El Vacilón de la Mañana
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El Vacilón de la Mañana is New York's top morning radio show, broadcast from Spanish-language station La Mega (97.9 MHz). A similarly named program is broadcast by another Spanish Broadcasting Systems' (SBS) affiliate station in Miami, a fact that raises confusion among some listeners in both markets. This article refers to the New York radio program.
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[edit] Overview
El Vacilón de la Mañana has various key elements: prank calls, musical parodies, comedy sketches, humorous commentary about straight and odd news, and open telephone lines.
The program's key player is Luis Jiménez (born in March 26, 1970 in San Juan, Puerto Rico), who has been its main host for more than twelve years. Jiménez co-hosts the broadcast with Raymond Broussard (born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on December 20, 1953, of Cajun and Puerto Rican descent) and who uses the stage name Moonshadow.
Luis Jiménez started his radio career in his hometown of Caguas, Puerto Rico as a teenager, working as a part-time disc-jockey in various local radio stations. He later moved to Orlando, Florida, achieving some recognition there as a morning radio host after holding various odd jobs. He was referred to La Mega's management as a suitable candidate for hosting a Spanish-language radio show in New York City and moved there in 1993. The program's first airing occurred on August 9.
Jiménez modeled his show after El Gufeo Matutino (The Morning Goof), a successful radio program in Puerto Rico that lasted twenty-two years in its various inceptions, and always had Moonshadow as its main producer and host. After Broussard's move to New York City in 1997, and after the death of Jiménez's then radio partner, Junior Hernández, in 1998, the program had a succession of co-hosts, with Moonshadow joining the show for good in 2000. Moonshadow can claim poetic justice about the fact that WZNT-FM, also known as Z-93, (Puerto Rico's main salsa radio station), which was the same radio station who fired him for being too controversial, now airs El Vacilón de la Mañana to Puerto Rico in direct Internet audio feed from La Mega every morning after a management change (SBS currently owns both stations). The first audio feed to Puerto Rico occurred on February 9, 2004. The program has since gone into syndication by ABC Networks in a few Latino markets within the United States; the first syndicated airing to Orlando, Florida and other Latino markets occurred on January 9, 2006.
While Moonshadow has gone on record in numerous times about modeling his original show after Howard Stern's (with a very strong dose of Puerto Rican cultural elements), Jiménez's numerous original contributions give the show a unique pan-Latino flavor (its largest audience appears to be the Dominican community in New York City). The result "out-Sterned" Stern's show, and El Vacilón's audienceship ratings surpassed Stern's for three years, until Stern's departure to satellite radio in 2005.
Jiménez and Moonshadow do not act alone: besides a sizeable audience participation, the show's announcers and assistant producers (called the Mequetrefes, or Whippersnappers) are key to the success of the show. This ragtag group feature a female traffic announcer (Carolina Cadillo, born in Newark, New Jersey, of Peruvian and Nicaraguan descent), a rather peculiar news announcer (Francis Méndez, born in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic), the show's main audio producer (DJ Chucky), its call screeners and production assistants (Tony Sánchez, Bocachula, El Papichulo, etc.), and the like. The show's executive producer, María Eugenia Alma, appears sporadically in the show, particularly as female singer and occasional phone call prankster.
Each member of the team is known for a perceived self-avowed defect or particularity: Luis Jiménez claims to have undersized genitalia and hypospadias, Moonshadow has an inguinal hernia but reportedly has the fastest tongue in American radio history; Francis Méndez is allegedly a former cocaine addict who now suffers from erectile dysfunction as a result, Carolina Cadillo is a proud nymphomaniac who speaks Spanish with a noticeable English accent (Spanish is her second language) and who has virtually no buttocks, and so on.
