40 Years of Music

“Girl, I thought you said you were gonna play the blues. This ain’t the blues” growled John Selman as he looked over the records that had been selected for air play by KUVO’s first Program Director, Mercedes Hernández.

Luckily not only was Mr. Selman who founded Anderson & Selman’s Record Store in 1952 on Welton Street while working as an engineer at Martin Marietta willing to donate music to the fledgling station but he was also eager to share his deep knowledge of the blues. When KUVO went on the air in August 1985 with a mix of blues, salsa and jazz, the blues were an authentic representation of the genre, thanks to John Selman.

Salsa was a signature sound on KUVO – although one listener complained that he did not appreciate the “mariachi” music. There had to be something that branded KUVO as a Latino-controlled station. The prevailing opinion was that tropical Latino music was compatible with jazz. So we blended in artists like Tito Puente making no distinction between Latin jazz and salsa to establish a “Sabor Latino” format on KUVO.

With jazz, KUVO had a lot to learn. Dick and Maddie Gibson had been broadcasting traditional and mainstream jazz on KADX since 1973, a station loved by the metro jazz community. Unfortunately KADX was sold and flipped to a country-western format in 1982 leaving a huge hole in the hearts of those who loved jazz. KUVO’s inaugural 1985 music mix, heavily influenced by KXCR from El Paso, Texas was contemporary – dare it be said, smooth – jazz, and included artists like Grover Washington, the Yellow Jackets and Spyro Gyra. But when Carlos Lando formerly of KDKO and KBCO joined KUVO as its Program and Music Director with his in-the-weeds knowledge of music, the jazz on the station went in a different direction.

Photo: Mr. John Selman. Credit: Denver Post Archives