by Peter Boyles | Jul 23, 2026 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
When I left KLAK and the morning show almost 40 years ago and headed to talk radio, looming in the city was The Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, powerful AM stations like KOA and KHOW. Channel 9 had Ed Sardella and Adele Arakawa, and before them Carl Akers. Opposing them were Bob Palmer and John Lindsey. Between the editorial blessings of the Post and Rocky Mountain News, and how KOA presented the news, and how the television stations of the ’80s presented the news, it was a very different time. They would have taken a candidate like Marx and beat him like a baby harp seal. He would have never survived even the primary.
It’s now been dubbed corporate talk radio. And we’re down to one newspaper, The Denver Post, that people only seem to read for the sports. In the timeframe we’re alluding to, receiving the editorial blessing for any candidate was a true gift. Almost as good as Patty Calhoun’s Westword talking about which person in Denver television had the best hair. (winky, wink).
Now Victor Marx treated Channel 9’s Kyle Clark like he was one half of a comedy routine. Even as far as saying that his dog would bite Clark. Treating Kyle like the punchline in a joke. Talk radio, including myself, attempted to expose Victor Marx for the true fraud that he is. And guess what? The Republican candidate for governor is none other than Victor Marx.
And having survived in this business for many years in radio, and TV, and writing, what does that now say to me, as well as corporate talk and corporate ownership of TV news? It says we no longer matter.
The biggest losers in this primary are Barbara Kirkmeyer, Scott Bottoms, and the mainstream media. It’s the equivalent of the presidential runs of Pat Paulsen.
Now what will happen when Victor Marx meets Phil Weiser? I don’t know about you, but I think they can sell tickets a hundred bucks a shot for ringsides when Victor has to go up against Phil. The real significant question of that is, who do you want? Which one could more quickly destroy the state of Colorado that’s already in the destruction mode.
Believe it or not, I got Victor Marx on the points.
My friends say it doesn’t matter because the democrats cheat. See if Victor Marx can put a headlock on Phil Weiser and get a three count. Or for that matter, whether he debates at all.
And that doesn’t mean that it’s just Marx who won’t want to debate. I have a difficult time thinking Weiser will be on the other podium.
If there is a debate, you can bet Channel 9 and their team, and Kyle Clark would have the conn. And Victor Marx will make fun of them all.
Whatever, it’s certainly going to be more fun to watch than when the space cadet Joe Biden stepped out to debate Donald Trump when Trump had him at hello. Don’t you miss William Randolph Hurst, Edward R. Murrow, and Drew Pearson?
This is going to be fun to watch, and frightening, for an outcome. See you next month.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Jun 29, 2026 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
What does the media have in common with the first three? Not much.
I am a UFC MMA fan. I tried to fight as a young man and wasn’t very successful, but I think I understand the mind of a fighter. So, I bought the Paramount Plus Sunday Night Fights on the White House lawn. And frankly, the last fight of the night may have been the greatest I’ve ever seen. It was incredible.
Next comes patriotism. It’s how I feel, my love, devotion, or attachment to this country. Or maybe a combination of my childhood, my young adulthood, and now as an old man. Folks, this is one hell of a country. And it did come in loud and proud and standing tall Sunday night.
I watched the fighters come out of the Oval Office and the media being so upset that “the Oval Office was being used as a locker room.”
I don’t recall that same media being so upset when Bill Clinton was using the Map Room, where FDR planned the defeat of the Axis, for his personal bordello.
Did you see CNN having a cow over that? But by God, a UFC fighter has more guts and more heart than all those media idiots combined to walk into a ring to do something none of the doofuses ever did in their lives.
Or the Congressional Medal of Honor awardee in a wheelchair being pushed to the ring by a young GI on one side and a 9/11 hero on the other side.
The Marines were lined up on both sides of the ring and, as the group went by, snapped off a sharp salute.
These media clowns actually thought that Donald Trump told the Marines to salute. If they knew anything about what it took to get awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, they would know four-star generals salute them. But, of course, you would have to know something beyond the capabilities of those newsrooms.
The next big thing of the night was a UFC fighter calling Michelle Obama a man after he won his fight and then shaking Trump’s hand. Once again, I harken them back to Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay. In June of 1961, he met professional wrestler Gorgeous George in Las Vegas. Young Cassius was in town to fight Duke Sabedong.
George was in town to wrestle Freddie Blassie, the King of Men. Both made the media rounds to hype their shows, and they crossed paths. A young Muhammad looked at how many people came to see him fight and how many came to watch George. George sold 13,000 seats that night for five minutes with Freddie.
But he started being a big mouth and a braggart on Las Vegas radio. Ali later said that people came to see him get beat; others came to see him win. Either way, he kept them coming. He taught Ali, who loved pro wrestling as a kid, that was the night he became the Louisville Lip, shooting his mouth off about who he was going to beat. He went from a quiet young man to becoming the greatest of all time.
Sunday night, Josh Hokit simply performed what professional wrestlers have known for decades. People now will come and buy tickets to watch him get beat. He knew it. I know it.
