Almendarez Takes KSCA ‘s Morning Show to Top of Ratings

Anyone familiar with Renan Almendarez Coello’s high-energy, high-decibel morning radio show would have assumed the voice on the other end of the phone line was a fraud. Where was the energy, the excitement, that has become a staple of his morning drive-time program on Spanish-language KSCA-FM (101.9)?

“I think I used up all my energy,” he droned.

That would be understandable. After all, carrying an entire radio station from the bottom of the heap to the top of the mountain would exhaust anybody.

Yet that’s just about what Almendarez has done. Eight months after KSCA switched from English-language music to a Spanish-language format, Almendarez’s five-hour show is the highest-ranked morning program in the Los Angeles market. In the three-month Arbitron ratings released last week, KSCA earned a 7% share in morning drive time, up almost 25% from the last ratings period.

Overall, the station ranked third in the market with a 4.5 share.

“We’re very happy,” says KSCA program director Maria Nava. “[But] we thought it was going to happen. We expected it to happen. We knew he was very good and we had a lot of confidence.”

Still, the speed with which Almendarez moved to No. 1 is virtually unprecedented.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” says media analyst Allen Klein. “But in some respects, it’s not that surprising.”

That’s because Almendarez, 43, who got his start in his native Honduras, was already well-know in the community when KSCA lured him back behind a microphone in February. Nearly two years ago, he anchored a popular morning show for KKHJ-AM (930) before taking a 14-month break in which he traveled.

His new show, “El Cucuy de la Manana,” is not much different from the old one, featuring jokes, short sketches, phone calls from listeners and as little music as possible. The show takes its name from a Spanish child’s term for devil or boogeyman, a character that normally comes out at night.

“But we,” Almendarez says of his five-man tropa loca, “come out in the morning.”

The format is hardly unique, but Almendarez takes it to new heights with his quick wit and talent for improvisation. And although some have likened the show to Howard Stern’s, it’s an unfair comparison, because while Stern aims to shock his listeners, Almendarez only wants to make his laugh.

“Sometimes people would rather laugh than dance,” he says in Spanish. “This is the time when people are stuck in traffic, the time they’re waking up, the time when they’re getting ready for work. So people would rather laugh and have something different than music.”

BE THERE

“El Cucuy de la Manana” airs from 5 to 11 a.m. weekdays on KSCA-FM (101.9).