Radio 1190 - The best independent music

KUCB HISTORY PART 2

1989-1990

Spring 1990 saw the first KUCB Program Guide, designed by Dee Mueller. The Guide was designed to provide programming information as well as an insight into the personality of the station. (see KUCB Scrapbook)

KUCB won a design award this year for its "Blow your mind" print ad which ran in the Colorado Daily.

Over Winter Break KUCB and Program Council volunteers completely refurbished Quigley's (now Club 156), painting, building the stage, building the sound booth, bar, etc. KUCB hosted alternative dance nights on Mondays and Thursdays until UMC Board spent two years threatening to shut the club down and make it into a computer lab, but then decided instead to change its name to the wonderfully creative Club 156 (its room number).

For what remains one of KUCB's most unusual promotional events, Brad Caldwell and Matt (Ratte) McMullen did Naked Radio, a request marathon in which every caller got their request played, won a bag of goodies, and one of the guys had to remove a piece of their clothing. The final caller before total nudity wins their underwear, as well as additional goodies. KUCB received over 100 requests, and yes, they really did strip (uninvited gawkers led to Naked Radio 2 featuring curtains over the airroom windows). (see KUCB Scrapbook)

1990-1991

The position of Sales Manager was formally established this year. The position was unpaid except for a 25% commission on sales. In the years that follow the name of the position changed to Advertising Director, Mobile Unit Manager, and finally to Sales Manager. The duties remained much the same, however.

The position of Operations Manager was initially developed at this point. The original duties of the position consisted of maintaining the current events calendar, maintaining and creating log files, and maintaining playlists. The position was originally held by Katie Severud, who did it for internship credit through the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC).

Summer 1991

The Great Flood. Heavy rains flooded the entire basement of the UMC, where KUCB is located. Waters were reported to be mid-calf deep at their highest point. While luckily all of the operating KUCB equipment was high enough to be spared, there was a great deal of record damage and damage to stored equipment that was being saved for emergencies and cannibalism. It took four years for KUCB to receive insurance money for replacements.

In June of 1991, KUCB won the award for Best Jazz Radio Show (George Abbott's show) in Westword's Best of Denver 1991 edition. (see certificate at KUCB)

1991-1992

KUCB's third consultant report (see Surveys file), designed to determine the worthiness of an attempt to go full-power in the crowded Denver marketplace was commissioned and completed in early spring 1991. While the overall report was fairly positive, UCSU felt that it should hire someone at half-time to spend several months looking more deeply into the question. Money was tentatively allocated for someone to be hired in the fall for this position.

Also during this school year, the Operations Manager position became a volunteer position. The duties remained the same.

1992-1993

UCSU, for reasons never explained, decided to drop hiring the part-time researcher in favor of doing a fourth consultant report with the same goals as the others. Also at this time a student survey was conducted by Lou McClelland in the Research & Testing Office at the direction of UCSU. Questions were submitted by both UCSU and KUCB. The results were highly positive. (see Surveys file)

KUCB was on quite a roll this year, with sales figures at an all-time high of $25,000. Unfortunatelyl, the next year's figures dropped significantly, due to TCI cable dropping almost all radio stations from its service.

1993-1994

The summer started out with the firing of the General Manager. Erin Bennett, the GM from the previous year, was kind enough to step in for 2 weeks while a new GM was hired. The second GM was hired, then had to quit due to time constraints. KUCB finally settled down with a third GM.

In June of 1993, KUCB won the award for Best Radio Station It's Almost Impossible to Hear from Westword in their Best of Denver 1993 edition. (see Support/Articles file)

In January, TCI Cable, blaming bandwidth problems, dropped all radio stations from their cable system (much of Boulder is in a "radio shadow" and has great difficulty receiving stations). Citizens of Boulder protested very loudly, and managed to get KBCO and one other station reinstated. No other stations were reinstated at this time. KUCB reclaimed the tuner that TCI had been using (courtesy of the station) to tune in the radio stations. It would take until November for KUCB to be reinstated. (see Support/Articles file)

During spring UCSU budget hearings, KUCB's funding was almost cut due to the work of Brad Dempsey, but KUCB was saved when we managed to obtain over 100 letters of support (see Support/Articles file) and bring approximately 80 supporters to both budget hearings. The meeting almost had to be moved to a new location to handle the number of people attending.

Continue to Page Three