Compassion in the Air

It’s early on a spectacular fall afternoon, but inside the Miami studios of Radio Unica, the storm clouds are gathering. Just as they do every weekday afternoon.

For Isabel Gomez-Bassols and her nationwide audience, there’s no gain without pain. And on many days, pain definitely gets the upper hand. So as she settles in behind a huge bulbous microphone, Gomez-Bassols braces herself, heaves a heavy sigh and signals to assistant producer Yazmin Sanchez-Perez that she’s ready to start.

Cue the theme song; once again the doctor is in.

Since last January’s debut, “Dra. Isabel,” a live two-hour advice show, has become one of the most popular programs on Radio Unica, the nation’s only full-time Spanish-language radio network. Gomez-Bassols, a psychologist and educator, receives approximately 10,000 calls a week from listeners with problems ranging from the mundane to the macabre.

Just a fraction of those get on the air, of course, but with the ones that do, the doctor has managed to talk women out of suicide, discuss homework with 8-year-olds and help drug and alcohol addicts find the professional assistance they need. Many of the callers are disconsolate; few hang up without crying first.

It’s not entertaining radio, but it’s compelling. In fact, listening to it is a little like coming upon a car wreck: It’s difficult to look at but harder still to turn away from.

And, Gomez-Bassols insists, it’s making a difference. Although not without exacting a price.

“When I am exposed to so much pain, it does something to me,” she says. “The only way I can deal with the program is by thinking, ‘I know that . . . other people who can’t come in or don’t dare to come in on the air, they’re listening to some[thing] . . . that will help them in their life.”

Adds Sanchez-Perez: “I have cried. Many times I have actually gotten down on my knees. There have been very, very, very strong [calls] where I have gotten chills down my spine.”

Medical advice shows are nothing new to Spanish-language radio--the Southern California market alone has three: “Gracias Doctor” with Ernesto Prado, weekends from noon to 2 p.m. on KWKW-AM (1330); Elvia Contreras’ show from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to noon Sundays on KTNQ-AM (1020); and Luis Pacheco’s “medical minute,” which airs during the news block on KKHJ-AM (930). Nationally, “Cuidando su Salud” (Taking Care of Your Health), hosted by Elmer Huerta, founder and director of the Cancer Risk Assessment and Screening Center at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., is heard on 27 stations in the nation’s 10 largest Spanish-language radio markets, excluding Los Angeles.

But Gomez-Bassols’ show--which airs locally on KVCA-AM (670) from 10 a.m. to noon weekdays--is unique because it’s the only one that focuses on mental health. And it does so in a practical way, befitting Gomez-Bassols’ unique entry into the field.

Trained as an educator, she was teaching science at a South Florida junior high school when students began seeking her out for private after-school discussions. But the students weren’t asking about the periodic tables or the solar system; they wanted advice on personal problems. So with the support of the school’s principal, Gomez-Bassols returned to college to study counseling, eventually earning a doctorate in education and degrees in psychology and psychological diagnosis.

For the last eight years, she has been chairwoman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ Psychological Services Department, overseeing a team of school psychologists who work in 39 outreach programs for troubled youth.

“These are kids whose lifestyles, whose life stories, are very, very hard,” Gomez-Bassols says. As a result, she says, “nothing that I’ve heard in radio has been surprising to me.”

Over the years she’s developed a number of coping mechanisms, including daily meditation, to keep her sanity.

“If this was just a show, if this was just for shock value, I don’t think I could deal with it,” she says in the same soothing, inviting voice she uses on the radio. “If I know that I am helping people, I can deal with the pain.”

And though anecdotal evidence suggests she’s doing just that, hard evidence shows that the overall number of listeners she reaches is small for a national program. Although Radio Unica owns or operates stations in nine markets and has affiliates in more than 50 others, making it available to nearly 80% of U.S. Hispanics, about half those stations have carried the network’s programming for just six months. And only the San Antonio outlet claims more than a fraction of a percent of its local audience.

So though the network is growing--growth that will get a huge boost when 50,000-watt L.A. station KBLA-AM (1580) shifts to Radio Unica on Jan. 1--a program director at a competing station sniffs that “it’s like a submarine. It’s basically invisible to the naked eye.”

But then “Dra. Isabel” was never designed to transform the multitudes. It’s making its impact one caller at a time.

“People have pain and they have suffering and this is their opportunity to talk to someone who is listening,” Sanchez-Perez says. And while the doctor is listening, Sanchez-Perez is searching--poring through four thick loose-leaf binders or surfing the Internet for the agency that can provide the most appropriate help in the caller’s area.

Every caller gets a sympathetic ear on the air and a confidential referral off the air. If you’re looking for a lecture, tune in to Laura Schlessinger; this doctor preaches understanding, not ultimatums.

“This world will get nowhere if we don’t have compassion,” Gomez-Bassols says.

Back to the Future: When venerable music outlet KRLA-AM (1110) switched to a talk and sports format on Monday, the big winner looked to be KCMG-FM (100.3), an urban oldies station that has been on the air just a year.

A blues-tinged rock ‘n’ roll station for 39 years, KRLA developed a loyal following among second- and third-generation Latinos in the mid-1970s when it began to emphasize soul and R&B; favorites. And under the guidance of former KRLA program director Ricci Filiar, KCMG adopted a similar playlist when it debuted last fall.

With a stronger, clearer FM signal, KCMG quickly attracted an audience twice the size of KRLA’s.

“The damage to KRLA has been done since we signed on last November,” says KCMG vice president and general manager Marko Radlovic. “The target [audience] is the same. That will always be our target. But we’ve refined what that format is.”

Now KCMG, which has seen its audience nearly double in just three ratings periods, is expecting to get another boost in the wake of KRLA’s switch.

“Generally when a radio station signs off, it goes away forever,” Filiar says. “But that’s not the case this time.

“Listeners will benefit because the music is still here, but on a [stronger] signal.”