Humming Right Along….Not

Although KUVO marks its anniversary on August 29 of 1985, efforts to make the station a reality began years before. 89.3 FM has always been licensed to Denver Educational Broadcasting but the call letters from 1978 to 1983 were Granfalloon/KHUM.

After seeking extension after extension from the Federal Communications Commission over five years, KHUM still had not begun broadcasting and its license was about to be suspended by the FCC. Rather than allow the loss of a license, Hugo Morales of KSJV/Fresno CA and Marc Hand of Western Community Bilingual Radio (WCBR) convinced Granfalloon to create a new Board of Directors that included general managers of other Latino stations around the Southwest. In August of 1982 the FCC agreed to the transfer of control.

The next step was to find locals willing to put in the hard work of creating a public radio station. At the invitation of Tep Falcón, Hugo and Marc made a presentation on a Saturday at her house at 2675 Albion Street to a handful of activists about starting a Spanish language public radio station in Denver. It was a daunting task since none of the volunteers had any experience with media or with raising thousands of dollars to establish a station.

(Fun Fact: One of KUVO’s 30 under 30 jazz artists, Rico Jones, is the nephew of Tep Falcón and has written and performs a musical composition entitled Tía Chueca, a tribute to Tep.