tonight on studio 12.

We're taking you inside the nation's first ever mariachi college degree launched right here in Denver to a look back on PBS 1245 years on the air, featuring the people who helped shape our station.

Plus, in our business of Colorado series, we sit down with an economist to learn more about what the Federal Reserve does and its role in our day to day lives.

And we close the night with Big Head Todd and the monsters live from Red Rocks on Colorado soundstage.

Studio 12 starts right now.

From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Welcome to studio 12.

I'm Bazzi Kanani, and I'm Ryan here.

Mariachi isn't just a style of music.

It's a tradition rich in culture that's been passed down through generations.

And now it's also the foundation of a groundbreaking new college major right here in Colorado.

MSU Denver has launched the nation's very first Bachelor of Arts degree in mariachi performance and culture.

We take you inside the classroom where we sat down with the professor teaching this unique program to learn more about it and hear from his students to take a look.

Here we go.

Ready?

This is your note, denim.

I actually started out with cello, but, there was a need for violins in my school.

I think it was like, around eighth grade.

Then just kind of pick a, comfortable.

Mom.

Oh.

Or.

Oh.

So I switched over to violin and I found out that it was the best instrument ever.

I fell in love with it when I play classical music.

People love it.

They're involved.

But nobody's like clapping along and singing.

People aren't dancing.

And I grew up in Mexico, so growing up over there in a really small town, it was really interesting because there would be mariachi groups playing all the time and my dad would be playing music at home, mariachi music all the time, and he would be singing it as well.

Sing the top line for me.

This is number eight.

Ready?

Oh, okay.

1234000.

I didn't even know that like mariachi was.

And he was taught, to be honest.

I thought it was something that you would just wear, like, hey, can I can I join you guys?

Hi.

My name is Falcon and I am in my second year here at MSU.

So for the long run, it's called, Mariachi Ensemble.

And what I personally really like is that for me, especially living here in the United States, it's been kind of hard to make friends from my own heritage and with common interests.

And I feel like here in mariachi, I feel like we're all in here because we want to be and we're all with shared interests, and it feels like a family, and that's why I really like it.

This is, a class that anybody at Metro can take at Metropolitan State University.

Here we go.

For me, playing the violin is something that I've just been doing throughout school.

Just my whole life.

My head is really busy all the time.

I'm constantly thinking thoughts.

There's something always going on in my head, and it's.

Sometimes it's tiring.

And when I play the violin, it goes quiet, and I can, I, I immerse myself in the music and I feel.

I feel the music.

I feel it in my car.

It's.

It's really nice.

I'm originally from Pueblo and I was in a mariachi program, and, MSU I think it was when, Doctor Fisher first came in, he did like a, like, a teaching thing for a day.

And that was like my first introduction to the band.

And.

I am the assistant professor of music at Metropolitan State University and director of Mariachi Los Caminos, MSU Denver.

Very cool.

That's a lot of words.

I think it was about a year ago.

Doctor Fisher told me that, like, some exciting stuff was happening here at MSU.

Let's try the top part first.

I've been teaching here since the fall of 22, and, found that, mariachi was part of it.

One, two, three, four.

And I see you don't have that yet again.

And there's a lot of students will say, oh, yeah, my, my grandmother, when she was cleaning or my, my uncle was in a mariachi band and on Sundays we just Sunday afternoons it was Mariachi Divas who had become a lot more and good over my students.

Actually, a lot of them know more than me.

So that can be intimidating.

And, and, so I really need to be on my egg.

How how how do you do that?

Stopping.

My parents always had, like, little, electric keyboards lying around.

They had, like, all of these little instruments around the house because we're kind of a musical family.

All these instruments laying around that I would constantly be picking up and playing and playing until my parents were one day, like, do you want to pick up an instrument?

And I was like, absolutely, I do.

I come from a decently musical family.

So, it, I had always played the guitar.

But I had never really taken it to serious until I joined that class.

It really started with this idea of, I talked to some mariachi, kind of mentors, and I was like, so, as they were talking about their experience in mariachi, a lot of them had gone to college, but they couldn't study their own instruments, they couldn't study guitar, and they couldn't study viola.

They couldn't study mariachi guitar, they couldn't study mariachi trumpet.

And so I thought, that's an inequity.

I was immediately, like, intrigued.

And then here I am.

So and then I thought, well, so how does this fit into something bigger?

The first step was to reach out to Chicano Studies and say, okay, what classes could we make or what classes could we collaborate on to create this degree?

Yeah, there's some Chicano study courses.

Some business courses.

I think it's a it's a pretty well rounded, degree.

It gives you a little bit of everything.

And as I looked at some other programs, there are a few other, mariachi major programs.

And I thought to myself, well, it seems like this is a preexisting degree with mariachi built on it.

And I said, it doesn't seem like it feels like we could contextualize a little bit more of what we're doing in terms of my mariachi kind of understanding what they're doing, what they're saying, and how to integrate into the culture, in a kind of a responsive way that ties that.

