El Vacilón de la Mañana
The show originates from WSKQ-FM in New York City, a Spanish radio station branded as "Mega 97.9", and it is syndicated live to a number of different markets in the US such as Providence, Rhode Island; Miami and Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Hartford, Connecticut; and Puerto Rico.
He has signed a contract with the Univision Radio network, but is prevented by previous non-competitive agreements to air any new program in New York City during El Vacilón's allotted time slot until 2008.
As of mid-January 2007, Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) owned WSKQ (La Mega 97.9 FM) brought two new hosts to the show, Dominican-born Juan Carlos Alonso (who sounds just like Luis Jiménez), and Puerto Rican Frankie Jay (who also sounds like Moonshadow) which are now replacing Luis Jiménez and Moonshadow.
Luis Jiménez filed a counter-lawsuit accusing SBS of trying to fool the audience by having Juan Carlos and Frankie Jay imitate the voices and style of Luis Jiménez and Moonshadow, and also accuses his former team members of betrayal and stealing his intellectual property by using characters such as Dr. Hector Tilla and Madam Melo.
Moonshadow has come back to El Vacilón de la Mañana and together with Juan Carlos and Franky Jay had been able to stay ahead of the Luis Jiménez Show (3.9 to 2.0 in the ratings).
For the entire year of 2007 the domain name "www.elvacilon.com" belonged to his producer Maria Alma and therefore SBS and WSKQ La Mega 97.9 FM were unable to use the website address for the show.
The hosts of El Vacilón Miami were Enrique Santos (a former police officer turned funny man) and "The Professor" Joe Ferrero, both of Cuban-American descent.
The two jokesters achieved national and international notoriety when on June 18, 2003, they prank-called Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, which brought them plenty of press.
Luckily, the radio station's legal eagles resolved the issue regarding the fine and all of the money collected was then donated to a local charity.
While SBS refused to give details on Mr. Reyes' firing, it appeared to be the result of the fall out following the early departure of the show's two hosts.
Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero were signed to Univision's WRTO, Miami, La Kalle 98.3 FM for the time being.
He was let go for no apparent reason and is currently the Operations Manager and morning show host at the all new 105.5 FM stations out of the Florida Keys.
El Vacilón de la Mañana (roughly translated as the "Morning Party") 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 on March 26, 1970, in San Juan, Puerto Rico), who has been its main host for more than twelve years.
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.
Jiménez modeled his show after El Bufeo 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.
Fans streamed to the station to pay tribute to Hernandez the Thursday night after his death; the popular radio personality was only 34 years old.
After Broussard's move to New York City in 1997, and after the death of Hernandez's in 1998, the program had a succession of co-hosts, with Moonshadow joining the show for good in 2000.
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 and Puerto Rican community in New York City).
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.
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.
The most famous prank call victim on the show's history was a Dominican building superintendent given the moniker Manolo Cabeza 'e Huevo by Jiménez, who played the part of a viciously irate jealous husband.
However, the FCC complained and slapped a fine to the two disc jockeys (Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero); both chose not to pay, relying instead on a penny-drive.
More of the "Gonzalo Créo" jokes occurred, including "El Dolor del Vecino" (The Neighbor's Pain), using the same premise of pretense of a telephoned confession booth, which involves a man struggling with his apparent bisexuality and "Domingo Y Pancho" which involves them prank calling a man who is sexually aroused by a woman who is helping him with physical therapy for an illness of the nerves.
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 geriatric women; El Chef Pipí, a parody on Cuban chef and Univision television personality José Hernández, 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 (they are set apart, in the movie at least, by their hairstyle: Paca, played by Luis, has short black hair in braids, while Silvia, played by Moonshadow, has red hair styled similarly to the Wendy's girl), both over 60 years old, who love to bicker with each other (both names are plays on Spanish words: "Pa' cagarme en tí" is the informal way of saying "En tí me' cago", which means "I shit on you", while Silvia's name, whilst parts of it are normal, The clang comes with the word "chocha fría", which means something to the effect of "cold pussy"); Madam Melo (originally called Mamá Melo), a hyperkinetic Dominican santería practitioner (both names are plays on sexual references: "Madam Melo" is a play on "mandamelo", which means "Fuck me", whilst "Mamá Melo" is a play on the insult "mamamelo", which means "Suck it (my dick) for me"); 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 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 Moonshadow's creations while in the toilet.
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.
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.
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.
