MIAMI — (July 23, 2013) — Renan Almendarez Coello, best known to radio listeners across the U.S. and Northern Mexico as El Cucuy de la Mañana, has signed a syndication deal with Miami-based GLR Networks, owned by Spanish media giant Grupo Prisa.
The talk-intensive program, hosted by “The Bogeyman,” is being offered to Regional Mexican stations or stations in markets with a large population of immigrants of Mexican heritage.
El Cucuy de la Mañana will initially air as of July 23 on Tijuana-based “W Radio 690AM” — one of the biggest AM radio stations in North America, giving it coverage in the Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside-San Bernardino markets, in addition to parts of Oxnard-Ventura and Santa Barbara. Renan will helm the 5am-10am PT time slot. GLR plans on national syndication of the show within the following weeks, HispanicAd.com reports in today’s news update.
The timing of Renan’s deal with GLR couldn’t be better: El Cucuy was the top-rated morning host at SBS’s KLAX-FM 97.9 “La Raza” in Los Angeles and, before that, at KSCA-FM 101.9 in Los Angeles before the rise of former understudy Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo. As first reported late yesterday by HispanicAd.com, Sotelo’s morning radio program–based at KSCA– has been “canceled,” effective immediately.
Renan has seen little national attention on the radio dial since September 2008, when he departed KLAX to reportedly launch a new radio network. He has appeared on the Azteca America television network.
As “El Cucuy,” Renan first rose to fame in 1992 at Liberman Broadcasting’s KKHJ-AM 930 “Radio Alegria,” under then-VP of operations David Gleason. He joined KSCA in 1997 upon its switch from Adult Album Alternative music to regional Mexican following the station’s sale from the Autry family to Heftel. With Renan in morning drive, KSCA shot to No. 1 in several Arbitron ratings surveys. However, with Piolin’s budding talents gaining notice among station executives, Renan’s show in February 2003 shifted to afternoons. As a PM host, Renan continued to attract monster listenership.
One year into his shift to afternoons, however, Renan’s relationship soured with KSCA, now owned by Univision Radio. After walking off of his show in February 2004 in a failed effort to win over sizable salaries for his supporting cast, whose wages came directly out of Renan’s paycheck, Renan’s show was suspended without pay indefinitely. One month later, SBS announced that it had hired Renan for the morning shift at KLAX–a shift he’d keep until 2008. Most recently, Renan was a part-owner and morning host at Victor Camino’s KKNS-FM in Albuquerque.
— Adam R Jacobson