I was trying to keep a record of how many headlines I could find tying Hokit to Donald Trump. I ran out after counting 50.
Trump, like him or not, had nothing to do with that. Hokit knew that if he did that, he would be the center of attention, just like the young Ali understood it. But morning television reports didn’t have a clue.
I had tears in my eyes watching what Jerry Jeff Walker said in one of my favorite songs, “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” where Jerry Jeff sings, “These are heroes of our country,” and asks why they are dressed up like these old men. Screw a bunch of CNN, MSNOW, NBC, CBS, ABC, and morning newspapers and talking heads.
Insiders look at you and say, “Happy birthday, 250 years, United States of America.”
And you’re right. We did come in loud as compared to Jane Fonda and the drag show hosting an alternative event. That shows you exactly where this country is headed.
More next month when we take a look at public schools and what they are teaching Muffy and Buffy.
Happy Birthday, America.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | May 19, 2026 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
Colorado has a rich history of colorful outlaws, ruthless gunman, and swindlers. The list of Colorado’s notorious crooks and outlaws includes Soapy Smith; The Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon during the 1920s, Dr. John Galen Locke; the Smaldone family; our very own local mafia with great names like Cadillac Jack Abranoff, Charles Ponzi, and of course with representation in Colorado, the talented Bernie Madoff. Now enter the dragon.
Victor Marx, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who is pushing amazing tales of his alleged accomplishments. While Colorado’s mainstream media looks the other way, a group of citizen journalists and investigators are raising significant questions about Marx’s claims. Many of these new investigators and detractors were once supporters of Marx.
And a couple of Saturday nights ago I put together a dinner at The Butchery in Arvada. It was a gathering of all the young Turks who led the surpassing of the petrified mainstream media of Denver. A sadness has befallen our state where these once acknowledged media investigators have simply sat down awaiting retirement. And I would like to recognize these new investigators for the job they did:
Darcy Schoening, a republican activist who is a private researcher who did masterful work and created “The Truth About Victor Marx.”
Next would be Ashe Epp, who has grown as a columnist for this newspaper, a cohost on Tuesday with Ryan Schuiling on KHOW, a podcaster, and making her way up the ladder spearheading alternative media.
Curt Kennedy, coder and algorithm genius. His wife Cori Kennedy did incredible work on the background of Victor Marx, and taking my radio interview with Marx and dissecting it for Marx’s falsehoods. Brilliant researcher and fact finder.
Not present that night, Kelly Dore, former elected official and creator of the National Human Trafficking Survivor Coalition; Ross Kaminsky, Common Sense Institute Colorado and radio host; as well as radio hosts Michael Brown and Mandy Connell. Mark Cook, owner of Booster Technologies and researcher, with the enormous alleged “smurfing” breakthrough that calls into question the origins of Marx’s campaign contributions.
Corby Hall, who was at the dinner, really discovered how accurate Victor Marx is with his money.
I single out for the tip of the spear Ryan Schuiling at KHOW radio, and Political expert Trisha Calvarese, who delivered some of the most riveting radio that the city has heard in quite a while.
Add to all of that Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden who own this newspaper and have a podcast on their own that’s done lightening work on the questions around Marx.
What struck me was the absolute lack of any mainstream media grabbing on to this candidate, while instead they spend time telling you what you already know with their grasp of the obvious, Colorado’s dry, had a bad ski season, the Broncos might have a good year, the Avs chasing the playoffs, and they’ve backed away from the Rockies since they‘ve cooled off.
And we have this man in our midst now who, I believe, is a grifter. Once again the Republican Party is being grifted but this time it’s Dan Maes with Jesus.
These new media investigators have taken over the state and are telling voters what they really need to know and understand, and the state owes them a debit of gratitude. It would be extraordinary if this group of hard chargers can assist in identifying other interesting information on other candidates.
People who do the right thing do not brag about it. As Margaret Thatcher said, being powerful is like being a lady, if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. The primary vote is straight ahead, and your vote carries a lot of weight in both Democrat and Republican primaries. Thank you for reading.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Apr 17, 2026 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
In our state of Colorado there once was an event that became one of the earliest Western movies, The Great Train Robbery. Where manly men with bandanas over their faces, six-guns blazing, stuck up the train. Train robbing became the crime of the day for people like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Who didn’t love a train robbery, with legendary train robbers like Jesse and Frank James?
Now come Governor Polis and RTD and we end up with the train dubbed Coco. Just to give you an idea of what people are being paid to do in Colorado, one of the names they came up with was Front Range Express Destinations. FRED. Ranger. A train built for the Colorado landscape and lifestyle. Range Link connecting people to jobs, schools, and destinations without the hassle of driving.
I’ve knocked around RTD for almost as many years as I’ve been in radio. I found out the only people that really do like the RTD are borderline socialists and bond daddies. For those of you who don’t know what a bond daddy is, they came to Colorado under the Romer and Peña administrations and it works like this — they’ve never seen a public works project that they didn’t love.
