Welcome to the Cloud, a new listening experience - #lakewoodnews

Imagine a radio station that caters to the feel of Colorado --; relaxed, vibrant and varietal.

That was Chuck Lontine's goal when he developed the Cloud, a new radio station that delivers soft modern rock from then and now.

"I wanted to create an environment on the radio that is consistent with the Colorado lifestyle --; fresh and out-of-bounds," Lontine said.

The Cloud, or KKCL Radio, is aired in Golden and Boulder on 96.9 FM. It is available throughout the Denver-metro area on 1550 AM. Or it can be streamed online at www.thecloud.fm.

The FM radio station transmits from Lookout Mountain in Golden and Hoover Hill in Boulder. The AM broadcasts from two towers just north of Golden on Highway 93. The FM station launched on Nov. 10 and the AM station in July.

Lontine, 56, a Colorado native who lives in Littleton, is also hoping to open a storefront studio on Washington Avenue in Golden to host local musicians in 2017.

Music content on the Cloud is a unique blend of soft alternative and contemporary rock music, singer songwriters and classic pop hits spanning several decades.

Listeners may hear a classic Bobby Darin tune, such as "Mack the Knife," followed by recent music by Adele, Jason Mrazz or the Plain White Tees, Lontine said. The Cloud plays everything from Lyle Lovett to Tony Bennett to the Cure.

"It's an algorithm I developed ... to blend music to match real-time listening habits to services like Pandora not found on the radio locally," Lontine said.

Lontine works from a database of 5,000 songs, and the format is designed so people can listen to the Cloud for a long period of time, he said.

"In no 24-hour period will the same song be repeated twice," Lontine said.

The station mostly sells 10-second commercials similar to public radio, he said, which allows the Cloud to play more music per hour than most radio stations. Nonprofit organizations are also welcome to reach out for free promotion, Lontine said.

"I'd like a strong cloud community among the nonprofits in Golden and Boulder," he added.

George Emmett of Louisville has a background in broadcast engineering and discovered the Cloud when he was doing some research into various radio stations.

Emmett has what he described as an eclectic taste in music, and one of the reasons the Cloud is so good is because of its format, he said.

"Sometimes you want something bright and upbeat," he said, "and sometimes you want something calmer."

The Cloud is not a hits station, Emmett said --; it may be a good way for people to discover new music or hear a song they may have forgotten about.

"They're songs you've probably heard before," he said, "but not what you hear on the radio all the time."

People seem to like the mix, Lontine said.

"Response has been so heartwarming," Lontine said. "I received an email from a new listener on Thanksgiving morning. She had the Cloud on at her family home in Golden while cooking. She discovered the radio station in her car ... and has been listening ever since."

Lontine is inspired by movies --; children's movies in particular --; and love stories for the music selection. He reads a column in the New York Times called Modern Romance, from which he gets a lot of ideas for music to air on the Cloud.

"Behind every great love story, there's a song," Lontine said. "I seek it out and share it with my listeners."

from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Welcome-to-the-Cloud-a-new-listening-experience,240390