with us, though I think
he's touched each and touched each and every one of us.
He touched me and and Lee Larson and Jim Hawthorne
are on their way into the station now, and Jim
(23:09):
is program director. Lee uh Lee Larson is the station manager.
And it's a it's a shock. It's to describe how
I feel right now. I've got a high pitch, winging
sound in my ears. My head is thropping, and I
can't believe it. Somebody tonight, somebody out there. I can,
(23:34):
I know I can. I can feel your presence. I
can feel your presence listening to KOWA to feel the
result of your handywork. You're a loser man, You're a
loser talk show host or a diamond dozen. If Allenberg
(23:59):
was anything before you blew him away, he was nothing,
and you made him immortal. He made him a part
of me, and you gave value to everything that ever
justified your sick act tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It was Allan's longtime friend and colleague Ken Hamlin who
initially broke the news of the murder. But while Hamlin
somehow found a way to fill the air with this
shocking news, his KOA colleagues were swiftly dispatched to the
crime scene, launching their ohso important investigation into the violent
crime that was about to become a public fixation across
(24:39):
the country.
Speaker 11 (24:40):
Most of the country has never heard of Alan Berg.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Who called himself the man You Love to Hate.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Last night, Alan Berg was shot to deell.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
It is possible that Berg style may have contributed to
his death.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Acid tongue talk show host Alan Berg was ambushed outside
his hull last night.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I have been here about fifteen or twenty minutes. Placer
still a pretty tight mouth about the situation. They are
busy canvassing the neighborhood right now, trying to find witnesses
to what happened here about an hour ago. They have
also called for a Chinese interpreter. They aren't saying for
what reason, whether it's to talk to a witness or
you know, who knows what they haven't told us. They
(25:20):
will be telling us a little while. Bill Buckley, who's
an assistant District attorney Deputy district attorney for city in
County of Denver, is also at the scene, as is
the corner. It looks as it looked as if Allen
had just stepped out of his car right in front
of his apartment. He was driving his little Volkswagen today
when we saw him, and that was the car that
where his body is near and witnesses purportedly have told police.
(25:45):
The only witnesses that we've heard of told police that
they had heard tires scream about the time the shots
were fired. There were a number of shots in rapid succession.
Police did find about between eight and eleven shell casings
lying on the ground near Alan's car, which would indicate
that with some sort of an automatic weapon, although police
(26:06):
haven't said exactly what why, But as we said, there's
very little known here as to what happened. Allen apparently
just arriving home in his car, stepping out of his
automobile and was gone down. They have not moved the
body yet and will probably not move it until all
of the forensic laboratory people have had an opportunity to
go over to crime scene thoroughly.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Over the days, weeks, and months that followed. KAWE wasn't
just a major news organization following a shocking story. The
radio station soon became a key part of the Denver
Police Department investigation into the death of Alan Burg. Every
episode of Bergs show, every angry exchange with a caller,
every threatening letter mailed to his attention at the station
(26:49):
potentially offered a clue and to who could have possibly
committed this heinous crime, all in the.
Speaker 12 (26:56):
Normal course of an investigation such as this is around
a person who routinely got death threats. It'll be a
procedure now to go into those records, especially of the
most recent threats on Alan's life, perhaps to follow up
on possible leads.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
That is true, mark it. There could be a clue
to who the murderer is in the recent threats and
the records that we have at the station and the
police might have. But then again there may not be.
Alan was constantly joking about the threats that were made
on his life. I don't really know how seriously he
(27:36):
took them. Maybe he did, but he never appeared to
on the surface.
Speaker 14 (27:41):
Mister Burg was found on the sidewalk with what appears
to be numerous gunshot wounds. No definite eyewitness is known
at this time. Some people were in the neighborhood and
heard shots and heard the car leaving. At this time,
the police are canvassing in the neighborhood trained to find
another witnesses.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
All of this happened while Brook's colleagues and friends grew
more and more terrified that one of them could be next,
a very real fear that was only exacerbated by the
fact that local police didn't have a single tangible lead
in to who could have committed this crime. Here's burg
biographer Steven Singular.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Their investigation went on and on. Somebody interviewed the police
officer who was in charge of it, the detective in
charge of it. He was in his office and they said,
you have any suspects, And he pointed to the Denver
phone book and said, well, they're probably two million suspects.
