A Week in Dallas Radio posted on July 29th, 2013
By Jesus Rodriguez
Dallas radio will never be the same. In less than one week a popular morning personality exits, while another starts and another dies; formats changed on a couple of stations and now we’re all left wondering, what’s next?
It was one wild ride this past week in Dallas-Fort Worth radio. Check out this timeline:
Monday July 22nd:
Piolin is out at Univision leaving the #1 Spanish station KLNO 94.1 La Que Buena without a morning show and their key star. Piolin also leaves many stations across the country without a morning show with this move since his show was syndicated.
That same morning Kidd Kraddick airs his bit Death Confessions where he says his last words to his cast.
Friday July 26th:
CBS flips KMVK (Mega 107.5) to Mexican Regional La Grande 107.5 FM in response to the handicap handed to Univision’s KLNO 94.1 La Que Buena with Piolin’s exit.
What makes this interesting is that Piolin’s younger brother, Edgar ShoBoy Sotelo, is staying on mornings at KMVK. That’s not much of a surprise when you consider that ShoBoy learned his craft from his older brother. There are times you would swear you were listening to Piolin 2.0. The sound of their voices and their personalities are similar. You can’t blame management for trying to fill the hole left by Piolin’s departure.
Sunday July 28th:
The city of Dallas-Fort Worth mourns the loss of Kidd Kraddick. Kraddick died of cardiac arrest in New Orleans while attending a fundraiser for his Kidd’s Kids charity. He is mourned by every Billboard, TV and radio outlet following the lead of KHKS 106.1 FM.
If these changes hadn’t rocked DFW radio to its core, add in:
Univision’s KLNO La Que 94.1 premiering their new morning show by moving afternoon jock “El Show Del Primo” to mornings.
CBS Radio premiering ShoBoy (Edgar Sotelo) as the morning show for La Grande 107.5.
After already failing with H2O 107.9 FM earlier this year Univision gets out of the English radio battle and dumps Hip Hop station HOT 107.9 FM (KESS) and moves La Jefa 107.1 (KDXX) to 107.9 to counter the CBS flip of KMVK from every angle possible.
Univision also begins a simulcast of Spanish Contemporary Maxima 99.1 FM (KFZO) to 107.1 (KDXX) following the La Jefa move to 107.9 (KESS).
We still don’t know how Kraddick’s passing will affect the rest of the cast of his morning show.
The listeners in DFW have lost the two biggest morning shows in less than a week. These two shows battled it out week after week for their time slots as well as setting the standard for their stations. You knew the stations would be 1, 2 in the market, but which would land on top?
Now, we’re left with uncertainty. Will Piolin return to a Dallas radio station with his recent announcement about beginning his own syndication network–“Piolin Por La Mañana”? Will the rest of the Kidd Kraddick morning show stay in tact and continue to wake up the city of Dallas-Fort Worth?
As a Dallas native, I hope the answer is “Yes” to those questions. I grew up with these shows—from grade school to my degree at the University of Texas at Arlington. These shows and personalities helped me find my own calling in broadcasting. Not only am I a listener and a fan, but I’m someone honored to call these people my former colleagues while I worked in radio here.
Like so much in life, change is inevitable. Only time will tell what other changes are in store for the DFW market, but those changes might never top one of the most interesting weeks in recent memory.