Those pretzels.

Yeah.

I worked with their program director, Sarah Jackson Shymansky, who walked me through how to do all this.

So I worked with the, chair of the kind of studies department.

Adriana Nieto, and, the chair of the World Languages department, to get, like, Spanish in there and also some business courses.

And that's what we built the degree around, of course, there music courses.

But due to the requirements of a music degree, preexisting music degree, they would have had to do a lot more courses than I thought were relevant, and not as many courses that I thought would be relevant to mariachi.

And that was kind of how I thought about the degree I said private study.

And then I want to have a, I want to have a program that's relevant to the students, because I never want the students to say, why am I even in this class?

What is the point of this?

So yeah, the degree will teach me, like the more technical part of, like, how to handle money and all that stuff, but the real, like, experience comes from just like if you're at work, just ask it to me, it it, it just really means that I can connect with, like, this part of me that, like, I've always wanted to, but, like, haven't really gotten the chance to, unless, like, I actually go to me.

Mariachi, for me, is, the embodiment of Mexican culture.

Whenever I play mariachi music, especially mariachi music, it feels like I can feel it here from my heritage.

I'm honoring my parents in it.

It feels different.

And playing classical music and music on my own, because this is music that I am honored to play, the music that I am representing, like a whole country by playing.

It's so much bigger than just Mexico.

But, but it's such a, beautiful, expressive, style that people love.

You know, when they go to the mariachi concert, they're happy.

And that's what my choose for.

For more information on the mariachi major and the coursework, you can go to MSU's denver.edu.

Today we're diving into a topic that affects all of us.

Whether you're buying groceries, paying your mortgage, or running a business.

We often hear about the Federal Reserve in the headlines, but what does it actually do and how does it shape our daily lives here in Colorado and across the Rocky Mountain region?

In the Business of Colorado tonight, PBS Twelve's Frannie Matthews talked with Nick slie, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

In their conversation, he breaks down the Fed's role in monetary policy and bank supervision and the systems that keep our nation's payments moving.

Take a look.

Nick, welcome.

I think it's kind of interesting.

It's taken us a long time to have this conversation.

I think we met about five years ago.

That's right.

It's been a long time coming.

Yeah.

So.

So now that I'm at PBS 12, I thought it was a great opportunity for us to pick up where we left off, all those many years ago.

Nick, can you tell us a little bit about what your role is at the Federal Reserve?

Yeah, I work out of our Denver office, and I'm one of the economists that's there.

One of the key roles that I have is actually gathering information about what's happening here in Colorado or across the Rocky Mountain region.

So I spend most of my time talking to business leaders and community leaders to figure out what's important for them as they're making decisions for their livelihood or for their business, and then making sure policymakers know what's happening on the ground to be, to inform their, policy making decisions.

So today, you're going to be talking to us about your what your seeing, but it's not necessarily, the Federal Reserve's position.

Absolutely.

I'll speak for myself.

And, but there are many other important views that are out there as well.

Awesome.

Good to know.

Let's let's go and talk about what the role of the Federal Reserve is.

And, and maybe some misconceptions that, need to be cleared up.

What's.

It's a big set of responsibilities.

They go for the fat.

And I always think about them as, what is it?

The American household can, count on that.

The Fed's providing.

And a lot of people pay attention to the role of interest rates and monetary policy, and those are important.

Another way to think about it is, is the role that we play in building and maintaining and operating the nation's payment system.

So whenever you go to the gas station or the grocery store and you swipe your debit card and the money moves from your bank to the grocery stores, bank accounts, you get your groceries.

You know, those rails that the money moves along is something that the Federal Reserve operates and maintains.

There's a big role in that payment system.

It just helps people go about their daily lives.

The other part is the bank supervision function that the fed does.

And that's making sure that when you put money in the bank that it's safe and secure and you can have access to it when you're ready and you need it.

And that's actually the overwhelming majority of the staff and the activities of the fed.

But a lot of the attention that goes to the fed goes to the monetary policy mission, where the fed is moving interest rates, up or down or keeping them in the same place, trying to guide the economy towards a position of having price stability and stable employment outcomes for American households.

Let's talk about the interesting times that we're living in.

I have been in Colorado for many years and was here during the 80s, which was a pretty tumultuous time.

And so I look at some of the indicators and the data that we're seeing in today's environment, and I, I'm seeing some parallels.

We had big inflation issues in the 70s, late 70s, early 80s.

And we also had a, a bit of a pullback from an economic perspective.

And I guess that's where the word stagflation was coined.

And I look at today's environment with all the data that's coming out and, and some of it's conflicting on, you know, what's the right way to go.

And it looks to me like the Federal Reserve has to kind of thread a needle.

Is that accurate?

And what are you seeing?

Yeah, I, you know, threading a needle.

So a good way to put it.

We to think about some of the tension of the, the directors, the mandates that Congress gave to the Federal Reserve.

I was to try to guide and steer the economy, really get out of the way most of the time.

