JOSE MASSO & ART LABOE: TWO PROGRAM HOSTS WHO REACH THE MOST ISOLATED AMONG US

Jose Masso

Image courtesy WBUR

Two veteran audio producers and radio hosts are sending out messages of love.

 Jose Masso is the host of Con Salsa! on WBUR in Boston. and 

Art Laboe the host of The Art Laboe Connection on KDAY in Los Angeles.

They have sounthinf have something in common. Both reach people in prison and their families.

Masso has hosted Con Salsa! [link] for over 35-years. His weekly show airs on WBUR Saturday overnights from 10pm to 3am. During the four-hour shift, Masso plays a spicy mix of salsa and Afro-Latino tunes mixed with a community forum for families to communicate with their loved ones in prison.

http://legacy.wbur.org/programs/consalsa

Masso has hosted several trips to Cuba on behalf of WBUR. His Citizens of the World Tours can no longer travel to Cuba.

On Con Salsa! Masso plays the hits – songs people really, really want to hear – such as Victor Manuelle’s  Adoración and Eddie Palmieri’s Slowvisor. It’s a voice from home.

At specific times during his show, Masso reads letters from Spanish-speaking inmates. This service has become a vital lifeline for the imprisoned because email and web chats are not allowed.

Doing Con Salsa! has been Masson’s passion since he volunteered at WBUR while working as a high school teacher in Boston.

He came to Boston in 1973 from his native San Juan, Puerto Rico. Masso is now in his 70s. He has served the community and supported himself as a Sports agent, a TV news reporter, an educator and philanthropy.

In Boston you might hear the phrase “José, if not the most visible Latino in Boston, is the most audible.”

I WANT TO BE LIKE ART LABOE WHEN I GROW UP

We were happy to read in the Orange County Register [link] that Art Laboe is still on the air in sunny LA at the age of 95.

Now Art hosts the Art Laboe Connection on KDAY 93.5 FM [link] Sunday evening from 6pm to Midnight. 

The show is a mixture of blasts from the past and very personal dedications, some from inmates and their families.

Though we've never met LaBoe, he has a reputation for being an innovator and excellent strategic thinking. Laboe is often called the creator of "dedications" - what happens when listeners request a song and make a dedication to someone or something they love. LaBoe first stated doing dedications when he worked at KSAN-AM in San Francisco in 1943.

Art Laboe on the air at KDAY

Laboe is famous in LA for his live radio broadcasts from drive-in restaurants in in the 1950s and 1960s on KRLA.

His live shows were attended by many black and white teenagers. They were controversial at the time but LaBoe kept spreading the love

Recently the Art Laboe Connection received this message and a dedication from a local woman that said:

 “Babe, I want you to know I love you more than the distance between us.”

She dedicated “God Blessed Our Love” by Al Green to her husband in prison.  He heard it.