KUVO 89.3 FM reworks program schedule. The oldest female host in the US, "MamaKat", gets the boot.

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:



KUVO (89.3 FM) will make rare changes to its program schedule with the start of 2013. General Manager Carlos Lando said the intention is to expand the public radio station’s locally produced jazz programming into the early evening hours on weekdays in response to listeners’ needs.
Beginning Jan. 6, “First Take with Lando and Chavis” will be extended for another hour, airing 6=9 a.m. “The Morning Beat” with Victor Cooper follows, 9 a.m.-noon, with Arturo Gomez’s “Lunchtime at the Oasis” noon-1 p.m.

“Take Note,” with Susan Gatschet Reese fills the afternoon until 4 p.m., followed by the “Jazz Caravan” with Erik Troe until 6 p.m. “Into the Evening” with Rodney Franks runs 6-8 p.m. followed by “The Night Beat.”

Weekend changes beginning Jan. 11 bring “Riverwalk ‘Live’ from the Landing,” 8-9 a.m. Saturdays. “Breakfast Jazz with JJ” will precede that show, 6-8 a.m. “Jazz with Ed Danielson” will start at 2 p.m.

The blues begin an hour earlier, with “All Blues” with Sam Mayfield & Geoff Anderson airs 4-6 p.m. followed by “The R&B Jukebox,” 6-8 p.m.
On Sundays Deborah Walker takes over “Gospel Train” as host. And Andy O’s three-hour “The Nightside” launches at 8 p.m. on Jan. 5.


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[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:



If you've tuned in to Justina "MamaKat" Curlee's Rockin' and Rhythm radio show Friday evenings on KUVO, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the story of MamaKat's love affair with jazz and the blues began with the organ.

Each week, legend Jimmy Smith's Hammond B-3 organ kicked in and kicked off the 86-year-old's two-hour jaunt, with dee-jay Erik Troe riding shotgun.

And for those familiar with tales from R&B's vast crypt, the fact that church had its role in the radio personality's evolution won't shock either.

What has thrown listeners and "her posse," as Curlee says in her trademark husk of a voice, is that this new year began with an ending: the end of her long run as on-air host, which began in 1996.



Jan. 3 marked Curlee's final broadcast. After last year's merger with Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO has tweaked its programming.

That show saw a typically fine array of in-studio visitors: Sam Mayfield, Erik Boa and Roots & Rhythm band. A week earlier, multiple Grammy-winner Diane Reeves stopped in and debuted a song from her soon-to-be-released album, "Beautiful Life." It's been a bittersweet goodbye.

On Jan. 5 at 5 p.m., MamaKat's posse — and the public — will gather at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret to fete the woman Mayor Michael Hancock honored with a week of her own in 2012.

"When we learned she wasn't going to be on the air any longer, I said 'We've got to celebrate,' " said blues singer Erica Brown.

Until Jan. 3, MamaKat held the distinction of being the oldest female host on the airwaves in the U.S.

The Colorado native discovered the blues when she moved to Chicago after graduating from Pueblo Junior College in 1948. Her mother's brother lived there, and while his wife was a "strict Catholic," she took Curlee to Pilgrim Baptist Church where Thomas A. Dorsey ( "the father of black gospel music ") held forth as musical director.

"Oh, it was gorgeous," Curlee recalled. "And the organist they had, that man could play, oh my goodness. So I joined that church."

Two weeks later, she joined the choir. She also dipped — and then plunged — into the waters of Chicago's music scene along Indiana Avenue.

"There was at least three places we would go," she said. "Girl, they would play some blues."

What's next?

"I have no clue," she said a few days before Christmas, sitting in a booth in her favorite haunt, Annie's on Colfax. "I have a son in Chicago; there's a possibility I might relocate."

One gets the sense this is not the perfect ending MamaKat would have penned for herself. Folks like Curlee don't tend to saunter away from the things they love.

So stay tuned. Meanwhile, there's a celebration going down.

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