(28:47):
This guy, at one time or another aggravated everybody, and
so they cast a wide net looking for suspects, and
they essentially it came up with absolutely nothing. And time
went on and they pass along information to the FBI.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Practically overnight, one of Denver's most popular radio stations descended
into chaos, honoring their slain colleague, reporting on his murder,
and fearing what could happen next, all while the FBI
assisted Denver Police with what was already the biggest and
most high profile investigation in the department's history. All that
(29:33):
in the next episode of live Wire, the Loud Life
and Shocking Murder of Alan Berg. Live Wire is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media. For more podcasts
from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Live Wire is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media.
Previously on live Wire The Loud Life and Shocking Murder
of Alan Bird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
By nineteen eighty four, talk radio had become quite the
phenomena phenomenon in the United States, so prominent that sixty
Minutes did in January eighty four a show on some
of the rising talk show hosts. They chose Allenberg to
be on that program.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Isn't there something a little dangerous about this kind of broadcasting?
There is a danger. I agree with you. I guess
the danger that we exhibit an all free all rights
of free expression. Be a columnists who write newspapers. Yeah, indeed,
But you say yourself, you often go on there. You
don't know quite what you're going to say. Hopefully my
legal training will prevent me from saying the one thing
(00:52):
that will kill me. I've come awfully close.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I'm pretty upset about what the government is doing as
far as bringing you know, the repuge.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
You know, like people, because they're showing a work ethic
that's better than most Americans.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
God bless them.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Well, I'll make a shake up and do something and
work and earn something and not want a free ride sweetheart,
mind what you're on KOI.
Speaker 7 (01:17):
As his.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Radio career was progressing, the radical right in the United
States was sort of gearing up through you, through younger people.
Speaker 8 (01:29):
Hard to believe. I'm in a bar with a guy
named Charlie Martin and the light beer guy comes in
and says, they just tried to co Allen.
Speaker 9 (01:37):
However, I don't know about the Nazis. They didn't like
him very much. They hated him. It wasn't that he
was Jewish, it was that he was so outspoken. It
could have been that he was anything else, but he
was outspoken.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
After years of growing into one of the most divisive
and popular radio pressonalities in the nation, Alan Berg had
earned a reputation for tweaking his beliefs to benefit his show.
His producer, Susan Ryman, loved him for it.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
You can't go on the air and not be one
hundred percent determined to take your stand and either be
on this side or not. And that's where a lot
of talk show hosts failed is because the audience could
smell that. They smell that. But Alan on the other hand,
would take topics that he didn't even believe in and
(02:32):
make the audience believe he did.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Alan enjoyed amping up the outrage, doubling down on the disbelief,
all in service to stirring up as frantic a furor
as possible. Essentially, he was the maestro of Mayhem, looking
to antagonize callers into an absolute symphony of rage.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I all think they hate may I think they hate
the fact that.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Someone speaks differently than they do. Dobbs, you couldn't hate
the person you.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Don't know the delicten to you to make say.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Well, there's also a certain degree. I think a lot
of the people who really say they hate.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Me actually love me.
Speaker 10 (03:09):
Oh yeah, they love you.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
And I love them what they don't understand if they're
as wacky as can be. I love those people because
they make entertainings.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Arc Oh, I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You give me a.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Bunch of people like you? So far? What do we
get out of this call with you?
Speaker 11 (03:25):
Not?
Speaker 8 (03:26):
And I love you for liking you. I love you
for liking me about day.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
True, though I did this all day, I'd be out
of work.
Speaker 8 (03:32):
In a month.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But there were certain topics that got alan Berg so incensed,
so rapid, so reactive, that they were clearly a genuine
core part of his personality. Certain topics that got host
and color are like so riled up that there was
no way the exchange could be mistaken for a cynical
attempt at boosting ratings. And without question, religion and race
(03:57):
were the two topics that continuously got alan Berg and
his callers really heated.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
I mean, if there's a morality of all these people,
the reborn Christians they claim they are, then you know
what if they all took care of all the underprivileged
like Christians are supposed to do, we wouldn't need a
welfare state.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
That's true.
