CULTURE MIX - He's not alone in his love for Latin jazz - KJZZ host José Rizo finds fans five days a week on the air -- and with a Side group.

Like most employees caught in a change of management, longtime DJ José Rizo worried about his future when a new boss took over earlier this year at L.A.'s only full-time jazz station, KJZZ-FM (88.1). What would it mean for his 17-year run as host of "Jazz on the Latin Side," a weekly show spotlighting the best in Latin jazz from across the world? Rizo, 50, worried that his program might lose its prime Friday night slot. Then he took a call from the station's new general manager, Saul Levine.

"I want to shock L.A.," Rizo remembers his new boss saying.

"How are you going to do that -- take my show away?" countered the affable announcer with the mellifluous voice.

"No, I want to have Latin jazz every day, not just once a week," said Levine.

In a move some considered broadcast folly, the show went daily and moved to the afternoon drive-time slot, from 5 to 7 p.m. Putting an ethnic program in prime time was a gamble that even Levine came to question when some listeners started to complain about an overdose of Latin jazz. "I had faith in this," Levine told me this week, "and sure enough when the ratings started to come out, they showed that 'Jazz on the Latin Side' daily is one of the most listened to programs in L.A., and is probably the foremost program on KJZZ in terms of audience."

Rizo, who's also the station's interim program director, says he doesn't like to brag about his success.

People seem to genuinely like this soft-spoken former engineer with a salt-and-pepper goatee who works by day coaching math teachers in an L.A. public school. He also serves as manager and den mother for a band that was generated from a jam session on the 10th anniversary of his program in January 2000. The Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars have been recording and performing ever since, featuring some of the area's top players, including Poncho Sanchez, Alex Acuña and a recent addition on drums, Marvin "Smitty" Smith from "The Tonight Show" band. On Tuesday, Smitty hustled over from the talk-show taping to join the All Stars for a free concert in the courtyard of Hollywood & Highland Center, the mall adjacent to the Kodak Theatre. It was more like a family reunion than a gig, as musicians and fans greeted the radio personality with backslaps, hand clasps and calls of, "Hey, my man."