But if you have to, to guide the economy to a position where you have price stability, you don't have inflation running too fast, but also stable employment.

And so right now you do see some tension and that inflation is still a bit above what the Fed's target is of 2%.

So is prices moving up a little bit faster than than the committee would like.

But you also see some softening in overall job gains.

And especially locally here in Colorado where you see, job being slowing, a bit.

So you do see a little bit of tension.

Those are those two different mandates.

And the reason that they're intention is because when you would want to slow inflation, you'd want to keep interest rates, maybe in a bit of a restrictive standpoint to slow the demand growth.

But if you wanted to support, some of the labor market outcomes, you maybe want to think about being of neutral or in the then I comedy's stance to allow businesses to, to, borrow and get their businesses running and spur that job growth.

And so often, you know, there's this one blunt tool interest rates.

You often you do have this conflict or this tension between, the approach for how the committee is going to move towards each of those two objectives.

And, and you and I had an opportunity to talk a little bit about inflation, because it's not just the number today, it's that it's the expectation of inflation in the in the future of it.

Yeah.

You're comparing to the 1980s was really interesting because that was a period where, you had higher inflation.

But it's not just that inflation was a bit higher, it's that people thought it was going to be higher.

And so there's this idea of inflation expectations getting embedded.

So the technical term for you get inflation expectations that are embedded.

And so people expect inflation to be higher.

And as a result it actually kind of runs away and and continues to be quite high.

And it's not just the psychology I mean the reality is if businesses think that prices are going to rise, their input costs are going to rise by a certain percentage.

They start writing their contracts with their suppliers thicker, and have escalators in them that allow prices to grow at a certain rate, or the same thing for workers, if they expect prices are going to rise for groceries or for their cars or for anything else, they sort of seek those those wage gains, either through cost of living adjustments or by switching to different jobs.

And so that expectation actually fuels some of that, that inflationary pressures.

It's a little bit different right now is that the committees continue to focus on inflation expectations, remaining well anchored and really committing to get inflation back to 2%.

It's so that those inflation expectations don't get embedded and have, price growth run away from, from it for us when that makes sense as well.

So when we when we look at where we are in the Rocky Mountain region and in Colorado kind of specifically, but it's a it's a broader base on what our where our viewers are and what you cover.

It's different than, than the 80s, because we're diversified.

Yeah.

That was that was a oil and gas economy in the 30s that said, there's a it was a almost the transition that went quite far.

So in the 80s, you had an oil and gas economy, which meant the local labor market and local businesses were really susceptible to both a boom.

But unfortunately, 80s a bust of the oil and gas sector.

Unfortunately, the concentration now has actually swung, towards, towards high tech positions.

And that's a sector that's now facing some headwinds in overall, employment and job growth.

And just like in the 80s, you had, one of the only other times in the last 50 years, when the Colorado unemployment rate was actually higher than the rest of the country.

There's only two times that that's happened in the last 50 years.

It was that 80s, oil and gas bust.

And then right now, when you've had tech employment actually face some, significant headwinds, those were both periods when the when the overall economy was not in a recession, it was just these sector specific headwinds that really influence local economic outcomes because Colorado so concentrated there.

So the fact that so many Coloradans are, you know, participating and active in the workforce, so many of them are highly skilled, so many of them are willing to go out and seek jobs.

If they lose their jobs, they don't get discouraged.

They stay in labor force.

Those are all factors that can promote an economic recovery.

Even though the unemployment rate is a little bit higher than the rest of the US.

Let's talk a little bit about workforce in more detail, because that's what I hear from employers all the time, that they have a hard time finding skilled workers.

When you when you look at workforce now and, and in the future, what do you see the opportunities to be for Colorado and what are the risks?

I've seen a lot of opportunity in the way that that that employers think about how they acquire, how workers acquire skills or how they give the skills to their workers.

There have been a lot of focus on longer degree programs.

There been a lot of focus on longer experience programs.

And more and more we're seeing employers be comfortable with, these sequential certifications or these individual accreditations where you work and as you're working, you're able to, acquire additional skills.

And that can be some hands on skills and technical and skilled trades.

They can be programing skills.

It can be just certifications inside a health care environment where you as you're working, you're able to build some of those certifications and that knowledge base as you can grow your career.

You know, with an employer and more and more, we're seeing partnerships from higher ed or community colleges, ream technical schools to partner with employers to allow you to get an education and not have to wait a couple of years before you start working, but do it on the job a little bit more.

Yeah, it's interesting because employers, you know, 20 years ago were really investing because people would stay for a decade and that's just not happening anymore.

But it sounds like being doing this more granular work on credentialing, for specific skills.

And in the moment, seems to be kind of the sweet spot right now.

And it seems to be an opportunity for, for, employers to build their own workforce.

The elephant in the room is often, the discussion about AI.

What do you what are you looking at from an AI perspective?

And how it's going to affect the job market?

I try to think about it two different ways, and one is sort of near term.

It's a new technology.