Speaker 12 (04:14):
And another thing I daking PRIs it's.
Speaker 13 (04:16):
On it's like a free enterprise is his ideas of
what free enterprise is is simply the large, huge corporations,
in rich corporations being able to take a free hand
into anything they want with no regulation and no cost
or pull of concern whatsoever.
Speaker 12 (04:30):
In other words, is left of an opening.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Hey, as mister Stockman said, the very Reaganomics exclusively and
almost exclusively worked for the rich and was a trickle
down theory, the benefits flowing almost exclusively.
Speaker 14 (04:41):
To the richer.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Well, that idea of trickle down, I just don't think
it works.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I mean, it trickles down to so little I'm lucky
to get a drop of water at the end of it.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Yeah, you've got literally literally people that have been at
work for for generation. They grow up knowing they're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Well, I don't believe that at all.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I don't think that's I think that that See, that's
a very alse immage to create.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
I can't believe.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
You can't believe that.
Speaker 15 (05:02):
There's been so many specials, but document and proof how
how the.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Father don't workfare, the son goes.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Up to being warfare, that son's son goes up to
being warfare, unemployment, whatever, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Well again, I don't know if I can inctually document
in that fashion. But then if that be true, that's
a cultural problem, an educational problem, an opportunity problem, as
much to do with minorities who aren't apported a chance
to work. Oh, I know, that's that's garbage. Can it's
not garbage plaitnte.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
You go down, you go down in the ghetto. Okay,
I'm a white middle class a watch you go down
in the ghetto.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
You the was wants to blame everybody else in the world.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Let me finish.
Speaker 15 (05:42):
I'm not blaming anybody for an You.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Got every advantage going for you because you are a wash.
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, let me finish what
I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And when alan Berg found the nexus point between race
and religion, the temperature got raised considerably, as did the stakes,
and the results could be nuclear. That is where certain
individuals on the fringes of American society went from seeing
alan Berg as an entertainer and an instigator to seeing
him as a threat and a target. I'm filmmaker and
(06:13):
journalist Talpinchewski and this is episode five the Danger Zone.
There were a number of things that made alan Berg
such a trailblazer as a radio host, and one of
the things he truly championed was bringing on anyone and
everyone as a guest, so long as they could get
the phone lines buzzing. Berg might host an author promoting
(06:36):
their latest book, a local politician, and a Rondom individual
claiming they had received a message from Jesus Christ, all
on the same show. He wanted to talk to all
of them and, if possible, antagonize all of them. He
even had a notorious run in with movie star Gloria
Swanson when she called into his show to promote her memoir.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
This is so silly.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Why don't we talk about something more important?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
What's not being in the world?
Speaker 15 (07:04):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (07:04):
What would you like to talk about? This one?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I do like to talk about children?
Speaker 16 (07:08):
Go ahead, what a dreadful part and we're leading them
and we're.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
The bulls and worthy ideals of were the manic and
words of it out?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Excuse me, miss Watson one moment. Now, are you going
to tell me about the morality of our day.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And our time?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Oh? I'm not going to tell you because I don't.
I don't think you. Excuse me, excuse me, miss Wanson.
I do not believe that your book necessarily.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Spoke of such high morality, did it?
Speaker 16 (07:35):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
The talking about the book that you wrote, not.
Speaker 16 (07:38):
Children having a chance in life to have a wonderful
body instead of having the make believe make.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Believe food, food morality or sexual morality.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I'm not doing okay, then, knows are you in the
food right now?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
All right?
Speaker 13 (07:58):
We apparently don't have good ear?
Speaker 6 (08:01):
I gad children?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Do you want to bring it around to something else?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Mis Watson?
Speaker 7 (08:04):
Not there?
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I excuse me?
Speaker 5 (08:06):
All it here one second. I know you're a famous lady.
I know you were on Tom Snyder's show last night.
