Behind the Scenes at KUVO

Mostly, when you turn on KUVO JAZZ, there’s a real person, in a real studio, selecting awesome tracks and telling you about them, in real-time. In radio parlance, we call it “LIVE and LOCAL.”  That was then, before you-know-what.

Denver’s mayor fired the first shot in mid-March, closing public venues and then issuing a city-wide Stay-At-Home order. And the Governor was right behind him with statewide rules for social distancing. In a matter of days, we had to ramp up our operations to continue to serve listeners with music—only we had to do it while keeping our small paid staff and nearly 40 volunteer hosts (programmers) socially distant, safe and secure. For the record, a HUGE shout out to our friends at the Jazz Network out of Chicago: Dee Alexander, John Hill, Dave Schwan, and Leslie Keros. Overnights, in the evenings and on Saturdays, they have kept the music playing!

For the hosts, it has been an agonizing adjustment to different hours or no hours at all. And since then, hosts and engineers have been busy building out home studios, acquiring digital equipment, brushing up on technical knowledge and skill, and perfecting procedures so they can deliver the tunes, musical commentary, and community connection you need in these weird times. We have been making steady progress.

Some hosts have been digging into KUVO’s digital library and putting together playlists of exceptional music. Some DJs have patched together old mixers, microphones and other gear to create studios in their basement, spare room, or dining room table. Sound familiar?

And some hosts have gone all out and connected their home studios to KUVO for real-time live radio. It has been a truly remarkable effort.

If you’ve been missing your favorite Saturday Jazz host, don’t worry. Everyone is well and safe at home, practicing deep cleaning and social distancing while they’re thinking up great music to play as soon as they get back. J.J., Ed Danielson, Gabriel, Djamila Ricciardi, and Allen Scott miss you too, and they want you to hang tight and stay safe. They’ll be back on the air soon.

A BIG WELCOME BACK TO THE AIRWAVES to KUVO’s Night Beat hosts: Mike Wulfsohn (Mondays at 8 p.m.), Geoff Anderson (Tuesdays at 8 p.m.), Doug Crane (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.) and Dan Feinberg (Thursdays at 8 p.m.).

And the ear-bending deep grooves and next-gen sounds of Jazz Odyssey are back too, thanks to the efforts of Matt Seres (Mondays at 10 p.m.), Moe Velez (Tuesdays at 10 p.m.), Venus Cruz (Wednesdays at 10 p.m.), and the dynamic duo of Dele Johnson and Harrison Neff (Thursdays at 10 p.m.).

By the way, a personal thanks to YOU, the listener, who, determined to find the music you love, have endured some not-so-pleasant sounds coming from your speaker. Our technical plant has suffered a bit as we deal with these issues and prepare for our relocation to new studios.  I hear (or hear about) every issue with our sound, including dead air, skips, replays, errors, miscues, mishaps, train wrecks, and other “harshness on your mellow.” Please pardon our dust.

Things are smoothing out, so hopefully, you never notice the wizard “behind the curtain.” We work so that you can enjoy the station that has served you well for nearly 35 years. A community this close really does feel like family. Even at a distance. Happy listening! We’re here for you!