They are called public private partnerships. What happens is the public pays and the private part makes enormous amounts of money. The public naming of the new train was open to all of us and I’m sure you got your ballot to choose the name of an inner-city train that would connect front range communities beginning in 2029. How many times have you noticed light rail going past you totally empty. Or an RTD bus doing about the same. So, do we need another one of these?
Of course not. But watch again how the money is made. And with Polis telling folks how excited people are about the RTD finally delivering a modern passenger train along the front range. CoCo.
Watch this. I have no idea but, given past performance being a predicter of future performance, I can make a guess. Look at what you see and what’s being paid for by you that nobody uses. Criticism of RTD is that it’s unreliable, it has frequent delays; some people have actually experienced multiple cancellations in the same day. There are safety and cleanliness issues. People complain about open drug use and public urination and lack of any transit police patrolling trains or the stations.
There are slow zones: RTD is using speed restrictions on light rail lines like the R line and the E line. Maintenance needs and extended times that people ride, and they find they can get back home in the evening quicker in their car than they can riding the existing products.
Because of the watch dog media on the Front Range, CoCO got RTD’s blessing.
We already have a couple of projects that have not been completed. Does the name FasTracks mean anything to you?
Remember the rail link between Boulder and Denver? It’s been collecting tax revenue since 2004. It ain’t there.
RTD is doing projects such as downtown rail reconstruction. More long-term reliability, and you can get up-to-date information, you can check RTD services alerts, and, of course, those are questions that nobody asks.
I’ve watched this stuff for a long time, and I want to thank Jon Caldara from the Independence Institute, a former board member and critic of RTD.
The state of Colorado subsidizes a bus service that ran the Front Range corridor. Carried 171,000 passengers in 2019. CoCo projects they will attract 200,000 passengers per year and the cost is between $1.7 billion and $2.8 billion. Can you believe that it would be worth that much money to attract 29,000 more people, you’re going to pay between $1.7 billion and $2.98 billion.
I’ve been told this is minor league spending and minor league development and if I were to look at the real costs, overruns, and expenditures of projects that have been pushed on us by RTD, we would welcome CoCo.
Stick ’em up!
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Apr 1, 2026 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
It happened four Sunday mornings ago, February 15th. After completing the award-winning radio show on Saturday, I went home and I was dead tired and went to bed early — on Saturday night, Peter??
Woke up the next morning with the worst headache and I generally don’t get headaches; it’s the one thing that gratefully has left me alone. I normally have a Sunday morning breakfast with my biker buddies, and I didn’t have the strength to meet them and the headache continued.
My daughter said OK, let’s go to urgent care, and I argued against it, and she said you have to go. And the urgent care people, who were wonderful, said go straight to Swedish Hospital.
I went to Swedish hospital and ended up in the ICU for that night and the next day. Did an MRI and was told I had had a brain bleed. So, I’m writing this column as a warning for all of us about strokes and brain bleeds.
I was told all kinds of fun things like 50 percent of those who have a brain bleed will die before they get to a hospital. Of the 50 percent who make it to the hospital 30 percent will die there. And of those who survive 40 percent are left with some kind of cognitive defect. And in common terms, a brain bleed is actually an intracranial hemorrhage. In terms that I can understand, it’s a blood clot in your brain.
I’ll take it now to another level. There are two kinds: the spontaneous ones are aneurism or a stroke caused by trauma, but the most common type of brain bleed, the most common cause of death, is it’s secondary to a head injury.
That was some relief. The most common symptom is a sudden onset headache. Most of us describe it as the worst headache in their lives. And even people who get migraine headaches say the brain bleed headache is worse than any migraine. Some stroke patients describe having a bad headache. The symptoms come and go very quickly.
I received at Swedish one of the greatest experiences of my life: the migraine cocktail. Why I never knew about this before is beyond me. What a gift that is.
With a brain bleed there are people who fall into comas, and it causes you to lose consciousness and some of the following symptoms. This is all very frightening, such things as blindness in one eye, numbness on one side of the face, arm numbness, weakness on one side of the body. The thing that was most interesting is something for all of us to remember, and that is if you feel, have, or gone through any of these things it’s time to call the ambulance. I actually was told to not have your daughter drive you here but to call 911.
There is a medication to dissolve the clot. Mine was two centimeters and they told me there’s evidence you’ve had a couple of these puppies in the past. Which if you’ve been reading me explains a lot.
Bottom line with a brain bleed, if you ever have a headache like you’ve never had before, dial 911. Ignoring that pain like I have could prove to be fatal.
I’m writing this, as I said above, for all of us to be aware of what I just went through.
I will be 83 years old — maybe — this coming October. And those of you who have been reading me long enough, remember the final columns of Gene Amole who had become a great friend and drinking buddy, along with the late John Coit, Denver Rocky Mountain News columnist who died of a heart attack. I think about so many of the old people in the media and friends that have been with all of us and we’ve lost them. But you’re not getting rid of me because, I’m a hard man to kill.
Who was a hard man to kill? Rasputin, and Jim Bowie, and me.
—Peter Boyles