[edit] Prank Calls
Prank calls are usually presented in a section called Caíste! (You Fell for It!), in which unwitting people are called to their homes or jobplaces and are provoked with touchy subjects for the prank victims (generally, they are taunted with intimate subjects). These prank calls are made by request from friends or family of the victims. The most famous prank call victim on the show's history was a Dominican building superintendent given the moniker Manolo Cabeza 'e Huevo (literally, "Manolo The Egghead") by Jiménez, who played the part of a viciously irate jealous husband. Manolo's enraged, expletive-laden response has become the most copied and broadcasted anecdote in the show's history. Manolo's son Israel, who coordinated the phone call, was in turn pranked in another memorable call.
After the deportation of the section's producer, Rubén Ithier, also known as Rubén El Moreno, back to his country of origin, the Dominican Republic in late 2004, this section went into limbo for close to a year and a half. Prank reruns were (and are still) played on the section's regularly slotted time.
During the hiatus, the current cast tried to pull some pranks of their own with mixed success, including repeated Manolo Cabeza 'e Huevo pranks, perhaps the most successful after Ithier's departure.
The cast resumed production of regularly scheduled "Caíste" pranks in early 2006.
[edit] Comedic characters
Luis Jiménez (and occasionally Moonshadow, who used to play all the comedic characters in his previous shows but has a more laid-back role on this one) play various characters in fifteen-minute segments on the show (usually three a day). Among them: Cornelio Toro, a naive store-owner whose wife has made a habit of being unfaithful to him with every man she comes in contact with while Toro fails to recognize it every time, even though he immediately knows when someone else is being cheated on (the name is a play on Spanish words: Cornelio sounds very much like "cuernudo", a cuckold, while Toro, or bull, evokes the bull's cuernos, or horns, the sign of the deceived man in Latin American culture); Jonathan Buford Rodriguez, better known as El Chulo, a gigolo who preys on wealthy geriatric women; El Chef Pipí, a parody on Cuban chef and Univision television personality Jose Hernandez, better known as Chef Pepin, being Chef Pipí's main trait his questionable masculinity; Rebeca Larica, a hyperventilating, gum-chewing woman who craves for male attention (played by Moonshadow); Dr. Héctor Tilla, a self-proclaimed medical doctor with very rude manners and a long history of malpractice lawsuits; Paca Garmentí and Silvia Penacho Chafrías; two civic-minded single women, both over 60 years-old, who love to bicker with each other (both names are plays on Spanish words too crude to be translated here); Madam Melo (originally called Mamá Melo), a hyperkinetic Dominican santeria practitioner (her original name was also another crude sexual reference); Goyito and Memin, two schoolkids (Memin being a straight arrow, while Goyito is a perennial foul-mouthed prankster) and Federico "Pedrito" Rivera Rodriguez, better known as Findingo, a bisexual chronic marijuana smoker with a strong speech impairment.
Some of the ideas behind these characters are not entirely original: Cornelio Toro is the updated version of Toribio Tauro, a similar television character played by Puerto Rican comedic actor Adrián García on Puerto Rican television (and provided with an accent closely resembling that of Don Pulula, one of José Miguel Agrelot's characters); El Chulo evolved from a real human being who was a production assistant for one of Puerto Rico's radio morning shows who had a liking for geriatric women (and became famously made fun of by being called El Chupaviejas by the show's hosts), and Dr. Hector Tilla was another one of Garcia's creations. Goyito and Memin were originally created by Moonshadow after Pellín and Pillín, two animated characters from a Puerto Rican public service announcement, while Findingo's name was taken from a similarly named (although completely different) comedic character played by the Puerto Rican actor, René Rubiella; the original character shared a low intelligence quotient with the newer one, besides the name. The parody on Chef Pepin was rumored to be hated by the parodied celebrity because of its homoerotic undertones, but this was dispelled recently when Chef Pepín himself was invited to participate in a racy sketch along its comedic counterpart, the result being a hilarious interaction between the two characters which Chef Pepín clearly enjoyed.
