Break'n and Popp'n

For a brief moment in 2024, break dancing was an Olympic Sport but back in the 1980’s it was riding a wave of popularity that gave KUVO an opportunity to create one of many successful fundraisers to get KUVO on the air – a Break-a-Thon. In 1984, over on the Northside, the intersection of 29th and Zuni in front of the Ashland Recreation Center became the scene of hundreds of young men and a handful of girls whose incredible flexibility and athleticism were on full display – twists, turns, flips – all done with only one hand or one foot on the ground. There were teams with matching outfits and single acts each choreographed to music playing hard beats extremely loudly.

Mayor Federico Peña and Lucila Altamirano had the unenviable task of judging the acts and declaring winners, which was particularly hard since all the routines were outstanding.