After recent controversy, KUVO Jazz turns to the public for feedback
DENVER — When the founders of KUVO planned to start broadcasting on 89.3 FM nearly four decades ago, their intention was to build a Spanish-language public radio station.
The station’s original team, including founder Flo Hernandez-Ramos, wanted the call letters to be KTAL for ¿qué tal? (how’s it going?) or KPSA for ¿qué pasa? (what’s up?), but those call letters already existed. They decided on KUVO for ¿qué hubo?, roughly translating to “what’s happening?”
But during the station’s community outreach, Hernandez-Ramos learned that 89% of the Latinos in the Denver area did not speak Spanish fluently. With that discovery, KUVO’s dreams of being a Spanish-language station went out the window. But a question remained: What kind of music do the listeners want?
The answer was jazz.
Thirty-seven years later, community feedback is again playing an important role at KUVO. Since May, the station has been hosting “community conversations” for volunteers and staff about happenings at the station. The conversations opened to the public on Sept. 20, and have seen an increase in attendance following the departure of four high-profile, on-air hosts.
At the Sept. 28 community conversation at the Buell Public Media Center, the management of Rocky Mountain Public Media (RMPM), of which KUVO is a subsidiary, made it clear that there is not a scenario in which the hosts will return to KUVO, but acknowledged that the hosts’ departure could have been better communicated to the KUVO audience.
Station management maintained in the meetings that they are not at liberty to discuss the events that led to those hosts leaving the station, but it is clear that KUVO listeners have noticed the hosts’ absence from the airwaves.
“I think that when I listen to KUVO, it’s sort of about the music selections, but it’s also about the inspiration I get from the on-air hosts because they’re brilliant,” said a woman in attendance who has volunteered with KUVO in the past. “They have dedicated their lives to this pursuit. They teach me, they welcome me. And that’s why we’re all really hurt that they’re gone without notice.”
Some listeners expressed concern about music, especially what they see (or hear) as an increase in “smooth jazz” on KUVO.
“KUVO will never be a cookie cutter, corporately run light jazz or smooth jazz station. Ever. As long as I’m sitting here as the program director, that’s not going to happen,” said Max Ramirez, KUVO’s program director. “The station itself has such a rich history rooted in Chicano activism and, you know, the cultural preservation of jazz. It would be a crime to do that.”
Ramirez, who joined KUVO in the spring, did have a clarifying point: “But that doesn’t mean that some of the spectrum that maybe leans a little bit more contemporary won’t be welcome over the years where it hasn’t been before.”
During Wednesday’s community conversation, Lando said “it should be me” who’s taking heat.
“After all, the final decision rests with me in terms of people coming and going and that kind of stuff,” he said. “So I’m just here to say to everybody that that falls on me. And I’ve learned a lot from this process in terms of … next time somebody departs — whether they leave on their own account or they’re asked to leave — we need … to acknowledge, number one, their contribution to why the station is here today, but we also need to acknowledge that change evolves and happens.”
Lando concluded his thoughts by saying he was “truly sorry” about the way the departures were handled.
“It all rests on me on that point,” he said. “Hopefully we never make that same mistake again.”
The next community conversation is taking place Wednesday, Oct. 12 at the Buell Public Media Center (2101 Arapahoe St. in Denver). People can also attend virtually. Registration information is available here.
Note: Rocky Mountain PBS and KUVO Jazz are both subsidiaries of Rocky Mountain Public Media (RMPM). KUVO and RMPM leadership had no influence on the reporting or editing of this story.
Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.
If listeners are hearing songs they’re not used to, Ramirez said, it’s not because the station is changing its programming. Rather, the station is working to make use of its vast library, which includes some 130,000 tracks. Ramirez explained the problem is that many of those tracks live on CDs that have yet to be digitized, an ongoing process that will take “years” to complete.
A few people at Buell were long-time volunteers. Glenn Hanley was one of them.
He said he did not like “the way changes are being made without taking time to get buy-in from your community.”
“We’re learning together, in part thanks to your time, effort and feedback, how we can move forward together in a better way so it’s not just Oh, we’re moving forward too fast and we’re not bringing other people along. That, I want to take accountability for,” said Amanda Mountain, RMPM’s CEO. “And I want to just validate [that] what you’re saying is true. It wasn’t out of a malicious intent, it was out of a breakdown in communication and a desire to try new things and see what would happen. And I hear you when you say that felt irresponsible in some ways.”
“Not to communicate when you’re in the communication business gives me a headache,” Hanley said.
As Ramirez pointed out, communicating staff departures is a challenging task when those situations include a lot of details that management can’t disclose to the public.
“It can be a very tricky area, but we’re learning now that there are ways to do this publicly and there are ways to communicate with you without divulging personal information or legal information,” he said.
“I overwhelmingly understand that I have failed as somebody who has a degree in communication,” Ramirez told the audience. “And I want to correct that. Now, I had to learn the hard way, and I accept that, and I hear you. And I wish I could go back but I can’t.”
Carlos Lando, who recently announced he will begin transitioning from his position as general manager at the station to devote more time to executive producing and hosting “The Morning Set with Carlos Lando,” told Hanley “I really value your opinion, because you’re in the trenches.”
“I accept my share of accountability,” Lando explained. “I could have done a much better job of communicating to Amanda [Mountain] and to our team on personnel changes and how to address them with our … audience. I didn’t do a good job with that.”
Lando said Ramirez should not be taking the hit for that. And Ramirez has been taking some hits. On Sept. 23, Lando, Ramirez and Flo Hernandez-Ramos spoke with media producer and activist “Brother Jeff” Fard on Fard’s live podcast for nearly an hour and a half. Ramirez became emotional when discussing the “harassment” he has faced since the hosts have left.
“And it hasn’t stopped,” Ramirez said. You can watch the full discussion with Fard here.