It can be disruptive as it's being adopted and individuals are learning how to use it and employ it.

There's also a longer term conversation.

So, in the near term, we're certainly are seeing it be disruptive.

You know, part of the reason that Colorado actually big reason they Colorado's unemployment rate is a little bit higher than the rest of the country, still low, but a little bit higher is that tech jobs, high tech positions, have seen more displacement.

We've seen, lower labor demand, more, less use, folks with programing skills or other software skills because I was able to substitute for some of that.

And so there is a short term displacement over the long term, though, we're actually seeing some productivity gains.

We're already hearing, accounts of businesses that are able to complete large scale work, with fewer headcount.

And that productivity growth is actually a boon for the U.S.

economy over the longer run.

And so you do have to have this balanced conversation of what does the short term disruption look like versus, you know, how embedded does this become?

This, this technology I become and the U.S.

economy, and how does that feel productivity growth is the longer term conversation.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

The one area that is me kind of concerned is that, some of the, early career entry jobs, could be automated.

And so I think it's so important for somebody coming out of college, getting into the workforce and maybe coming out of high school and getting into the workforce and really learning what it means to have a job.

Yeah.

And if those jobs aren't available, and that may be do you look at that as a short term hiccup or it'll smooth itself out a little bit more than a hiccup in something.

And it can be generational.

If it goes back to your question about, you know, workforce, something that can't really be as automated as workforce learning.

And so even if the job, and there are parts of the job that, can be, you know, automated or, or that, artificial intelligence capability fairly quickly, the ability to check it and the ability to proof it and the ability to, ideate about how to effectively use this new technology requires some that years of experience.

And that building of experience is not something that can be automated.

So there is a generational exposure to, you know, those disruptions right now.

What are some of the things that you would say about the Rocky Mountain region that are tailwinds that we have, and what are some of the obstacles or risks that we're facing?

Well, like much of the country and actually like much of the globe, the demographic change, the workforce of the overall population, I think is pretty real.

You've got declining birth rates.

Baby boomers are now at the point of leaving, the labor force.

And so you do see a decline in the available labor pool and a decline in the size of the of, of the, of the population as being a potential headwind for some economic, some economic activities that are out there.

And so something you have to think and think about and take on board is you think long term what's going to be the appropriate stance of certain policies.

What are the long term growth opportunities for companies that are, you know, here in the Rocky Mountain region?

So I think that's something to pay attention to as a potential, headwind, for the opportunities that are out there.

But tailwinds really do note that Colorado's labor force is just so highly engaged.

We've attracted, historically, folks from other parts of the country, a lot of in-migration, that's built a, highly skilled workforce, a highly available workforce in the fraction of people that work here is really far exceeds most other parts of the country.

And so when people are here, they tend to be really highly engaged.

They tend to be looking for jobs, looking for new opportunities.

And so it stops Colorado, I think, from getting stuck in the mud as that when you do have disruptions, they're able to to move forward pretty quickly because folks are moving around and finding new jobs.

If it's just one nugget you want the viewers to take away from this conversation, what would that be?

I'd like to be for them to know, you know, what are the public servants at the fed doing for them on a on a daily basis?

It's you know, we often think about the interest rates and we feel that on a car loan and we fear that on, on a home loan.

But maybe don't think about that when they swipe their debit card or they use cash to make a payment.

That those are services that that the Federal Reserve is providing for them as they are to see the benefits of the work that, is impacting their daily lives and really just recognize that the people are trying to get it right on their behalf.

Yeah.

Well, Nick, it was a fascinating conversation, and I look forward to the opportunity to bring you back.

And we'll talk more maybe in a year and see where we are.

So thank you very much for joining us today.

Thank you so much.

Let's not wait five years, okay.

for the full interview.

Find the business of Colorado wherever you get your podcasts.

And for more information about the fed in our region, you can go to Kansas City fed.org.

Governor Jared Polis recently announced certain Colorado cities are being offered grant money from the state to use for housing, energy, infrastructure and transportation projects.

But other cities are not.

At least for now.

And that has sparked an insightful conversation on Colorado inside Out.

Let's check in now with Kyle Dyer.

Hi, Bosie and Ryan.

You know, the way politicians treat their supporters with a leg up is nothing new.

Nor is making life difficult for those who don't follow suit.

But it's so obvious right now.

We're seeing a lot of that with the administration in Washington, but also from Governor Polis.

But is it the same thing?

Our insiders have a lot to say about it.

We are seeing how the federal government does indeed favor certain cities and states for following in line with the administration's plans.

But here in Colorado, that's happening, too.

14 Colorado cities have been kind of kicked to the back of the line for $280 million in state grants, because the Polis administration says they are not following state laws that are designed to increase affordable housing.

Now, Penfield, at a time when funding opportunities are pretty scarce, it's something to see cities being say, no, you have to go over here and wait.

It's not as unusual as you think.

Okay, this this situation revolves around two laws.

One, that that is encouraging communities to allow for accessory dwelling units.