I attempted to do and initiate this interview on a
friendly basis and covers the ground as to your filmmaking career.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I don't think what.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I've asked you thus far has been rude or offensive
or wasteful to you. Now get now, dear, we hold it,
Hold it, dear, You're not going to push me around
on my show? Now, what point did you want to make?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You couldn't blame listeners if they accused alan Berg of
being some sort of satirist, a character engaging in a
series of antagonistic exchanges that got everyone worked into a ladder,
no matter how low the stakes actually were. Here's Allan's
old colleague at KOA, Don Hartenoff.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
They just don't understand alan you know, and they might
hate him. It's kind of like, but it's it's it's
a show. And we always told people, remember it's entertainment.
It's not it's not realistic and realism and a real program.
It's just entertainment where people people want to wanted to
(09:09):
listen because they didn't know what was going to happen next.
And that's some of the best radio that you can find,
is when there's unexpected activity going on and people go, wow,
did he just say that? Or did that caller just
say that? Or I can see why he hung up.
That guy was dumb, you know. I think that's what
you find going on in a lot of places like that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
But these arguments touching on religion and race, they were
the real deal, and alan Berg knew it. It's the
main reason he brought on guests like Richard Butler, the
Idaho based leader of the Area Nations and a spiritual
leader of the white supremacist movement in America.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He always wanted to interview Richard Butler, and Richard Butler
worried me because Ellen would humillion this man, completely humiliate
Richard Butler.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Guests like Richard Butler made for explosive episodes on alan
Burg's show, which made Berg even more insistent that his
producers book more of these devout white supremacists on his program.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
He was so brave, he just would not back down.
But it was so easy for him to go out
him because they're just idiots. They were just insane. When
it came to what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Here's Allen Berg's former colleague Tom Martino.
Speaker 17 (10:39):
I remember thinking this is a little weird.
Speaker 10 (10:43):
You know.
Speaker 17 (10:43):
Now he felt very strongly about that, but even that
person in the studio, he wouldn't be nasty to them
during the breaks or anything, or if they were on
the phone. He really did feel, you know, he did
feel disdained for white supremacy.
Speaker 10 (11:03):
And all that.
Speaker 7 (11:03):
Of course he did.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 17 (11:07):
That wasn't why I had him on the show. I mean,
he had him on the show because he knew it
would be interesting. He wasn't even feeling strongly about that.
I mean, I'm not saying he was in favor of it,
but he just you know, it could just as well
be somebody else that he was rattling on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But there was a darkness that permeated these interviews, something
way more sinister than Alan Berg and a caller disagreeing
about how the United States government should function, and that
morbid energy deeply concerned Burke's colleagues.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
He said to me, so you're suggesting I don't do
these shows because I should be afraid, that I should
be shut up, that I shouldn't bring this to my
listener's attention about how crazy these people are and how
wrong they are, and I just said, no, I'm just
saying I'm scared. It's really I don't know that that
(12:00):
was a bad interview. Ellen, was that was a bad interview?
He said bad because I did a bad interview. And
I said, no, you just humiliated this man, Ellen. These
people are crazy. They're crazy, They're not right in the head.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
For two or three months before they murdered him, I
kept saying, Alan moved to a gated community. Please, you're
getting too popular and there's too much angst about your
show and the aggression and the you know, the extremist right.
(12:38):
We knew they were out there, and we said, why
don't you move into a gated community. No, he wanted
to live in Capitol Hill where it was all the
you know, the action and it's like, you know it.
Ultimately was his downfall because he was an easy mark.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Right.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
If he was in a gated community, they couldn't have
gotten him that easily.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Through all these live on air humiliations of people espousing
the most startling hate speech, not to mention the angry
letters and threats that inevitably followed, alan Berg remained defiant.
He never wavered, even when he handled the latest hateful
letter with all the urgency of your standard junk mail.
