AtSaddlebackHighin Santa Ana, Sotelo was a student who couldn’t sit still, a joker who would get kicked out a lot except during theater class. But he was serious about getting into radio, and he tells his story of how he got started like it’s a creation myth.

Sotelo started out taking food and drinks to the local deejays in Santa Ana in hopes of getting his foot in the door. Then, he was getting a haircut one day in 1991 when a family member ran over to tell him that a small station in Corona wanted to interview him for a job. He borrowed a car and got to the station at around 10 p.m. There, the program director asked Sotelo how much experience he had. Sotelo, who had none, lied and said lots. The program director asked Sotelo if he could do news. Of course, he said, even though he had no idea how to do news, or anything else in radio, for that matter.

“So he told me to come back at 5 a.m. I had no family in Corona and knew no one, so I slept in the car, which I parked right next to the radio station, and freshened up at a nearby lake in the morning,” he says.

He screwed up the news, but the station saw his determination to learn radio and they gave him a midnight–to–2 a.m. gig. He played music and talked to callers. It wasn’t the greatest, but he was learning. However, when the station learned he didn’t have a green card, Sotelo was fired. He went to Radio Laser in Oxnard and then was offered a morning gig at the Super X in Sacramento. It was the opportunity he always wanted — to show off his comedy skills. Before long, Sotelo’s show started to give the rival stations competition. In response, Sotelo says, a competitor began to investigate him. One day when he finished doing his show, immigration officers were waiting for him outside the studio.

“I had a fake green card. I had applied for immigration, but they didn’t qualify me,” he recounts. “So I had to get fake papers. They handcuffed me at the studio; they treated me like a criminal. My intentions were only to work and help.”

Sotelo says the immigration officers felt sorry for him, even apologized for what they were doing, but he was still given 30 days to leave the country. He thought about going to another state and starting over, but his co-workers told him, “No, they’d find you.” He left demoralized, thinking his life was over and wondering what he’d tell his parents, who had followed him to the U.S. and were living in Riverside. “I couldn’t tell them the truth,” he says. “I told them I was on vacation.”

Next thing he knew, he was recycling cans and cardboard for money. “When they were going to deport me, I had appointments in San Francisco,” he says, “so when I drove up the 5 freeway and came to those big hills, I would turn the car off and coast down to save on gas. I had no money.”

The day of his deportation, he went before the judge and told him the truth: He was only here to work and help his family with their house payments. The judge asked him where his family was. Sotelo had told them to wait outside because he didn’t want them to see him in this state. Sotelo says the judge, like the immigrations officers, was sympathetic but had no choice. Sotelo was handcuffed and shuffled off to an exit where his family would not see him.

“At that moment I prayed hard. I asked God to do what was best for my life,” he remembers, his voice turning from lyrical to emotional. “As the bailiffs were carrying me out, someone came up to me and asked, ‘Are you Mr. Sotelo? Here’s your work permit.’ I couldn’t believe it. I started crying. Right there my faith strengthened, and I said, ‘I’m going to help people.’ ”



Likehisidol,Mexican comedian Luis De Alba, Piolín strives to entertain the masses. But lowbrow humor is only half the story. Community involvement is what sets locutoreslike Piolín apart from their English-language counterparts. They help their listeners with immigration issues, financial crises, illness and legal troubles. While the crew pulls morning bromas,a 22-year-old distraught pregnant woman calls in crying about her male partner, who has left her to raise the child on her own. She’s scared about raising her child without any financial help. Piolín and his crew try to comfort the woman and give her options. If worst comes to worst, she can receive Women, Infants and Children benefits, they tell her. Listeners call in and offer the woman financial help. During another show, Piolín has set up a surprise telephone call between Julio Ramos, an Army MP stationed in Iraq, and his mother, wife and son. The reunion becomes an emotional event, with Piolín now playing the part of Oprah.

On a different day, the laughs turn to politics as Piolín and crew break down Arizona’s Proposition 200, an initiative that would have state, county and municipal employees immediately start reporting suspected undocumented immigrants who seek public benefits. Mothers call in and talk about being afraid to take their children to school or to get shots for their kids. Piolín brings in a reporter from LaOpiniónwho’s written on the subject to discuss the prop and to reassure mothers of what the law could and could not do. Then, Piolín sends a shout-out to a car wash in Phoenix, where a Mexican family is asking for financial help to transport their father back to Sonora to get a proper burial. The show also seeks help from a variety of nonprofit organizations and professionals, including doctors who counsel on relationships and sex.

“If people need help, we help them. If someone needs a transplant, we try to find a donor and help them. We try to get people off drugs. Anything we can. We have a great family; everyone who listens to us is part of the family. It’s a balance of entertaining people but always helping people,” says Piolín.

Listeners have a relationship with these locutoresthat typically runs deeper than in English-language radio. Many in the community consider Piolín part of the family — the day I went to interview him, a Mexican man waited in the lobby to invite him to his daughter’s birthday party. Piolín even finds time to play soccer at the local park with some of his listeners after his morning shift on Saturdays.