The granny flats is what some people call them.

And another law that is encouraging communities to increase housing density so that everything it gets built isn't just a single family house on an acre of land.

You're doing multi, multi unit development.

The issue here is that under these two laws, in order to qualify for grant funding, which is money, you just get that taxpayer dollars.

There are parameters established and some of these communities are saying we're home rule city.

We get the right to determine housing density in ADUs.

And I agree they get the right.

But if you exercise your right in such a way where you know it's going to disqualify you or at least put you in the back of the line for grant funding, that's a choice you've made.

And so, I think eventually some of these communities may get access to some of the money, but I think the state has a legitimate interest in saying laws have been passed.

Grant funding is available.

Here's what you have to do to comply and qualify for it.

You can opt not to do it.

That's your prerogative.

Okay, Christy, what do you say?

Well, there's already a lawsuit on the table.

Six municipalities have said, hey, we're home rule.

So we're not really happy with this.

We're taking this to court.

There is a question about the constitutionality of it.

This just this what has happened now with this hit list or this the good list and the bad list is it's just throwing gas on the fire.

So I think that if we see any of these 14 municipalities miss out on grant funding when they otherwise would have been qualified, there may be more lawsuits.

I think what's unfortunate is that the Department of Local Affairs dollar has always been a, agency that has worked with municipalities, help them get grant funding, been a state partner, and now it's become an enforcement arm.

Is it weaponized?

I don't know.

You know, Maria de Canberra said that this isn't punitive action that's being taken against the 14, cities not complying, but it kind of feels that way.

Okay.

I'm not going to call you Pam Bondi, but we'll get into that fight later.

So it's a great erupt.

Anybody know.

And you did answer the question.

So it really wasn't fair.

But I've been dying to say it.

So the thing about it is it's a grant that you can apply for.

We've just been talking about how home rule cities are important, that municipalities be able to make decisions on how to deal with their own problems.

We also know that statewide affordable housing is a big problem.

So Polis pushed through this one concept that that had to affect two laws, but push it through so that people could be eligible for grants if they did the density housing, if they did the granny flat.

If municipalities decide they don't want to do that, it's not unreasonable for them not to be able to get grants.

We can't apply for grants if we don't apply, if we don't qualify.

So I think there will be lawsuits.

People will complain.

We'll see if we even see any of this affordable housing be built.

But it might not be built in Aurora.

I think there is a distinction here.

What the state is doing is it has laws on the books and those laws become criteria for grant making.

And if you comply with those laws, you're at the top of the line for the grants.

If not, you're at the bottom of the list.

Yet to the naked eye and to, I think, a whole lot of voters paying slightly more casual attention out there.

It smacks a lot of what we're seeing coming out of Washington with the Trump administration in pain, plain, blatant and obvious favorites between blue states and red states for all kinds of granting in Colorado has been on the short end of that list as a blue state.

Now, in the Trump case, it's often about politics.

It's blue red.

While the distinction I referenced earlier is in Colorado, it is about complying with statutory law.

On the books.

I get the distinction.

It's an important distinction.

But yet it is lost on many people.

But Eric, it's a huge distinction.

What the federal administration is doing is playing Partizan games based on executive orders and personal prerogative.

There's no legal basis for the idea that the distinctions they're drawing here, we have laws on the books that say this is the objective we're trying to accomplish.

This is what you have to do to qualify.

If you qualify, we'll consider you for grant funding.

If you don't, you go to the end of the line and it's not Partizan.

I mean, Denver, Inglewood, Lakewood, Colorado Springs, Idaho Springs, Glenwood Springs, Durango, Cripple Creek, Ridgeway, these are all the communities that have met the criterion under the law and have applied for and in the queue to be considered for funding.

So it's not Partizan or anything.

No argument for me.

I'm in fact, quote, quote unquote to everything.

You just said.

I agree, I agree entirely, yet I think for a whole lot of people out there, I think you need to meet voters where they are, and a lot of them aren't as tuned in as you-I you are as I am other people around this table, a lot of our viewers.

But there are a whole lot of voters who see this as a president picking favorite favorites, the governor picking favorites.

I think you need to acknowledge that it feeds a narrative.

Okay, I get your point.

Okay.

But that was just one of the topics we talked about on the latest episode of Colorado Inside Out.

For the entire show, you can go to PBS, 12.org, the PBS passport, or the CIA YouTube channel, where in addition to the entire show, we have excerpts on each topic, which is great if there is something in particular you want to focus on and perhaps share with a friend.

For this week's show, I am already speaking with our insiders about possible ideas for conversation, so join us Friday night at eight.

PBS 12 is celebrating 45 years on the air.

And tonight we're hearing from some of the people who have kept the station running behind the scenes.

Studio Tech Stevens in was with PBS 12 for nearly two decades.

He shares how the station has grown and adapted through changing technology and the evolution in storytelling that went with it through the years.

My name is Stephen Zen, and, my title is Studio Tech, and I've been here for just about 20 years.

