KSCA-FM’s ‘El Cucuy’ suspended for walkout
Renan Almendarez Coello, the phenomenally popular afternoon radio host known as “El Cucuy” on KSCA-FM (101.9), said he has been suspended from his show indefinitely for walking off Friday’s program.
He left after lambasting executives at the station’s corporate parent, Univision Radio, over treatment of his supporting cast, “La Tropa Loca.” The station is now airing “best of” programs in Coello’s 3 to 7 p.m. weekday time slot, and Coello said he and his show staff have been suspended without pay.
“He’s off the air. We don’t know for how long,” said Georgia Carrera-Sanchez, public relations director for Univision Radio in Los Angeles. She wouldn’t comment about Friday’s incident or whether Coello had been suspended.
“I can’t go into anything right now. It’s an internal matter, and it’s our corporate policy not to comment,” added Jorge Plasencia, Univision Radio’s vice president of marketing, corporate communications and public affairs.
Coello, whose alter ego translates as “The Bogeyman,” said the dispute was over pay and working conditions for his staff, and when they came into the studio Friday depressed about negotiations, he said he couldn’t continue his comedy program and left the air with them.
“All that I did was to react to the tears and suffering of my crew,” Coello said in a statement. “My crew has been asking for salary improvements for years and never got the consideration that they deserve. If Univision is going to suspend me for defending my people, I will take that very proudly.
“My show is a reality show and this is the reality that we live in corporate America, and this is how real people react in real-life situations to unfairness and injustice,” he continued. “If I hurt or harmed anyone, I apologize for it.”
From 1997 until last year, the Spanish-language host dominated morning ratings, far outpacing his English-language counterparts -- including Howard Stern, Rick Dees and others -- and sometimes doubling the audience size of his Spanish-speaking rivals. His show, featuring a frenetic mix of ribald humor, wacky sound effects, listener advice and charity outreach, was also syndicated to a dozen markets, and topped ratings in San Francisco and Chicago. In February 2003 he moved his program to the afternoons, saying the rigors of the morning schedule took time away from his family, his charity work and his pursuit of television and film projects.
The Honduran native has raised millions of dollars for causes ranging from Mexican street youths to hurricane victims to a cancer center for children, mostly through marathon broadcasts featuring all-star musical lineups.
He was also criticized for touting a Van Nuys faith healer on his show. On Feb. 9 the man was sentenced to nine years in prison for operating an illegal medical practice and injecting drugs into an Orange County man who later died.
But the criticism scarcely dimmed the loyalty and affection of his audience, which he called his family and which he predicted would follow him to the afternoon. He was right, as Coello immediately took KSCA from 24th to second place in the time slot, and subsequently moved up to No. 1.
“He’s a huge personality in the Latino market,” said Jim Kalmenson, president of Spanish-language sports and talk station KWKW-AM (1330), a KSCA rival. “He’s been able to position himself as a person giving a lot back to the community. He’s extremely agile and very funny.
“And, more important than anything, he’s highly entertaining.”
The change in shifts to give Coello more time for outside projects seemed perfectly timed with new opportunities at his parent company. KSCA’s former owner, Dallas-based Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., merged with L.A.-based Univision Communications last year, winning FCC approval in September after several months of scrutiny.
Hispanic Broadcasting had been the nation’s largest Spanish-language radio company, with 65 stations around the country, and Univision was the nation’s largest Spanish-language television company, with its namesake broadcast network reaching 97% of Latino households in the U.S. The combined corporate behemoth also owns record labels and an Internet portal.
Coello said in his statement that he is optimistic the conflict can be worked out. If not, other L.A. Spanish-language stations would probably fall over themselves for the chance at Coello and his audience -- but none offers the same multimedia corporate reach as KSCA and Univision.
“If he’s available, there will be lots of takers,” Kalmenson said. “He’s definitely a proven commodity. People are very loyal to him. He would have no problem getting placed.”