(13:22):
Here's Berg's longtime friend and colleague, Peter Boyles.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
He would open the letter. We'd be sitting this a
little office and he'd open it and he'd flip it
on the back, and if it wasn't signed, he threw
it out. Never read it. He taught me that. And look,
look on a back or at the bottom, if there's
a signature, read it. And eighty nine out of one
hundred letters that we got, they hated us, or they
(13:49):
hated him, or whatever it was. And he would We
was sit there and he'd just take his fingers open
the mail pulled out all right, and I figured it
wasn't signed.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And it's probably not a coincidence that all of this
was happening at the same time. As Alan kept insisting
on booking and humiliating white supremacists, his ratings absolutely exploded
and the mountain of hate mail grew. Remember this is
around the same time that Allenberg appeared on Sixty Minutes
and said these chillingly prophetic words.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Hopefully my legal training will prevent me from saying the
one thing that will kill me, and I'd come awfully close.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It all came to a head in early nineteen eighty
four with an appearance by two individuals who would forever
be tied to Alan Berg.
Speaker 10 (14:34):
The pair of.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Guests appeared to be just a couple more white supremacists
jumping at the opportunity to espouse hate on whatever media
outlet would have them. The first was Jack Moore, a
popular preacher and author who dealt in white Christian identity
as the leader of the Citizen Emergency Defense System, an
anti Semitic, malicious subgroup of a larger, more influential organization
(14:58):
known as the Christian Patriots Do de Fence League, a.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Great many of the Jewish leaders of fact through the years,
the is the mom Jewish leaders will very proudly have
lit in the fact that communism was a Jewish was
a Jewish thing.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
The second guest was Reverend Pete Peters, a minister from
nearby Laporte, Colorado, who also used his pulpit to espouse
white supremacist views, including what he believed was biblical proof
that Caucasians were God's chosen people.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Look before everybody, let me say this, huh I have
been on programs like this many many times before, and
I run into dromos like you know that, interrupt and
try to stop.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Now, Jack, you have barely been interrupted, albar Jack, So
don't give me that. Don't give me that, guy, But
you haven't been interrupted at all.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
In his signature fashion, Allenberg attempted to publicly flog the
pair over the airwaves during their nineteen eighty four appearance
on his program, But it was when More dealt into
the theory that communism was a Jewish creation that things
suddenly escalated and the results were incendiary.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Moore says, the Jews aren't conspiring to take over the world.
When you hear these lines, I wanted what you think?
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Do you believe that.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Kind of stuff? Do you have any evidence?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Or did his take it?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Because Nitwitz like this, throw this out for the meror's
sake of throwing it out, because I think he said
he was a I guess he said.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
It was a prisoner of war.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It was always a prisoner out there. I don't know
what they did to his mine, but it becomes quite.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Evident by every measure. This was just another angry bout
of yelling between Berg and a couple of white supremacists,
an exchange that by now have become commonplace on Berg's show,
allowing the popular shock job to feed his dueling passions
for lighting up the airwaves and verbally abusing racists. But
the tenor on this episode seemed a little different. A
(16:44):
little darker disappearance by Moore and Peters, coupled with previous
appearances from Richard Butler and the very real in person
death threat made by Fred Wilkins, had upped the temperature
around alan Berg to an uncomfortable high, and his colleagues
at KOA were starting to get concerned, including producer Susan Ryman.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I don't know, I think back to the I think
about back to Richard Butler more than anything, because that
eventually wasn't who carried that out, But I think it
was the beginning of bringing attention to being so voraciously
(17:26):
opposed to white supremacists and the Arian Nations and Hayden Lake,
Idaho and everything they represented and their hatred for the Jews.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Ryman wasn't just concerned about providing a platform to white supremacists,
after all, for years now, alan Berg had made it
imperative that they offer a sounding board to even the
most reprehensible individuals in American society. She was worried about
Alan's safety as well as her own.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
I was frightened for my own life. But they didn't
know who I was, you know, they weren't out for me.
But it was a really scary time, I think. I
think for me now, the stocking wasn't what it is
now that for me it was unheard of what happened
(18:16):
to Allenberg, that people would actually kill an on air
personality for whatever reason. It was always next. That's the
one word that I always remember about Alan was next,
Someone's always going to dislike me, Someone's always going to
hate me. I'd always say, not necessarily, Ellen, But he, uh,
(18:37):
he wasn't going to change because of it. He couldn't.