For PBS 12 or KBI, which is our call letters to be around for 45 years.

That's a long time to be a part of the community, around Denver and Colorado.

This station has been around from the time when VHS tapes didn't exist all the way to now, where iPhones and Android phones exist, and you can record video on your phones.

When I first started working, at cd-i, that was maybe five years after the mini DV revolution had happened and was a big change for how stations started to operate.

The mini DV revolution was the first time broadcast equipment was affordable by the common person.

That was right around when Premiere and Final Cut Pro version one was also offered.

So for the first time, a person could afford an edit suite on their own and they could shoot broadcast quality, material on a DV camera.

So I came in right around that era, maybe five years after that had happened.

The station has been described as like the the the plucky little kid who's who just goes out and does things without asking for permission.

When the mini DV revolution happened, all of a sudden we could afford to do that even more because it didn't cost as much.

We had a lot of people who worked here who were independent producers and filmmakers.

That's what most people wanted to be as a as an independent filmmaker.

There were movies that were being released on mini, mini, DV or close to that quality, and that brought a lot of excitement and energy, and to independent producers and filmmakers trying to do their own thing on a lower budget.

And a lot of those people came to work at the station.

So that infused the station, with people who were producing a lot of their own content.

But and that's something that we've always had here is our own is focusing more on local content than PBS content.

And that's also what gave us kind of our rebel attitude with some of our content.

The focus for our station was always about the independent producers coming in.

PBS content is important for us because it's the backbone of our member of, what drives our membership.

But what that allows us to do is then have more creative freedom for independent productions.

When I first started working on Colorado Inside Out, Peter Boyles was the host.

Welcome to December 29th, 2017 coloring inside our live and we had a live show live call in show on Wednesdays and Fridays.

We had a live to tape show that we broadcast on Fridays.

So twice a week we were doing Colorado Inside Out and one of those shows was a live call.

And so we had a phone bank.

We had people calling in to talk to Peter and the other guests, and he would be would answer them and talk with them.

So yeah, it was always been a show where you have different guests, you have for different guests who are giving their own opinions.

That is the beauty of Colorado.

Inside Out is that you've got these four independent voices.

Everyone gets their own time to talk about something.

Everyone is respectful and it's all local events.

There was a time when we were taping Colorado inside out and, Patty Calhoun's key light, her main light shattered and we had light the glass from the bulb just like, fall down to the table.

So after that, we put protective, films in front of the the guest key lights.

But she didn't blink an eye, and she just kept going.

Yeah.

When you're recording live or in a studio, you.

There's no stopping everyone sees any mistakes that you make.

And, whatever happens is what ends up being seen by everyone.

We had another moment in on one of our shows where the jib operator was bringing the jib down, and sparks flew out because he had clipped, the extension cable that was powering the jib.

He never wanted to run the jib after that, but we fixed it so that would never happen again.

Yeah, sounds on 29 has changed a lot as well.

It used to be only in the studio.

We'd bring bands in the studio and they would perform, and then we would put that together and air it.

And now it's changed into going out to venues, around Denver, around Colorado to shoot bands at different locations.

Getting out for salsa training is a lot of fun, because you get to go to all these venues and shoot bands there, and it's almost like you're part of the crowd.

You're still working, but it it's a nice change of pace to get out of the studio.

One of my favorite sounds of 29 was Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats when they came in.

He was less known back then.

He started in Colorado, and he came in to do a sound on 29.

And the performance is one that is, he has like, this, he has a sloppy yet succinct style.

Sloppy yet put together style.

Nathaniel Rateliff in a nice sweater.

One of the best performances on sounds on 29.

Some of the things that I'm most proud of is the equipment room, the servers, the networking to tie all the equipment together.

Making productions work when you don't have everything that you need.

So you figure out workarounds on how to make things work.

We've always been the underdog where we don't have as much money to do what we want to do, but we were able to make things happen.

I'm proud of the productions that we did, where the productions were better than than they should have been based off the crew that we had or the equipment that we had or the talent that we had.

Everyone rose up to a higher level to make up something better than the tools we had to create for the next 45 years for PBS, 12, or whatever name it'll be known by in the future.

I hope that they will still be independent and they'll still be local, and they'll still have that creative spark that started them.

Happy 45th anniversary, PBS 12.

Next we meet Colorado artist Sadie Young, a multimedia and crochet creator who has transformed the Denver Art Museum into a vibrant and emotional playground.

Her latest exhibit, The Tangled Self, is created with Specter Artspace, and it invites visitors to literally step inside the mouth of monsters through color, texture, and fiber.

Sadie explores why we sometimes see the negative parts of ourselves more clearly than the good.

And at the heart of her art is a personal thread, a connection to her grandmother who taught her how to crochet for the very first time.

This is bad.

Yeah.

The biggest part of the mess.

It's, like, hard not to smile when you're doing it.

It's such a funny thing to do with yarn, but.

And then I do the edges where I always do the edges.

