Radio Active

I need clothing for a 2-year-old and a tricycle, preferably made of plastic . . . I’m offering my services as a baby sitter and I’m very reliable . . . I have a room with a private entrance available for a couple without kids. Such are the daily requests of callers to Radio Lobo.

Marco Del Castillo takes these calls--all in Spanish--in a small studio at KOXR-AM (910) in downtown Oxnard, a station that goes by the name Radio Lobo. It’s a program called “El Mercadito”--the little marketplace. Call it a bulletin board or classified ads over the air.

It’s where Spanish-speaking residents as far west as Santa Barbara and as far east as Santa Clarita, barter, sell and offer services over the air, live. Sometimes it’s a place for those in need of charity to find a good Samaritan.

“Buenos dias, aqui estamos en ‘El Mercadito,’ Radio Lobo. Puedo ayudarle?” says Del Castillo, greeting his caller and asking in his soothing, ever-so-polite voice if he can help.

With three phone lines ringing nonstop once the two-hour program begins at 8:30 a.m., Del Castillo is constantly in motion. His coffee sits, barely touched, on his desk.

He prompts the callers, nodding and often adding “muy bien” once they make their announcement. At the same time, he is adjusting the sound levels and rapidly typing their requests and phone numbers for a list to be distributed for sale in Oxnard.

Like most radio stations, Radio Lobo makes its money from ordinary commercials for supermarkets and other businesses. But over the years, the station’s program has also become a valuable tool, almost an institution, for the Latino community throughout Ventura County.

“The majority of Hispanics use the program when they need something: a table, a chair, a job,” Elsa Azamora, a 31-year-old Oxnard resident, said in Spanish. “Sometimes someone says ‘I don’t have a job,’ and another will say ‘Why don’t you use “El Mercadito?” ’ “

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Just the other week, Azamora sold a bed for $40 by placing a call to the program. And in the past she has found temporary work as a baby sitter. Except for businesses and people selling high-profit items such as homes or cars, the calls are free.

“It’s a real service to the community,” said Sister Carmen Rodriguez, who works at the St. John’s Health Ministry, an organization to aid the poor in the La Colonia neighborhood in Oxnard. “ ‘El Mercadito’ has been a vehicle through which I let people know when there’s a rummage sale or things that we have that the poor might be able to take advantage of.”

Hundreds of callers are heard each day and put in touch with others instantly. And the types and numbers of calls also keep the station in tune with the pace of the Latino community.

During harvest time, the phones ring nonstop with migrant workers calling to find a room or converted garage to sleep in and an automobile to rent.

Around Christmas, the calls diminish as many Latinos travel to Mexico or other Central American countries to visit relatives. Before school starts, mothers flood the airwaves with requests for shoes and clothes.

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Often, residents also call seeking items to purchase for relatives living in Mexico.

Maria Espadio, a 32-year-old Ventura resident, sought to buy some clothing for her brother’s daughter living in Ensenada, explaining the economic situation is difficult for many in Mexico.

“El Mercadito” started in 1980 as a half-hour program that aired sporadically.

In the beginning, said Del Castillo, calls were few. Determined to increase participation, he stopped playing music and just waited for the calls to come. And come they did.

By 1985, the station expanded the program to one hour. By 1994, the program was on the air two hours a day from Monday through Saturday.

Pressed by demand that continued to increase, station owner Alberto Vera last year added another hour on weekday evenings.

Although other Spanish-language stations have tried similar programs, “El Mercadito” is the only show of its kind in Ventura County. KOXR leads the county’s only other major Spanish-language station on the AM dial in the time slot, but three other Spanish-language FM stations earn higher ratings, according to Arbitron figures.

The program is relatively rare nationally as well, said Sherrie Mazingo, a USC journalism professor who monitors ethnic radio stations. But she expects such programs will sprout elsewhere.

“There’s no question they are going to be increasing” with the growth of Spanish-language media, said Mazingo, “particularly in areas in which you have a heavy Latino population.”

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Flavio Orta, a religious worker at Oxnard’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, points out that the program is very accessible.

“I think it’s a very good service because there are people that usually don’t have time to pick up a newspaper and they listen to this,” Orta said. “Everyone has a phone line, but not everyone can go out and buy a newspaper.”

Occasionally the program even draws non-Spanish speaking callers who are looking for baby sitters. Del Castillo then patiently translates their request into Spanish on air.

In the end though, Spanish-speaking residents have pretty much nothing but praise for this program, which they say helps them to locate just about anything they need--except for a date.

Del Castillo says that callers have to look elsewhere for that.

“It’s a very good program,” said caller Eva Tatia in Spanish. “I find a lot of things there, such as work or things for the house, a baby sitter, a refrigerator.”

Currently, she’s using the program to look for a night job as an office cleaner. “Do you know anyone who needs help?” Tatia asks, laughing.