As an elementary school kid, KUVO's new General Manager Nikki Swarn would turn up the volume and dance when the station played songs by Cuban icon Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa. The station played music that spoke directly to Swarn.
"I got my start of listening to radio and understanding the value of what public media meant way back then," she said. "You support things that reflect your energy. And you reflect those same energies in the work that you do as a person that's civically engaged in your community."
Swarn's civic engagement started at age six when she volunteered at the St. Vincent De Paul soup kitchen. Feeding unhoused people has been part of her lifelong work, including today when she and DJ Unique set up a table and hand out hot food downtown -- a tradition that started back when KUVO and its sister hip-hop station The Drop were still run out of the Five Points Media Center.
Swarn didn't always plan a career in radio. Doing so seemed out of reach. She went to college for pre-med. Afterward, when a mentor encouraged her to reach out to radio stations and see if anybody had positions, she was happy to know a career in music was a possibility.
She called three, and KUVO was her first choice. They invited her to come in and volunteer, but with more than $100,000 in student debt and a need for work, her father would never forgive that choice. The second station, KS 107.5, only had internships. K-High, Denver's smooth jazz station, had an opening for a part-time position, and Swarn jumped at the chance, making her entry into jazz radio.
Over the years, she's worked her way up the ranks, including stints at KS 107.5. In 2019, she was the founding general manager at the Drop, KUVO's hip-hop and R&B channel. In the beginning, the station was on HD2 radio but eventually found a permanent FM home at 104.7 in late 2020.
While the Drop has been growing the past few years, KUVO, the jazz station, has suffered some bumps.
High-profile on-air talent, including Rodney Franks, Susan Gatschet, Janine Santana and Matthew Goldwasser, say they were pushed out or outright fired under the management of new program director Max Ramirez, as Denverite reported earlier this year. Longtime donors pulled funding, irate about both the radio station's labor practices and a seeming shift toward more smooth jazz.
In the months that followed the upheaval, the station has been trying to earn back trust from the audience. KUVO organized listening sessions with community members, staff and donors, where critics aired their concerns.
While all this was going on, Carlos Lando, who had served as both programming director and general manager for years, was trying to retire and stick to being solely an on-air personality. He had hired Ramirez to lose some of those responsibilities, and he and others in leadership began courting Swarn for the general manager role.
As gripes from the audience continued, the timeline was sped up for Swarn's hire.
In November, Swarn was appointed as KUVO's general manager, and she will also continue to lead the Drop.
She's the fifth general manager in KUVO's history, following Lando, Alfredo Cruz, Gene Craven and founder Flo Hernandez-Ramos. Swarn said her hire is significant for another reason: She is the first Black woman to serve as the general manager of a Colorado radio station.
She didn't enter the position frivolously. She spoke in depth with Lando and Rocky Mountain Public Media head Amanda Mountain. She chatted with DJs at both KUVO and the Drop and also with community members.
In her first two weeks at the station, she has been a part of listening sessions with the community.
At a recent event, the station played tracks, from Kamasi Washington to Bob James' "Westchester Lady." Audience members held up a green stick for the songs they liked and red sticks for the songs they didn't -- and it turned out, KUVO's fanbase in the room shrugged off some outright classics.
But the debate and conversation -- whether people like the music or not -- is part of what inspires Swarn.
"As the general manager of this iconic brand, my job is to support the community in our conversations we have together," she said. "My job is to encourage exploration and innovation, while keeping the centerpiece of community, culture and music in our mind's eye, while we walk through all of these new spaces, and also the reclamation of the history. Telling our story in our words."
KUVO is working on new projects to showcase that history. The building now has a wall display telling the story of Denver's jazz past to present.
While Swarn appreciates history, she does not believe music should be defined by the past.
"The idea of purism exists in a cultural format that is iconic like jazz," she said. "And it doesn't mean that there's not truth -- because two things can be true at the same time. And the one thing that's iconic about jazz is that it's evolutionary. It's always reinventing itself. You see that from those masters everybody wants to talk about."
To explain her point, she nods to Miles Davis, who is "low-hanging fruit." But his music is relevant to fans of genres from country and rock to hip-hop.
"He's considered a staple in jazz," she said. "But he also was a revolutionary, right? Because he thought nothing would stay the same: So although you are loving my iconic history, respect my future at the same time. And those are two truths that exist."
It's far from just the evolution of music that Swarn's contending with. She's also arriving in the wake of the high-profile firings.
In her first two-and-a-half weeks at the helm, Swarn is observing and listening. She has no plans to fire more staff. She's trying to build them up and respects the work on-air talent has.
"We're fighting for relevancy," she said. "We're fighting for opportunities. We're fighting for reflection."
And she said she honors the station's past DJs.
"The pattern of growth is never easy or clear," she said. "Things change. I have great respect for these individuals who are a part of this history, and their history will never go away. They're not erased. They are not erased. They've contributed to so many landscapes that are a part of KUVO. No matter what, they're part of the history of this station, and there's nothing more or less than that."
She talks to KUVO and the Drop DJs daily to keep them inspired in their work and to help them build trust between the stations and listeners.
"I say, 'Go live your best life on the air," she said. "Remember it's about a single relationship. You might be talking to 100,000 people, but it's just one person at a time. One person at a time that matters to you."
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated KUVO has had two previous general managers. There were four before Swarn.