Last hand is so cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You tend to get fast at crocheting when it's all you do for six months.

Yeah.

Crocheting in and of itself is it's like a puzzle trying to figure out, like, how to make the exact shape.

My name is Sadie Young.

My grandma.

Very young.

She taught me how to crochet.

I am Sadie's, Sadie Young's grandmother.

Where you crochet fast, Sadie.

See me?

Oh, yeah.

I always tell people this little story.

She was probably, I don't know, 7 or 8 years old or maybe younger.

She wanted to learn how to crochet.

I was like, maybe four.

And she taught me how to do just like a simple, like, base chain.

So I taught her how to chain.

I don't know if you a chain is just one stitch after the other and it just makes a long rope.

Tommy had a chain, and then I was convinced that I was going to make the longest chain in the world and, like, break a record at, like, four years old.

So she was going to break the record.

So we lived in a three story, three level with the basement house.

I just like made chains nonstop up and down her four story house.

So she made that chain long enough to go all the way, all down the stairs and all over.

Yeah, that was the start of it.

That's how she started.

And that was the only thing I taught her.

The rest is on her.

Right now it's just one, one, two, three, 4 or 5.

Over and over is the part that I'm at.

Yeah.

At first she would do like crochet beanies, caps and just little animals.

She made me a little animal and she made up the pattern.

She didn't.

Yeah.

She just does it.

I like the idea of making stuff that is accessible, like affordable.

So then that just evolved into this.

Well, we're inside of my, new installation called The Tangled Self at the Denver Art Museum.

It's giant, crazy, super colorful fiber art installation.

And that represents our inner monsters as well as the positive aspects of ourselves.

She just went way beyond any of my capabilities in I think it was 2021.

I did my first really big yarn installation, at spectral Art Artspace.

Picture Arts Space is a gallery and an immersive experience in Denver on South Broadway.

One of the staff members at the Art museum had actually visited spectra, and it was not one.

That installation was up.

They just kind of came and saw one of our immersive and then reach out to me and interviewed me just to kind of like, I don't know, kind of vibe, check it with me and like, all that.

And they kind of told me about all these like different opportunities that they had here for artists and specifically told me about the Precor area and how they wanted something that was interactive and immersive and, how much they loved the immersive that spectra.

And then they said I could do it.

I was like trying to think of like, different things to do.

And then I was like, you need to follow your heart.

You want to do fiber art.

So it was kind of like the first time in ten years where I did my art just for my art.

That wasn't a part of spectra.

Almost a year ago today is when I kind of, like, really started.

We met in this phase, and then it really took off from there.

And I did the full plan and.

I started crocheting, and I was so delighted that she asked me to make the little leaves for the vines.

It was like an average of like 12 hours a day, I would say, of either crocheting or, tufting.

So pretty much nonstop.

When I'm crocheting, it's not my hands or like my wrist.

Like most people think it's my back and like my neck.

It's like spinal stuff.

I didn't realize, like, crocheting that much and like that often and consistently, like daily.

What a toll it actually takes on your body.

It's actually like a very physically.

I don't I don't know if demanding is the right word, but, yeah, I went through some like, chronic pain just because of, like, sitting and like just the position that I was in.

So I think that was like the hardest part was just getting through the, the pain and figuring out how to say, I actually bought like four new chairs during this project to try and figure out, like, the best way to sit, because I wasn't used to sitting that much, especially when I was like working in spectra.

It would be like two three days in the studio if I was lucky.

And then I'm standing all day at spectra.

When I first started college, I was a psych major, so I did three years of psychology in college before I switched to art.

That is really what inspired the concept behind this and then personal experience to I Crochet monsters, because there's a lot of freedom in crocheting a monster, because it doesn't have to look like anything specifically.

And it's fun and it can be silly, and it's a silly way to represent something that can be dark.

Like they're named after what I was dealing with at the time, in a way.

So, like when I was making Defeated the Dragon, I think there was like, I can't remember exactly, but I remember feeling defeated and then being like, okay, I'm going to make a dragon.

But I just remember feeling that feeling, and it's like a very human thing to, like, kill these feelings and you're not alone if you feel them.

It helped me, like, deal with it so much, just like making it.

And I was like, oh, that wasn't so bad.

I'm like, I'm not defeated.

I I'm resilient.

I can make it through this, you know?

A lot of them were kind of like what I was dealing with at the time that I was making them, and that's where their names came from.

My group from where I live all went, and they were just all amazed.

When I build immersive experiences, whether it's this one or the ones at spectra, I really want them to be accessible and I really want them to be inclusive.

I don't build these things for adults, for kids, for rich people, or middle class or poor people or like, I don't build them for specific people.

I build them so that they can be interacted with or enjoyed by everybody.

Her tangled self is very just.

It's just good.

Makes people think.

But in high school, I had this mindset that art wasn't like what you go to school for?

I'm selling my art for a living.

I'm doing pop up art shows like I'm literally doing this.

