Northern Colorado sports fans officially have a new home on the dial, and it arrives carrying one of the biggest brands in the region’s sports radio landscape.
Townsquare Media has launched “102.9 The Fan” on KARS-FM, bringing the programming of Denver sports powerhouse 104.3 The Fan to listeners across Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley and parts of Southern Wyoming. The move replaces the station’s previous Hip-Hop format, “Power 102.9,” with a full-time sports presentation built around Denver-focused teams, personalities and daily talk programming.
The new station lineup includes “Stokley and Evans with Mark Schlereth” in mornings, “Dover & Cecil” in middays and “The Drive with Zach Bye and Phillip Lindsay” in afternoons. The programming is already well known throughout Colorado, particularly among Broncos fans who have followed several of the station’s hosts for years.
The launch is now fully reflected across the station’s official branding and online presence, with KARS rebranded as “Northern Colorado’s Home for 24/7 Sports.”
For Northern Colorado listeners, the move creates a much stronger direct connection to Denver sports conversation without depending on fringe reception from the Denver market itself. And in a state where football talk can dominate a coffee shop conversation before 7 a.m., that matters.
Sports radio continues to stand out as one of radio’s most durable formats because it thrives on immediacy. Listeners are not just hearing music in the background. They are reacting in real time to trades, coaching changes, quarterback controversies, playoff races and the emotional roller coaster that comes with being a sports fan in Colorado.
And let’s be honest — Colorado sports have provided plenty of material lately.
The station will also continue carrying Colorado State University athletics, preserving a major local connection for fans throughout the Fort Collins area. That blend of CSU sports and Denver professional sports discussion gives the station a fairly wide lane across the region.
The move also reflects a broader industry trend where operators are leaning harder into formats that create daily engagement and habit listening. Sports radio still has the ability to pull listeners into long-form content, heated debate and community conversation in ways many music stations struggle to replicate today.
In other words, while playlists continue to live everywhere, live local sports conversation still feels special on the radio dial.
And now Northern Colorado has a lot more of it.
On The Dial covers breaking radio industry news, including layoffs, programming changes, talent moves, and broadcast trends across the United States.