L.A.'s Mega 96.3 Launches New Morning Show

L.A.-based bilingual radio station Mega 96.3 launched “The RaqC and Nachin Show” on Monday. The premiere of the new morning show featured guest appearances by Chiquis Rivera and Taboo from the Black Eyes Peas.



RaqC (real name: Raquel Cordova) calls herself "The Queen of Spanglish Media" and hails from Riverside. She launched her radio career in Palm Springs in 2000, before moving to Chicago. Back here she spent 8 years at Latino 96.3 (now Mega 96.3) is one of the stars of Mun2's reality show “Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and RaqC.” She also appears on NuVo TV's "The Collective." Nachin (real name: Ignacio Sandoval) was born in Mexico and raised in Boyle Heights. He started his radio career in 2000 as an intern.

Radio Ratings: Two Spanish Shows Take Morning Radio By Storm

KROQ's Kevin & Bean Show was once again No. 1 in April among listeners 12+ (a streak it has kept up from the beginning of the year) with a 4.7 share of the Los Angeles market audience, according to Nielsen Audio. Kevin & Bean are also No. 1 with adults 25-54 (6.4 share) for the sixth book in a row.



But it appears that change is afoot in morning radio, led by two rapidly rising Spanish-language radio stations: KSCA-FM and KXOS-FM. "El Bueno, La Mala y El Feo" ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"), the new morning show on KSCA "LA 101.9," was No. 2 in April, averaging a 4.5 share among listeners 12+. It's been a great recovery for KSCA, which had slumped at the end of last year after previous host Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo exited.

Experiencing an even more dramatic rise is KXOS-FM "Exitos 93.9," which was not a player at all in the mornings until the arrival of El Mandril, who was previously at KLAX. KXOS scored a 4.2 share in April -- compared to the 0.6 it posted in December. (KLAX, on the flip side, went from No. 1 for most of last year in morning drive to 24th place for much of this year so far.)

KIIS' Ryan Seacrest was No. 1 with adults 18-34, with a 7.1 share.

In overall 6 a.m. to midnight listening, KIIS-FM was No. 1 in people 12+, with a 5.1 share, followed by KBIG "My 104.3" (4.9), KRTH "K-Earth 101" (4.8), KPWR "Power 106" (4.5) and KOST-FM (4.5).

KPWR was tops with adults 18-34 (8.7) and KBIG was No. 1 with 25-54 (5.6).

There were so many major changes in this book -- KPCC's online stream even posted a decent number, even though it never showed up in the book until now. Did Nielsen Audio overhaul its Los Angeles sample in the past month?

L.A. Radio Notes: Changes for Madeleine Brand, Kennedy and El Mandril

>> Our pals at KCRW take the wraps off their new daily Madeleine Brand show, "Press Play," this Monday at noon. The show "will explore the world through the lens of Los Angeles. It will combine Madeleine’s distinct voice, intelligence and warm sense of humor with an eclectic mix of guests to offer new ideas and unique perspectives on everything from politics and science to entertainment and art," says KCRW general manager Jennifer Ferro. Listen to the pilot episode below:



>> Kennedy is out and "The Woody Show" is in at KYSR-FM "Alt 98.7." Details from RadioInfo.com:

The change is set to take place on April 21 when “The Woody Show” featuring Woody, Ravey, Menace and Greg Gory takes over the 6:00 am to 10:00 am slot currently held down by Lisa Kennedy Montgomery’s “Music in the Morning with Kennedy” show.

The station says in a statement, “The foursome are real life friends, who are having fun, raw, honest conversations about things happening in the world – they will reunite on ALT 98.7 for the first time since 2009, when they were a top-rated morning show in San Francisco. Since then, Woody and Ravey have hosted the #1 morning show in St. Louis, while Menace and Gory each anchor separate successful shows in San Francisco."

CCM+E vice president of programming Los Angeles Andrew Jeffries says, "'The Woody Show' is here to wake the market up with their unique friendship, driven by a cast of characters coming from a diverse range of backgrounds all finding a common sense of humor, love of communicating with listeners and desire to entertain."

>> The Los Angeles Times reports that "El Mandril," a.k.a. Ricardo Sanchez, has switched radio stations. He's moving to KXOS-FM (93.9).

More from the newspaper:

The station KXOS is part-owned and managed by the Mexico City broadcasting company Grupo Radio Centro.

"First I achieved the American dream of having success in the United States, and now I can achieve the Mexican dream of triumphing with the strongest radio company in Mexico," Sanchez wrote in Spanish in his Facebook message.

Until this month, the former janitor whose "El Mandril" radio nickname means the Baboon, had been affiliated with Spanish Broadcasting System's KLAX 97.9 FM, which brands itself as "La Raza."

In November, amid contentious contract negotiations and allegations of ratings manipulation, Spanish Broadcasting yanked Sanchez from its airwaves.

The Miami-based company would not comment on the situation. However, several radio sources, including Sanchez's manager, confirmed that Nielsen was investigating allegations that someone associated with Sanchez's show had contacted members of the audience panel in Los Angeles that Nielsen used to generate its local ratings.

L.A.'s Fascinating New Top 40 Radio Station

One of the more interesting radio experiments in Los Angeles is currently taking place on KXOS-FM "Exitos 93.9." The station is Spanish-language, but the music is all English-language top 40 hits. It reminds me of traveling abroad and listening to the radio overseas (hey, I'm a geek) and hearing familiar U.S. top 40 songs coupled with announcers in other languages. If anything, the top 40 music mix on Exitos 93.9 appears to be a bit more adventurous than KIIS-FM of KAMP-FM (Amp Radio 97.1). Ross on Radio's Sean Ross writes about how unique this new station is:

Launched in 2009 as a broad-based Latin pop station, Exitos flipped last month to English-language hits with a Spanish-language presentation, the first major mainland U.S. attempt at the format for 25 years. For much of the day, it's mostly rhythmic-leaning pop that you'd hear on rivals KIIS (102.7) or KAMP (Amp 97.1), although the differences are telling. Once or twice per hour, there are international hits that most U.S. listeners don't know-"Saturday Night" by Whigfield or "New York City Boy" by the Pet Shop Boys.

And when Exitos carries Alfa morning man Tono Esquinca until 11 a.m, that same music is punctuated by stretches of alternative rock that never crossed over to top 40 in the United States. So P!nk, Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson are followed by Keane's "Is It Any Wonder?," U2's "Vertigo" and the Black Keys' "Gold on the Ceiling." At one point last Thursday morning (Nov. 22), "Love of the Common People" by Paul Young showed up.

The Mexican radio formula for English-language top 40 has always been more open than its U.S. counterpart to heritage artists, deeper library, more dance music (unaffected by its boom/bust cycles to the north) and more alternative crossover-even better if an artist combines dance and alternative.

Here's a sample playlist:



It's a novelty right now to hear English songs after a Spanish voice, but for the two Blogger Kids, both of whom are in Spanish immersion classrooms, it's a way to expose them to the language while listening to familiar music.