L.A.’s Top DJ: He’s Not Stern : Radio: KLAX’s morning host Juan Carlos Hidalgo mixes laughs, rancheras and a gentle ‘buenos dias’ to listeners. He topped former ratings king Howard Stern in the latest Arbitrons.

“Buenos dias, Los Angeles!”

Taking his cue from Robin Williams’ charismatic character in “Good Morning, Vietnam,” KLAX-FM (97.9) morning drive-time deejay Juan Carlos Hidalgo awakens the city’s Latino community at 5 a.m. with an amusing take on this greeting, which sets the humorous tone he takes with listeners for the next five hours.

“People don’t want to hear about problems and bad news first thing in the morning,” Hidalgo, 27, says in explaining his lighthearted approach. “We make them feel better about the things they face every day by simply making them laugh.”

The only one, it seems, who isn’t amused by Hidalgo these days is Howard Stern, whose syndicated show on KLSX-FM (97.1) was edged by KLAX in the most recent quarterly Arbitron ratings, for winter ’93. Hidalgo attracted 6.5% of the audience to Stern’s 6.3%.

This upset, which sent shock waves through the local radio market and the disbelieving Stern camp--just as happened three months earlier when KLAX itself had surged to the top of the ratings among stations--proved once and for all that KLAX’s combination of personalities with ranchera (country) and banda (wind instrument-oriented) music has made it L.A.’s most-listened-to spot on the radio dial.

Though never imagining such quick and resounding success for his show, which debuted last Aug. 3, Hidalgo attributes his lofty numbers to the casual and amusing approach he takes in relating to his listeners. And, in clear contrast to the raciness that seems to be Stern’s bread and butter, Hidalgo attracts many people by keeping his humor squeaky clean.

“The first thing we do is have fun on our show, but we stay away from dirty jokes,” he says. “People like us because we appeal to everybody in the house. We don’t focus on any special age, so everyone from kids to seniors can enjoy listening to us. We talk to everybody like they are our friends, and everything we do is positive, nothing is negative.”

The laughter comes from the natural, unassuming and seemingly unrehearsed way that Hidalgo and his sidekick, known only as “El Peladillo,” take on ordinary, everyday topics. They pride themselves on their disarming nonseriousness and unpredictability.

“When you stick to a certain routine, people get tired of it,” Hidalgo says.

Variations abound on a daily basis, but a typical Hidalgo show begins by relating to the 5 a.m. attitude of his listeners, doing mock grunts and groans about not wanting to get up while Peladillo tries to wake him.

Off and running, the 5 o’clock hour features news, “done in a humorous way, of course,” followed at 6 by amusing recipes, “talking to folks like we are chefs and this is what they must cook and eat each day, which is another joke.” Between 7 and 8 a.m. come funny horoscopes (“Churroscopos”), their trademark “Happy Birthday Joke” (where they call the birthday person a la Rick Dees and “Candid Phone”), and a kids’ song at 7:30, after which they discuss youth-oriented topics and give away prizes.

In between the fun during later hours are traffic reports by Jorge Jarrin and three live on-air dedications per hour.

“While I feel our station’s overall success is due to the Hispanic community responding to the music and format, Juan Carlos does well because he is extremely good at communicating with listeners,” says General Sales Manager Jack McVeigh. “His being able to portray his own personality and relate to the public with something enjoyable helps set the tone for our entire day.”

Hidalgo’s own rise in radio parallels the explosive story of his station. Feeling that his native Mexico wasn’t about to offer him any meaningful opportunities, he immigrated to Southern California in 1985 and lived at first with a friend in Oxnard. While working on a farm picking strawberries (“not speaking English, it was the only job I could get at the time”), he heard a radio ad for the International Broadcasting School in Ventura, and decided to enroll.

Upon completing his courses in 1987, he began his first stint as a deejay at Oxnard’s tiny KTRO, where he did the graveyard shift for three months before switching to drive time, where he garnered the station’s highest ratings ever.

From there, it was up the coast in 1990 to San Francisco as morning man and program director at KOFY-AM, where Hidalgo worked similar magic. His ability to lift the station from a .7 rating to 2.7 in a matter of months attracted the interest of Alfredo Rodriguez, who was in the process of creating KLAX and is currently its general manager.

Despite his Midas touch over the Spanish-speaking airwaves, Hidalgo tempers his optimism with caution when asked about maintaining his throne.

“I thought I’d do well here, but nothing this big,” he says. “Being first is not easy. I have a big responsibility and we have to work that much harder. And you can’t get too excited because the nature of radio is always up and down.”