And in the end a bunch of crazy people took.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
His life for it. And it makes me so angry
that he got himself killed because he had a big mouth.
How did they know him on the raid? They knew
him from the radio.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Thatttsburgh's ex wife, do you Udith Burgh? As you'll recall,
Judith was out with Alan Berg enjoying a pleasant dinner
at Jefferson four forty on June eighteenth, nineteen eighty four.
By every measure, it was a pleasant and memorable evening.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
So we stopped over here, picked up dog food brought
on sixth Avenue, and we went back to the house.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Judith left to visit a friend and Alan started to
go into the house to feed the dog. Then the unthinkable.
Speaker 15 (19:33):
Bord of a tragic and shocking story tonight that apparently
Kawa talk show host Alan Berg was shot and killed
tonight in downtown Denver. Stanning Brye Live now with more
on this. Wendy Bergen is at fourteenth and Adams in
downtown Denver.
Speaker 11 (19:47):
Yes, Linda, apparently it happened just a short while ago.
When we arrived here, there was a man lying outside
of a volkswagon in front of this apartment of the
Lear Condominium complex at fourteen fifty five Adams. Police tentatively
identified him as Kowa talk show host Alan Berg. As
you said, he apparently died from multiple gunshot wounds. We
(20:07):
do not know whether they have a suspect, and they
are still investigating it. We should have some more details
later on this evening.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Even with all the fiery exchanges and the death threats
and the escalating rhetoric. The events of that night were
truly unimaginable. One of Denver's most popular media personalities violently
gunned down outside his own home, and word of his
death spread swiftly among his radio colleagues. Here's former KOWA
(20:36):
station manager Lee Larson, and I.
Speaker 18 (20:38):
Was watching the evening news getting ready to go to
bed when they broke into the newscast with a breaking
headline that talk show host Alan Berg had been shot.
I was obviously stunned because that was our talk host,
that was my friend, that was somebody that I had
(21:00):
been working alongside of. So I immediately ran to the
phone called the radio station newsroom to find out what
they knew about it, and they were just finding out
about it at the same time because the police were
putting it out. I think there was also chatter on
the police channel about a shooting and all of that,
(21:21):
and as the pieces were falling together, I got as
much information as I could from our newsroom, continued to
watch television to see if they had any updates, and
immediately got on the phone with my bosses at the
company headquarters to make sure that they knew what was
going on.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
As news broke of alan Berg's murder. There was a
bizarre balance being maintained over at the radio station where
the popular shock jock had enjoyed such incredible success. The
staff at KAWA were simultaneously grieving their fallen colleague while
also reporting the latest detail of his shocking murder, all
(22:02):
in real time.
Speaker 10 (22:03):
Ten thirty nine KO wait time, and I'm still trying
to piece information together Off the air. I'm finding out
that Channel seven has issued a report that said the
best investigative efforts of the DPD has indicated that someone
passing in a vehicle using a semi automatic weapon or
an automatic weapon. I'm not sure which fired upon alan
(22:26):
Berg when he was exiting his vehicle in front of
his home. Ten or more shellcasings, to the best of
my ability, or a number that would indicate an automatic
weapon was found in the at the scene. And alan
Berg has in fact passed on. He is no longer
(22:46):
with us. He'll always be with us, though I think
he's touched each and touched each and every one of us.
He touched me and and Lee Larson and Jim Hawthorne
are on their way into the station now, and Jim
(23:09):
is program director. Lee uh Lee Larson is the station manager.
And it's a it's a shock. It's to describe how
I feel right now. I've got a high pitch, winging
sound in my ears. My head is thropping, and I
can't believe it. Somebody tonight, somebody out there. I can,
(23:34):
I know I can. I can feel your presence. I
can feel your presence listening to KOWA to feel the
result of your handywork. You're a loser man, You're a
loser talk show host or a diamond dozen. If Allenberg
(23:59):
was anything before you blew him away, he was nothing,
and you made him immortal. He made him a part
of me, and you gave value to everything that ever
justified your sick act tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It was Allan's longtime friend and colleague Ken Hamlin who
initially broke the news of the murder. But while Hamlin
somehow found a way to fill the air with this
shocking news, his KOA colleagues were swiftly dispatched to the
crime scene, launching their ohso important investigation into the violent
crime that was about to become a public fixation across
(24:39):
the country.
