850 KOA
KOA broke the news about the Columbine shooting
850 KOA was the first news outlet to break the story of the Columbine shooting over the radio sometime between 11:25-11:30 a.m. on April 20, 1999. You can hear clips of this breaking audio in Episode 8 of We Interrupt This Broadcast with Brian Williams.
One of their first broadcasts reported:
"Once again, that's Steve Davis with the Jeffco Sheriff's Department, there have been reports that the suspect had guns and grenade launchers and that some students are hurt. Jeffco SWAT teams are en route to the scene as are 850 KOA's Jerry Bell and 850 KOA's Amani Ali."
According to Kathy Walker, news director for 850 KOA, in the broadcast linked above, on the day of the Columbine shooting, Walker and her colleagues heard police being dispatched to Columbine High School over their police scanners. According to Walker, almost immediately, the began getting calls from parents asking what was happening. As the news crew listened to the scanners, they heard the police response toward Columbine High School.
Within 20 minutes of learning about the shooting, Walker got ahold of Steve Davis, who confirmed the shooting was taking place. She believes she was one of the first people to get confirmation of the shooting.
Jerry Bell and Amani Ali
When Bell and Ali reported to the school, Amani went to the North side and Jerry went to the South side. The South side was blocked off, so Bell followed everyone into Leawood Park just North of the school, hopping people's backyard fences to get there.
850 KOA created the Never Forgotten Fund
After the shooting, 805 KOA created the Never Forgotten Fund, which awards 13 scholarships each year in the names of the Columbine victims.
The first year of this program, only Columbine students were awarded scholarships. After that time, the program was expanded to accept applications from students from the entire Denver Metro area.