Straight From the Mouth

(salsa, merengue, bachata), and of course your CHR which is like us at Mega 107.5 in Dallas, we play the hottest and newest pop songs from Pitbull, JLO, Enrique Iglesias, Romeo, Shakira etc. In the major markets I believe that Spanish radio has as many genres as English Radio does and the demand is high because we are becoming more and more eclectic as a society. It's not like before, where people just stuck to one station all day, people flip around to different genres until something grabs their attention, people simply expect more!

How about show prep. Where do you get most of your material?

Show prep is awesome, I get most of my material from everyday life, my amazing producer Juan and Co-hosts Ana and Micho, but most importantly from our listeners. Our listeners are the start of our show and we get tons of our content through text, facebook!, and phonelines. We then develop the story line and create our different angles! Also, my friends and family know that when something happens to them and they confess it to me it may be on the radio the next day as a topic and or skit, so it's known that they have to put a disclaimer at the end or beginning of their story if they don't want it on the air!

How about guests. Do you shoot for many of the same mainstream celebrities such as American Idol contestants, William Levy etc as other pop stations? Or, do you tend bring on mostly musical guests or artists that identify with Mega?

We focus more and our core artists as guests. I believe that you have to be extremely careful with interviews and you can't be too niche with who you bring on the air, ever sense ppm we have gotten a lot more cautious of who comes on air, how long they're on for and what we speak about, which we should have been doing since the diary world but now ppm really raises the expectations and I love it! At the end of the day as long as it's funny, relevant and simple to the point the interview will do well!

When you have on guests that don't speak Spanish, does someone on the show serve as interpreter or do you handle it yourself?

I handle that myself, and sometimes we don't translate everything

Let's talk about the show. Who else is on with you in mornings?

I have my workaholic producer Juan who brings ear candy and ambiance to the show and my awesome Single mom co-host, Ana who represents the core of our station and the unfiltered off-the wall wanna-be playboy, Micho Rizzo who you will either love or hate but will always make you laugh!

How do you and your crew prepare for each day's show?

We are on live from 6-10am we eat lunch together from 10-11am and relax, unwind and joke around in the CBS studio kitchen. From 11am to 2p we pre-record certain segments, pranks and interviews. Monday's are our big brainstorm days for the rest of the week, but we always leave room for adjustments, so that the show is organic, but it helps that we have our benchmarks that way we know what we are working towards when we brainstorm, prep and produce. Once we're home, from 5 to 7p we all go online, watch dvr gossip shows and email each other the most relevant stories that we discovered. We then arrive an hour before the show and discuss the stories we sent to each other while we warm up and wake up together! It's important that each morning before the show begins we build a fun environment and we start the communication amongst us, it's like a warm up lap, because you don't want to do the warm up lap once the race starts, more than likely you'll end up losing.

Which other show(s) in Dallas do you compete with most?

It's an honor and a pleasure, that two years into my morning show career I get to share audience with Kidd Kraddick (English CHR), Piolin por la manana (syndicated from LA-Regional Mexican), and Don Cheto (Syndicated from LA-Regional Mexican).

Give us a snap-shot of some of your favorite things, bits, promotions, etc. you've done on the air?

Our best bits revolve around our audience speaking about a certain experience, whether it is funny, drama filled or simply just weird! They are the stars of the show. It's important to me, to produce and execute a show where the audience is the star because that's where entertainment is at it's best, just look at Youtube, facebook and the success of reality shows, people are really into themselves! Obviously, our job is to guide them, create angles and position their content in a FUNNY, Relevant and simple manner!

One of my favorite interview bits with celebrities is that I ask 3 questions from the US Citizenship test and if they pass we play their single if not, oh well. It's really funny to se them genuinely stress and struggle with the questions, even the assimilated artists! The point of it, is to empower our Latino community to become citizens, vote and become a prominent voice in our Country.

Where would you like to see the show in 5 years?

God, willing across the nation! Syndication is not something that you should rush into. The good news is that I am surrounded by very talented people like Brian Purdy (GM), Pio Ferro (VP of Spanish Programming), my morning crew and a company like Cbs Radio that truly believes in letting talent do their ìthingî! I focus on doing my best everyday here in Dallas, because every second counts in this PPM world and I know that God has a plan to prosper me in His time.

Your e-mail signature is "Your very own radio reality show, Latino style. How so?

Very simple, every bit on our show has to do with our audience, they're the stars and their life is our content!

Given the growth of bi-lingual Americans, do you envision the day when a Spanish stations and English speaking alike transcend its content to offer more language diversity?

I think that this has already happened in major markets, we speak Spanglish (English mixed with Spanish) at times and there are stations all across America that flip back and forth (Spanish-English) without thinking about it, it's just representative of our Pop culture today! Simply take a peak at the hottest things right now Modern family (Sofia Vergara) ìDWTSî (William Levy), Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull being featured on everybody and their grandma's song, if you think he's on a ridiculous amount of English pop songs? You should tune into Spanish, haha!

Growing up in LA where there were many top personalities on both Spanish and English speaking stations, who were the jocks that inspired you most)?

What a blessing it was to grow up in LA and listen to amazing talent be creative and go above and beyond in the Diary world when they could actually talk! Big Boy, Rick Dees , Humberto Luna, Piolin, Cucuy, JoJo on the radio, Kevin and Bean, Tom Leykis, Phil Hendrie and many more, good times!

What was it like to take home your first Marconi Award?

It was very funny, because security at the Chicago Airport freaked out once they saw a pointy triangular figure in my suitcase, hahaha it got me a nice body search! On a serious note, it was an amazing Blessing, honor and humbling experience to have shared that award with our CBS Radio Dallas team. It has motivated me to keep learning and keep trying to reach my full potential as a community servant leader and on-air talent. My mom was so excited when I called her she said ìmijo I'm soo happy that you got the MAC-ARONI award!î I then, broke down the correct pronunciation for her and expressed that I work to be my best everyday to make sure that her and my dad's sacrifice of immigrating into this great country was not done in vain. The Marconi Award further confirmed that this is God's calling for me in my life and I'm Blessed to be able to do what I love every day, even if I have to wake up at 4amÖPero no me aguito eh! (It's all good). Que viva la radio!

Final question: Casper Smart -- Jennifer's new boyfriend. Yes or no?

I give him props! We have already met the friendliest ghost, but now we have met the SMARTEST Ghost, 25 and chillin with JLO, good move Casper!

Any talk of syndication?

Yes, when and how that will happen is still to be determined. I believe that it will happen organically.