Speaker 11 (24:40):
Most of the country has never heard of Alan Berg.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Who called himself the man You Love to Hate.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Last night, Alan Berg was shot to deell.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
It is possible that Berg style may have contributed to
his death.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Acid tongue talk show host Alan Berg was ambushed outside
his hull last night.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I have been here about fifteen or twenty minutes. Placer
still a pretty tight mouth about the situation. They are
busy canvassing the neighborhood right now, trying to find witnesses
to what happened here about an hour ago. They have
also called for a Chinese interpreter. They aren't saying for
what reason, whether it's to talk to a witness or
you know, who knows what they haven't told us. They
(25:20):
will be telling us a little while. Bill Buckley, who's
an assistant District attorney Deputy district attorney for city in
County of Denver, is also at the scene, as is
the corner. It looks as it looked as if Allen
had just stepped out of his car right in front
of his apartment. He was driving his little Volkswagen today
when we saw him, and that was the car that
where his body is near and witnesses purportedly have told police.
(25:45):
The only witnesses that we've heard of told police that
they had heard tires scream about the time the shots
were fired. There were a number of shots in rapid succession.
Police did find about between eight and eleven shell casings
lying on the ground near Alan's car, which would indicate
that with some sort of an automatic weapon, although police
(26:06):
haven't said exactly what why, But as we said, there's
very little known here as to what happened. Allen apparently
just arriving home in his car, stepping out of his
automobile and was gone down. They have not moved the
body yet and will probably not move it until all
of the forensic laboratory people have had an opportunity to
go over to crime scene thoroughly.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Over the days, weeks, and months that followed. KAWE wasn't
just a major news organization following a shocking story. The
radio station soon became a key part of the Denver
Police Department investigation into the death of Alan Burg. Every
episode of Bergs show, every angry exchange with a caller,
every threatening letter mailed to his attention at the station
(26:49):
potentially offered a clue and to who could have possibly
committed this heinous crime, all in the.
Speaker 12 (26:56):
Normal course of an investigation such as this is around
a person who routinely got death threats. It'll be a
procedure now to go into those records, especially of the
most recent threats on Alan's life, perhaps to follow up
on possible leads.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
That is true, mark it. There could be a clue
to who the murderer is in the recent threats and
the records that we have at the station and the
police might have. But then again there may not be.
Alan was constantly joking about the threats that were made
on his life. I don't really know how seriously he
(27:36):
took them. Maybe he did, but he never appeared to
on the surface.
Speaker 14 (27:41):
Mister Burg was found on the sidewalk with what appears
to be numerous gunshot wounds. No definite eyewitness is known
at this time. Some people were in the neighborhood and
heard shots and heard the car leaving. At this time,
the police are canvassing in the neighborhood trained to find
another witnesses.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
All of this happened while Brook's colleagues and friends grew
more and more terrified that one of them could be next,
a very real fear that was only exacerbated by the
fact that local police didn't have a single tangible lead
in to who could have committed this crime. Here's burg
biographer Steven Singular.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Their investigation went on and on. Somebody interviewed the police
officer who was in charge of it, the detective in
charge of it. He was in his office and they said,
you have any suspects, And he pointed to the Denver
phone book and said, well, they're probably two million suspects.
(28:47):
This guy, at one time or another aggravated everybody, and
so they cast a wide net looking for suspects, and
they essentially it came up with absolutely nothing. And time
went on and they pass along information to the FBI.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Practically overnight, one of Denver's most popular radio stations descended
into chaos, honoring their slain colleague, reporting on his murder,
and fearing what could happen next, all while the FBI
assisted Denver Police with what was already the biggest and
most high profile investigation in the department's history. All that
(29:33):
in the next episode of live Wire, the Loud Life
and Shocking Murder of Alan Berg. Live Wire is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Modulator Media. For more podcasts
from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
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