Disc jockey Chita will emcee the Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands.

Chita is the KLPX (96.1-FM) assistant program director and music director, and she hosts the afternoon drive weekdays from 2 to 7 p.m.

Chita grew up in a musical family in West Virginia and was a DJ at her college radio station at West Virginia University. She moved to Tucson 10 years ago to be an independent music promoter for college radio, but missed being on air. She worked at several stations before landing the gig at KLPX five years ago.

Since coming to Tucson, Chita has hosted the TAMMIES, Fall Crawl, Club Crawl and the Great Cover Up. She created and then hosted "Live and Local with Chita" for more than two years, which included a Web site, a radio element and a feature on KTTU-TV on the local music scene.

She emceed the first Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands in 2003.

"It takes a lot of dedication to learn an instrument well enough to get up there and perform," she said. "I would like people who don't have children in music programs to know that it's still a cool thing to come out and see."

She'll emcee this year's battle Feb. 10 at the Rialto Theatre. Each band will perform a 15-minute or three-song set of original material, and Chita will talk with the bands between sets.

The event's judges include KXCI's (91.3-FM) "Locals Only" host Don Jennings; local singer/songwriter and self-recorder Leila Lopez; Hear's Music owner Britton Dornquast; the Sweat Band drummer Jake Bergeron; and Amy Rude, a singer/songwriter who is writing her master's-in-education thesis on girls in music. Pop-rock trio Japanesian Barbie, which won last year's Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands, will open the show and then guitarist/backing vocalist Travis Michalak will help judge this year's finalists.

The judges will score the bands on elements such as overall sound quality, technical skills and competence, entertainment value, originality and creativity, and songwriting ability displayed in music and/or lyrics.

The top-scoring band will receive a prize package that includes a day on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a state-of-the-art recording studio. Professional producers and engineers will help the band record a song and make a video for it.

"I remember the first time I was on the bus, I was like, 'Wow, this is really cool,' " Chita said. "I don't know if people grasp what a cool opportunity it is for the kids. It's really great."

The Battle of the Bands finalists are:

● The Afrodelic Stegosaurchestra, Rincon High School

● Andrew Collberg, Catalina Foothills High School

● Charlie and Holden, Salpointe Catholic High School

● Kool Shades, Salpointe Catholic High School

● The Night Owls, Canyon del Oro High School

● The Shelves, University High School

● Talented by Mistake, Flowing Wells High School

Thirty-three bands representing 18 area high schools entered the Battle of the Bands, presented by USA Weekend magazine and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus and sponsored by AZNightBuzz.com. You can listen to the music they submitted at www.aznightbuzz.com.