Why wouldn't I go to school for it?

So I think the signs are always there, but I think it took me taking that 3D art class and that art history class to realize like, oh dude, you're doing this, like, and this is everything that you love in school.

Art history is psychology, sociology, anatomy, theology.

It's like all these things and history.

I loved all of it.

And and philosophy, it's like all in one.

This is what you want to do.

You're already doing it.

She's my idol.

Really she is.

I'm very proud of her.

If people like come in, then they're like, oh, I'm so inspired by like, you're immersive.

Like I'm going to go home and like, do something in my art or like the art here.

Just made me want to go home and paint.

It's like, that's amazing.

So if we can inspire you to create in any capacity because it is a very healing thing if you let it be.

That that's amazing.

Conceptual.

I hope that people come in and know that if they are feeling some of these like negative feelings, that they're not alone, and then maybe like icing on the cake, they feel like they are worthy or enough or resilient or any of that, or loved or any of those things that can just like maybe they needed to hear that, and then they leave feeling like they did.

When you can do something you love and hopefully make living at it, that's success.

The Tangled Self exhibit is happening right now at the Denver Art Museum.

For more information, you can visit Denver Art museum.org.

And for more information on safety and her work, you can go to her website at spectra artspace.com.

Season one of Colorado Sound Stage takes us on a musical journey of live performances at some stunning venues across Colorado.

This PBS 12 original series showcases one of Colorado's most iconic rock bands, Big Head Todd and the monsters at Red Rocks Amphitheater.

We leave you tonight with their performance, which features beloved songs like Bittersweet and Broken Hearted Savior.

We also got the backstage scoop from the entire band about their last four decades together.

Thanks for joining us for studio 12.

Don't forget to follow us on social media and on YouTube.

And we look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday night at eight.

I'm Bosie Kainani and I'm Ryan Hare.

Have a great week.

Early success is really difficult psychologically for young people, especially for me.

I was very poorly equipped to.

To have that much, scrutiny and pressure and, you know, the, the the process of making records.

Our first record, sister Sweetly, was difficult, painful process because, producers are very commercial in that they want to edge you in ways that you resist.

I, I'm a blues lover and, and one of the things that's so fascinating to me about blues is that it's a, it's about passing a tradition on, and, you know, sort of like, a culinary tradition is about passing these certain ingredients, for people to digest and enjoy.

And that has a, to me, that's a joy thing to do.

But, above and beyond that, I think culture is just every art is so important.

And I don't think art, the importance of art isn't to preach to people or tell them what the answers are, what the function of it is, is to create, the environment where, insight can break through.

So we're not I'm not forcing an insight on somebody.

But if I did my job well, you know, there might be something you see in the song that reflects your life or that's universal, you know, and it's human.

So those are the big things to me about, that give me purpose about what I do personally.

Bittersweet.

I'm not that good rolling some some similar kind of story.

And, you know, I'll just also, just as a confession, I had a event where some buddies of mine went to the Anastasia ruins, and I was probably 19 or so, and we had some mushrooms, and I wrote like three songs that day, and Brokenhearted Savior was one of them.

Bittersweet was another one.

I don't care who finds out about that.

I mean, that's a I was searching for inspiration in whatever it takes.

That's funny.

I don't think I've ever heard you guys haven't heard that.

Yeah, well, I remember that trip.

You.

But I didn't know that those songs.

Yeah.

It was.

Todd writes a lot of song, and we're fortunate.

He's a great songwriter.

He writes a lot.

So this is bittersweet.

And.

I know.

This.

You.

A little I was in her bedroom, and, she dances on the train.

She.

Not so far.

I just.

Brighten meadows, mountain sunsets.

I blow your brains.

And she can't sing.

What?

You're.

Thinking like.

No, I'm not like.

I hung up, nothing up love.

No, no.

It's bittersweet.

Your sweet bit bitter.

Bittersweet.

It's a bittersweet.

It's brown.

It's bittersweet.

My sweet and written the time.

Sweet and bittersweet.

It's from the.

Set.

I'm older now.

I work in Littleton.

We live together.

But it's different than my dream.

Than love fills the room I rest.

She pretends she's sleeping I will never find the one to.

Thank you love one I'm.

Love, love, love, love love love love love and, Love.

It's bittersweet.

What's with the big time?

It's hard and sweet.

Should bittersweet.

Sweet love.

Me.

It's bittersweet.

My sweet.

Never meant to be bitter and sweet.

It's bitter sweet.

Surrender, baby.

And.

Me.

Baby.

You, me and you.

Me.

You.

You.

Do you sort of know?

We don't talk about it.

We don't tell each other all the little things that would mean.

We walk away around each other.

I. There's a tremble, and we as a tremble and the breeze as a tremor.

And.

The chance to be its bitter sweet.

My sweet and bitter.

Bitter and sweet.

It's bitter sweet.

Surrender.

Which bitter sweet?

No, sweet.

An entire.

Bitter and sweet.

It's a bitter sweet surrender.