[JPL] Changes in the Air at KUVO

[Doug Crane]

The headline might be a bit too dire sounding but 
clearly KUVO's operating capital has been 
tight.  I'll let the article from Westword 
(Denver's free weekly tabloid) speak for itself 
other than say that I talked quite frequently 
with the author, Michael Roberts, a few years ago 
and consider him to get to the essential truth of 
whatever it is he writes about.  A couple of 
points in this column may be a bit "over the top" 
but I think it's a pretty objective piece of 
writing overall.  And, to cut to the chase if you 
don't read any further, a format change does not 
appear to be imminent if the new GM is to be taken at his word.

In defense of KUVO: If you didn't hear KUVO's 
part of NPR's "Toast of the Nation" broadcast 
featuring the band "Convergence", you missed a 
great performance.  I thought it was the best 
portion of the broadcast but I'll admit to a certain bias.

Doug Crane
KUVO Denver 89.3 FM
Wednesdays 7-9 PM
dcrane at comcast.net
__________________________________________________

Changes in the Air at KUVO

Public-radio veteran Gene Craven tries to keep 
KUVO alive with help from the man he beat out for the station's top job.
By Michael Roberts
www.westword.com
Published: January 10, 2008

Gene Craven, the recently named president and 
general manager of public-radio outlet KUVO/89.3 
FM, sees the economic challenges bedeviling the operation in simple terms.

"The station has experienced a downturn in 
reserves, and expenses rose faster than the 
revenue coming in to cover them," he says. "Over 
the course of three years, a chunk of that 
reserve fund has been eaten up. The station is 
riding in the black right now, but unless some 
changes are made and expenses are brought in 
line, the station could dip below what reserves it has."

Such blunt talk explains in part why Craven was 
hired. But words alone won't restore either 
fiscal health or confidence at the signal, which 
is just emerging from a period marked by 
tumultuous change and tremendous uncertainty. 
Granted, plenty of challenges remain, but so, 
too, does hope that's epitomized by the 
commitment of Carlos Lando. The veteran program 
director served as interim general manager for 
around twelve months and actively campaigned to 
take over the post permanently, only to be passed 
over in favor of Craven last November. Rather 
than leave the station in a huff, however, Lando 
agreed to return to the program-director slot, 
and he's currently working side by side with 
Craven to put KUVO on the right path. "Any time 
you're in the running for a position of this 
nature and you're not the anointed one, so to 
speak, you have some personal disappointment," he 
acknowledges. "But the bottom line is, I want to 
do what's best for the radio station."

KUVO was born in 1983 with a mandate to serve 
Hispanics in the community. Bylaws require that 
the majority of the board be of Hispanic descent, 
and a multitude of prominent locals such as 
current senator Ken Salazar have served in that 
capacity over the past quarter-century. But even 
though a lot of the programming on weekends, 
especially, is produced with the Latino community 
in mind, the prime-time focus is on jazz, a 
musical style that's become increasingly rare on 
the nation's airwaves of late — particularly more 
authentic examples of the genre, as opposed to 
the slicked-up instrumentals and neutered R&B 
that have come to characterize the format dubiously dubbed "smooth jazz."

The broadcaster's devotion to authenticity has 
earned plenty of acclaim from the likes of 
JazzWeek magazine, which honored KUVO as the 
major-market jazz station of the year in both 
2005 and 2006, and DJs often hear from jazz 
aficionados across the globe who've discovered 
the outlet online. But these accomplishments 
haven't translated to a donations windfall. 
There's plenty of competition for the hearts and 
minds of public-radio listeners in the area, what 
with the unyielding money-collecting machine run 
by Colorado Public Radio's two area branches, 
KCFR/1340 AM and KVOD/90.1 FM, plus lower-key 
entreaties from the Denver and Boulder affiliates 
of KGNU (at 88.5 FM and 1390 AM) and Fort 
Collins-based KUNC/91.5 FM, whose improved signal 
is reaching more metro households than ever 
before. As a result, KUVO raised $190,000 less 
than the $1.6 million it spent in 2006.