Special mention has to be made about a real "character" who happens to be a regular caller to the show, and as of October 2005 has joined the cast on a part-time basis. Metadona is a real-life reformed robber, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, who had a chronic drug addiction before rehabilitation. There are strong doubts about him being completely drug free, but he vows to have abandoned his criminal past for good. His slow delivery (evoking a chronically drug-induced state) and daring stories about botched robberies and juvenile pranks entitled him to the alias, which is the Spanish word for methadone. He has a habit of loudly opening a beer can for breakfast every time he calls.
[edit] Musical Parodies
El Vacilón's musical parodies have recently become the show's bread and butter. Popular Latino songs are typically parodied in the show, generally changing the lyrics to sexually suggestive, humorous lyrics. Some original compositions are featured as well, and generally along the same subject matter. A few program guests, mainly reggaeton artists, have parodied their own regular songs in the show (and therefore have contributed with their own material). A few English-language songs are also parodied, but mostly fragments of them.
Newer songs are introduced in a weekly section called El Joyón Musical (joyón can be an augmentative for either the word joya (jewel), or joyo (an alternate spelling for hole, and Puerto Rican vulgar slang for anus)). The songs are then placed in heavy rotation as filler between sections (and, in the Puerto Rico broadcast of the show, to cover local New York radio spots that are irrelevant to the Puerto Rican market).
Some listeners have complained these musical parodies take more show time than warranted. However, the authors of most of these parodies, DJ Chucky and Gerpis Correa, also known as Shino, are regular members of the Mequetrefes crew. This probably guarantees the future constant influx of new parodies for the show.
[edit] News, straight and odd
Straight news are read and humorously discussed in the section called Hablando Plepla (Talking "Nonsense") "Plepla" is a euphemism for feces.
The same is done for odd news in the section called Noticias Locas (Crazy News). Most are taken from the Odd News segment of Yahoo! News.
Francis Méndez reads regular news at the top of the hour (not the same as Hablando Plepla), but injecting humorous slang phrases to the headlines. This goes in sharp contrast to the serious, almost dead-panned delivery of the show's sports announcer, Cuban-born Renato Murphy, as well as that of Cadillo's traffic report. The result is almost as odd as the Noticias Locas segment itself.
[edit] Open Lines
Lines are opened in a segment of the show for listeners to call in and tell their anecdotes, which are generally mishaps or sexual situations. Although many subject names are suggested, all calls wind up discussing the aforementioned situations. From Monday to Thursday, subjects are rotated, but the last 2 hours of Friday's show are devoted to randomly take calls on previous subjects, in the section called Lo Que Sobró de la Semana (What's Left of This Week).
Listeners' calls tend to have a somewhat stringent quality control:
- Tony Sánchez, the program's call screener, has to judge the story as funny enough to be put on air. Then the call is broadcast on air, so the hosts can talk to the caller. Usually each call is given approximately three minutes of air time. If the story isn't funny enough (e.g., a weak punchline), or runs too long, the call is hung up to the tune of two different songs: A bolero parody which starts with the line Ay, Qué Historia Más Pendeja (Ugh, What a Dumbass Story) for unfunny calls, and a "Charge" tune instrumentalized with the syllable "blah" for long calls.
- If callers start giving too much praise to Luis and Moonshadow, the cast will start singing a Puerto Rican bomba which starts Es Un Lambón (He's A Kiss-up)
- If the hosts judge a story as over-the-top, or an outright fabrication, the cast will start chanting Embustero, Embustero... (Liar, Liar...)
- If Tony Sánchez's judgement about a call produces a flat or otherwise uninteresting call, Jiménez chastises him on the air and physically strikes him (or so it seems). Many callers complain that Sánchez's judgement depends on his mood, on how well the anecdote is explained to him, or on the caller's gender.
[edit] Discography
- 2001- Tortilla Party
- 2002- Vacilon 69
- 2003- Chant For Neta
- 2005- Sinñematográfico (Soundtrack)
