Behind the Mic: The R&B Jukebox
In 1997, Rolando Garcia started his journey at KUVO, regularly substituting for Mama Kat on Saturday nights. He curated a mix of traditional blues, along with some jazz on the bluesy side, and his own R&B favorites. This caught the ear of then Program Director Carlos Lando and after some encouragement to do more of “that R&B thing," the R&B Jukebox was born the following year in 1998.
Rolando Garcia: People ask me, how'd you get into this? In '63, '64, I was a young kid. My teenage sister was playing the early Beatles albums endlessly. I was listening to R&B through The Beatles. I didn't realize that until I got older. It's like, well, wait a minute. They covered all this stuff! All that stuff. We play that on Saturday night.
Since then the show has welcomed a number of hosts, including Ricky Moseley and Kai Turner currently on the R&B team. The show brings the KUVO community into the stories of the R&B legends that once dominated the airwaves and whose 45s filled up our local neighborhood jukeboxes. With several milestones like a number of favorite specials (The R&B Christmas Show, The Motown Show, The Do-Wop Show, The Soul Show, The Mardi Gras Show, The Gospel Show and more), an R&B Jukebox Sock Hop event that welcomed a live audience, and 28 years of fun on the radio, this legacy show continues to spark musical love in the hearts of our community.
Rolando Garcia: The show now is about to turn 28 years old, and it's probably one of the longest running shows behind Cancion Mexicana and All Blues and probably even Brazilian Fantasy. So they were here a few years way before The Jukebox, but 28 years is a long time for people to enjoy and support this music. You're right, it can get emotional. The type of connections that people make with this music is just incredible. Every week, Ricky or myself or Kai, we have those phone calls and people telling us about, “we were there… This is what my mom or my grandparents used to play…” It's really cultural, very cultural.
Longtime hosts Rolando Garcia and Rickey Moseley joined The Morning Set behind the mic to talk about the history of this show and of course share a few musical picks too!
Rolando Garcia: It's really about the music. It's really about the stories behind the music. And we've been able to do that for a long time and just we are privileged and honored to be able to do that every Saturday.
Tune in every Saturday night from 6 to 8 p.m. MT to The R&B Jukebox, revisiting the Golden Era of Rhythm & Blues, from the early 1940s through the late 1960s.
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