Given digits like these, something had to give, 
but few at the station expected the changes that 
actually came down. In November 2006, KUVO's 
outgoing board chairwoman, Dolores Atencio, 
blindsided employees with a memo announcing that 
three positions were being eliminated, spelling 
an employment end for longtime staffers such as 
Lando's wife, Tina Cartagena. (Doug Crane: Tina 
has continued to work as an independent 
contractor since the end of 2006 but regains full 
employment as of February 1st, 2008)   The 
following month, Florence Hernandez-Ramos, who'd 
served as the station's general manager since it 
was founded in 1983, abruptly resigned. At the 
time, Hernandez-Ramos declined to talk about her 
reasons for stepping down, offering only a 
statement of support for Lando. In addition, more 
than a half-dozen KUVO boardmembers contacted by 
Westword either did not respond to requests for 
comment or referred inquiries to Atencio's 
successor, Michael Marez — a reaction notably out 
of tune with the "public" part of public radio. 
This lack of communication only increased anxiety 
over the station's status, as did the extreme 
length of the general-manager search.

In the end, Marez feels the wait was worth it, 
partly because of Craven's "years of experience 
in public radio" — and his track record is 
certainly impressive. Craven managed WUGA-AM, 
based at the University of Georgia in Athens, 
from 1989 until 1997. Afterward, he became 
associate general manager at Florida Gulf Coast 
University's WGCU; the facility encompasses a TV 
station that's part of the Public Broadcasting 
System and a National Public Radio affiliate on 
FM. Seven years later, in 2004, when he was in 
his late fifties, Craven moved to Aspen with his 
wife and went into semi-retirement — but he 
didn't stay inactive for long. He started a 
consulting business that specialized in helping 
local nonprofits such as Aspen Public Radio and 
KDNK-FM. Then, about a year ago, Craven's wife 
got a new job in Westminster, and after 
relocating, Craven heard about the KUVO opening.

"That was when I got excited about coming back to 
work full-time," Craven says. "From what I was 
able to gather about the station, it was at 
something of a crossroads in its existence. It's 
been a successful station in the past, and to a 
certain degree, it still is. But I also knew the 
station had hit a bump in the road and its 
financial situation had turned south a little bit."

Craven doesn't lay the blame for these 
circumstances on his predecessors, yet he 
believes KUVO can do more to secure funding — 
particularly corporate underwriting. "The station 
hasn't had enough people trained and out seeking 
that kind of support, and we're going to put more 
emphasis on that," he says. "This being the 22nd 
largest metropolitan market in the country, there 
are plenty of potential sponsors out there, and 
the station offers a very attractive demographic 
profile: usually fairly high-income and educated, socially active people."

As for membership, Craven thinks "that looks 
pretty good, but it could probably grow some 
more" — and he senses potential for expansion in 
a construction permit that could bring the signal 
to Vail, a new HD-radio stream that could be 
launched this year and potential programming 
tweaks. "We need to take a look at what we're 
doing every day to see if there's anything that 
might cause listeners to go to other stations," Craven says.

Such comments are likely to cause some KUVO fans 
to fear that jazz may be dumped, but Craven 
rejects this interpretation. In his words, "I see 
no reason at this time to even look at changing 
the format of the station." Nevertheless, he 
stops short of swearing such a thing could never 
happen. "The whole media marketplace is 
changing," he points out, "and people can get 
jazz on other types of services now — satellite 
radio, Internet radio and all that. The secret 
for KUVO, and for any broadcast station, is to 
adapt itself to the changing times and look at 
ways we can serve the communities we broadcast to 
that are not replaceable by nationally delivered programs."

Fortunately, Lando, the architect of KUVO's 
sound, remains on hand to oversee day-to-day 
operations, and Marez, who's also supportive of 
the jazz approach, views that as good news. "It 
was important that Carlos stay and be a part of 
we want to do," he stresses. "It took a little 
work to make sure everyone felt comfortable with 
the situation, but Carlos very graciously and in 
a dignified way said, 'I see a role for me. If it 
makes the station stronger, that's what I'm going 
to do.' He stepped up — everyone did — and I really appreciate it."

Still, questions remain. Craven is dedicated to 
meeting with all of KUVO's stakeholders in order 
to "come up with a new mission statement, and 
from there build a strategic plan that will 
position the station for the next five years." 
And beyond that? "I can't tell you," Craven 
concedes. "If I'm able to accomplish all those 
goals, maybe I'll be having such a good time that 
I'll want to stay. Or maybe that'll be time to walk away."

With luck, such a transition won't be as traumatic as the last one.