Spanish DJs take lead role in politics

SPANISH DJs TAKE LEAD ROLE IN POLITICS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Martin Kasindorf]
A band of Spanish-language radio disc jockeys got much of the credit when 500,000 demonstrators rallied at City Hall on March 25 over immigration proposals in Congress. DJs “are a huge way of communicating to the masses,” says Mike Garcia, president of Service Employees International Union Local 877 here. “They have access to so many more people than we can get,” says Stephanie Kotin of the Los Angeles-based Central American Resource Center. “People came from Chicago, Arizona, all over California.” Best-known of the radio personalities who have taken a lead role in immigration politics is Renán Almendárez Coello, 51, who is syndicated in 13 cities from Los Angeles to Greenville, S.C. He calls himself El Cucuy, the Boogeyman. His frequent, on-air calls for listeners to jump into politics are echoed on rival stations by other disc jockeys, who have nicknames such as El Piolin (Tweetybird) and El Mandril (the Baboon). Almendárez Coello has built an influence akin to Oprah's on a Howard Stern-style format of racy jokes. His daily show, top-rated in the Hispanic market here, is the second-highest-rated of all programs. Almendárez Coello, born in Honduras, says he entered the USA illegally in 1984. “I was a mojado, a wetback,” he says. A radio station later arranged a work permit. He became a citizen in 1992 and has three U.S.-born daughters.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060713/1a_coverside13.art.htm