A look at the demographics of Piolín’s listenership helps explain the closeness between jock and audience. An Arbitron study showed that at 18.4 percent of the market share, Mexican Regional, which is Piolín’s station’s format, is by far the favorite Spanish-language format among Hispanic listeners, particularly in the morning. What is Mexican Regional? Norteñoslike Lalo Mora’s “Aguanta Corazón” (Mora recently came on Piolín’s show and downed a bottle of Salvadoran liquor), Banda el Recordo de Don Cruz Lizarraga’s “El Sinaloense,” and Corrido classics like Antonio Aguilar’s “Lamberto Quintero.” Mexican Regional music accounts for more than half of all Spanish-language record sales in the U.S. — selling almost four times as much as all the “Tropical” styles put together. This is not Gloria Estefan, or salsa; this is ranchomusic, straight working-class. Consider the Mexican Regional makeup: More than 55 percent have household incomes under $25,000 per year. Fifty-one percent have not completed high school. Nineteen percent have gone beyond high school to attend college. Mexican Regional listeners are 15 percent less likely than the general Hispanic population to own their own homes. They are the ones most likely to have children in the household, and when they have a problem, they look to the radio for help.

“That’s one of the secrets of its success,” says Jackie Madrigal, Latin Formats editor for the trade journal Radio&Records.“Hispanics, by nature and culture, are very family oriented, and even when they become assimilated to the ‘American’ way of life, they will always be Hispanics first. Those who listen to Spanish-language radio do it for a number of reasons, but one of the most important is that the language and the music make them feel closer to who they are. When Hispanics come to this country, they never forget about the countries they left behind, and radio is a way to feel close to those countries, whether it be Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, etc. It’s the nostalgia factor. So when radio is community oriented, Hispanics get attached and consider their favorite radio station, or radio personality for that matter, part of their family. And they depend on them for all sorts of things, just as you would a family member.”

During a morning talk segment, one of the callers gets emotional and starts to cuss, bleep after bleep. One of Piolín’s crew members, Jorge Velásquez, busts out a bullhorn and tells the caller to please show respect and refrain from using bad words. “If you want to cuss go to another station,” he tells him. Then, the Cock,Cock,BOOM!sound effect.

Perhaps he was taking a jab at Piolin’s main rival, Renán Almendárez Coello, known as “El Cucuy” (“The Boogey Man”). El Cucuy has held the top spot in Spanish-language radio for as long as anyone can remember. With his Tropa Loca (“Crazy Crew”), El Cucuy is considered the Howard Stern of Spanish-language radio, and just like Howard he’s been under the watchful eyes of the FCC for sexual content and what some consider raunchy talk radio. Piolín took over the morning slot when El Cucuy moved to the afternoon, and then took over the top ratings spot when El Cucuy bolted La Nueva for rival La Raza KLAX-FM (97.9) — reportedly after fighting with management over issues of content and compensation for his crew.

Here is an example of an El Cucuy skit:



Harp sound effects set the mood.

Narrator’s voice: “A husband comes home and finds a man naked in his bedroom, with his wife nowhere to be found.” He asks, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the fumigator. I’m here to take care of the termites,” he responds.

The husband asks, “Why are you naked?”

“Oh my god,” says the fumigator, “the termites must have ate my clothes.”

Cue laugh track.



El Cucuy says his comedy is based on picardía,a popular form of Latin humor based on wordplay and double-entendres. As a general rule, no cuss words are allowed on morning radio, especially since a lot of children listen to the shows, but that doesn’t mean Spanish slang words like babosoor güey(both meaning “idiot”) aren’t used.

“I don’t think Spanish-language radio is more raunchy than English-language radio. The difference is that the use of double-entendre is part of the culture, and some personalities rely on it,” says Madrigal. “And then you also have to consider that while we all speak Spanish, we don’t speak the same Spanish. There are significant differences in the way we use certain words, the meaning we give them, or the way we perceive them depending on which Spanish-speaking country we come from — even if the Spanish dictionary gives a universal definition for a word. If you don’t know the differences, you may be speaking to a Mexican just fine, while saying a word that is insulting to a Puerto Rican or Argentinean, for example, and not even know it.”

El Cucuy, who is from Honduras, is also deeply committed to helping out the community. Recently a woman called in to El Cucuy to thank him for helping her move in to an apartment after her house burned down, and for buying her a new recámara(bedroom set) and giving her unaestufa(a stove). Throughout the call, she repeats, “Gracias aDiós.”El Cucuy also hosts community events like free diabetes screenings and even has his own foundation, “La Fundación El Cucuy” (www.cucuy.org), which, among other things, raises millions of dollars for charity and helps Central Americans build homes.

“I have much respect for El Cucuy,” says Piolín. “He is a teacher of the microphone. He has done a lot to help the community. Also opening up doors for people like me.”

Wearing a beige Calvin Klein sweater, Eddie Sotelo stands in his studio before a poster that reads, “Piolín porlamañana.Elshow#1enelpais.”Changing the landscape of Los Angeles and national radio has been a long, hard road but Piolín hasn’t forgotten.

He signs off each show with his signature mantra:

“¿A quevenimosalosEstadosUnidos?[Why do we come to the United States?]”

“A triunfar![To triumph!]” his crew and listeners respond.

Hard work, determination, faith and the will to triumph — this is something one can understand in any language.

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