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Morning Radio's Top Gun Speaks Spanish

If you want to listen to the most popular morning radio show in the United States — and get all the jokes — you'll need at least a basic understanding of Spanish.

Every morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. hundreds of thousands of radio listeners around the country listen to the top-rated "El Vacilon de la Mañana" (The Morning Party) to get their daily fix of comedy, song parodies, celebrity interviews and general mayhem.

Host Luis Jimenez, his co-host, Moonshadow, and a colorful crew of sidekicks interact in Spanish (and a little Spanglish) with a loyal audience whose often-outrageous calls are a pivotal part of the show.

The show originates out of Spanish Broadcasting System's WSKQ-FM, better known as New York's Mega 97.9 FM, and is syndicated in other markets including San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the New York Metropolitan area alone, 900,000 listeners tune in for an average of 5 hours and 45 minutes per week, according to the Spring 2006 Arbitron ratings.

Jimenez is delighted that the show is No. 1, but he also says it's a challenge.

"It feels great, it's because you've achieved something really big in the industry," he tells TheShowbuzz.com. "It's like being employee of the month if you work in a retail store, for example. It feels like something really nice, you accomplished something, but then you have the responsibility of not losing it. You want to stay there."

Because of the show's raunchy humor, "El Vacilon' is often compared to shock jock Howard Stern's morning show. It's a comparison that makes Jimenez bristle.

"The problem with our show is that there is only one comparison to it in the Anglo market — and it's not really a comparison — it's the Howard Stern Show. (It's) only because we're honest and that shocks a lot of people. … Our intention is not to shock, it's to make people laugh so that's the difference."

Before Stern's 2005 move to satellite radio, "El Vacilon" beat his show to No. 1 in the New York market more than once.

The popularity of the show has inspired Jimenez to expand the brand to other media. Their live shows at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York regularly sell out, they've released two comedy albums and they debuted their first feature film last year, "El Vacilon: The Movie." Jimenez said he wasn't happy with the film's distribution, but expects it to do well when it comes out on DVD this fall.

"El Vacilon's" long celebrity guest list includes Spanish-speaking personalities like Shakira, Jimmy Smits, Geraldo Rivera, Andy Garcia, and John Leguizamo. There have also been some good sports who braved sitting in the hot seat without speaking a word of Spanish, including Donald Trump, Dr. Ruth, Magic Johnson and Don King.

But the most important guests are the audience members who call in to talk about the "tema de hoy," or daily topic.

"The callers are the most important part of the show," said Jimenez. "We decide what we're going to talk about, but most of the things are sometimes so weird that none of us have had those experiences. So who do we count on? Our listeners. That's the good thing about having millions of listeners, if you have 4 million listeners; you have 4 million stories every day."

By Judy Faber

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