El Vacilón de la Mañana is a Spanish language weekday morning radio show. 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.
The word "vacilón" is not directly translatable into English; it derives from the Spanish verb vacilar (to vacillate), but in colloquial Spanish can also mean to "check someone out" or to "have fun." Thus, the show's name roughly translates in English to "The Morning Tease."
History During the first two weeks of January 2007, new airings of this program were discontinued, and only pre-recorded programs were aired, coinciding with Luis Jiménez's departure from the program. 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. Most of the program's crew has chosen to remain contracted to La Mega.and contract DJ CASTRO from Texas and Sonido Promax #1 in California, thanks to him is now the number one in USA.
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. Juan Carlos Alonso was relocated from another SBS station in Orlando, Florida and Frankie Jay was relocated from another SBS station in Puerto Rico. Juan Carlos and Frankie Jay voice resemblance to the former hosts have sparked a number of accusations of trying to imitate the former Vacilón hosts Luis Jiménez and Moonshadow (the main reason SBS brought them to NY).
During 2007 Luis Jiménez and SBS were involved in a legal fight because SBS claims Luis Jiménez was cashing in on the name of the morning show through the release of his DVD movie El Vacilón the Movie which was released on January 30, 2007. 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. In early January 2008 Spanish Broadcasting System officially won the legal fight.
Since February 21, 2007, Luis Jiménez started producing his own show The Luis Jiménez Show and it is being broadcast in several cities in the US, such as Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, among others through different Univision Radio stations. It is expected to expand into more cities during this year as Univision Radio introduces the show to new markets, but it is not expected to make it into NYC until 2008. Only two of the members of the old "Vacilón de la Mañana" have followed Luis Jiménez to his new show. These are "Yun Yun" and "Sonny Flow", the latter one being "DJ Chucky" who just became part of "The Luis Jiménez Show" crew. Alma, who is Luis's producer, is also part of the new show in Univision Radio.
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). Although when The Luis Jiménez Show made it to NYC early in 2008. Upon his departure from El Vacilón de la Mañana Luis Jiménez also took the morning show's website with him. 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. A new website for El Vacilón was created www.elvacilon.org.In early 2008, after the lawsuit the domain name "elvacilon dot com" was returned to SBS and is run on the web servers of Spanish Broadcasting System(SBS)
The Miami Vacilón
An equally named program was broadcast by another SBS affiliate station in Miami: WXDJ-FM (El Zol 95.7), a fact that raised confusion among some listeners in both markets until March 2003. 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. Early producer of the show Alberto Sardinas also joined the team at the time.
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. They later used the same technique to prank-call Cuba's then-President Fidel Castro, the more notorious and more better known of the pranks. The team was fined by the FCC when an anonymous source filed a complaint with said government agency (as a result of the latter prank). The duo took to the streets of Miami and collected in pennies the entire amount of the fee and then some. 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. They later used the same technique to crank call. In the history of radio broadcast this was the first time that a morning show had prank-called the leaders of two countries.
Despite the huge success of El Vacilón Miami, hosted by Enrique and Joe, it all came to a halt on March 5, 2007, when the hosts, fed up with the string of unfulfilled promises by Spanish Broadcasting Systems (SBS) and other issues, decided to walk out on air. They trashed the company for four hours of broadcast until they were eventually pulled off the air by management. The morning show was replaced with pre-recorded bits soon after. One week later, the only one of the show's main producers, Miguel Reyes alias Mikey Machete, was let go by the company. Reyes hosted the Saturday morning "Best Of" show which he also produced and achieved the number one spot in ratings for a Saturday morning show in the Tropical market. 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. Luis Jiménez's and his morning show were being syndicated in various markets. Univision Radio returned both shows to their respective cities to take on SBS directly on early 2008. Mike Reyes, former producer for Enrique Santos & Joe Ferrero, return to radio also in early 2008 at the end of his non compete
From March 22, 2007, to March 1, 2008, "El Zol 95 FM" was broadcasting New York's El Vacilón de la Mañana which was also being syndicated in Puerto Rico. Since March 3, 2008, El Zol started El Vacilón de Miami with Neo Encendido and Los Pichy Boys (Alejandro González and Maikel Rodriguez) from 6 to 10 pm. The latter show was replaced in less than a year by Al Fuentes, former P.D. of various radio stations and Pio Ferro, V.P of Programming of SBS. Soon after that, Pio Ferro's employment was terminated and that morning show had become a one-man show.
The Enrique and Joe Show (with sidekick and producer Mikey Machete) on Miami's La Kalle 98.3 FM, in less than a years time, once again became the #1 rated Tropical (bi-lingual) morning show in South Florida with ratings numbers reaching double digits. In May 2009, the dynamic duo of Miami radio split up and two shows were created. In the morning The Enrique Santos Show, followed by Joe Ferrero y La Animalada (originally hosted for 5 months by Mikey Machete and Albertico Rodriguez) on La Kalle 98.3FM. In early spring 2010, changes started to take place in both radio stations and by mid-year, Enrique Santos was the only one from the original morning crew to be retained on 98.3's morning show as Univision restructured the station to fit Arbitron's new ratings methodology. The station, now re-branded as MIX 98.3, assumed a more bilingual style programing.
Joe Ferrero was let go by Univision Radio on June 4, 2010, along with (Mike Reyes) Mikey Machete. In October 2010 Joe Ferrero consequently took over El Vacilón de la Mañana on Spanish Broadcasting System's (WXDJ) El Zol 95.7 FM with new co-host Albertito Rodriguez as his sidekick and female co-host Betzy Vazquez. Mikey (Mike Reyes) Machete is currently the Promotions & Marketing director for ESPN Deportes Radio in Miami.
As of August 22, 2012, Joe Ferrero is no longer at SBS Miami. 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. Some of the infamous duo's classic crank calls can still be heard on www.Marikonson.com In 2015, Ferrero became a morning host on WMGE (Mega 94.9) in the Miami/Frt Lauderdale market until 2016, when Joe Ferrero was let go from the station "for no apparent reason" as per the statement he released via his Instagram account.
Overview 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. 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 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. Luis Jiménez co-hosted the show with longtime friend Junior Hernandez. Hernandez suffered from asthma, and died of a heart attack. 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. 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 and Puerto Rican 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.