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LARadio Archives - 14 Years Ago Today

HOT Mornings Get WILD Personality

(August 1, 2007) Victor Zaragoza, most recently weekends at KYLD (“Wild 94.9”)– San Francisco, will be taking over mornings at Hot 92.3 (KHHT/fm) on August 13. Diana Steele and Rico Banana, who have been working mornings, have exited the station. Two others (Damon Knight, Vanessa) connected with the morning show will be reassigned.

“Numbers number one,” responded HOT pd R Dub when asked why the change. “Mornings have been consistently underperforming. Personally and professionally I love Diana and Rico to death and they are two of my favorite people in the business but we just had to try something different. We’re going in a completely new direction, not only with a host but the mornings are going to be put together very differently,” said R Dub when we caught up by phone yesterday afternoon.

The HOT pd said the station will be 100% more listener focused. We’ll be a lot more active in the community. To put it in a sentence, less BS and less the standard morning show clich�s that every morning show in the country does. We asked the listener what they want and they said they want a relatable talent who is their friend in the morning and a lot of music, but for the most part it will be a one-on-one relationship with Victor.”

Mexican born and California raised, Zaragoza started his career by co-anchoring the news for a Spanish radio station in the Bay Area and went on to be a jock in Arizona and Texas, as well as San Francisco. He has worked all dayparts. Victor has been the sideline reporter for the Oakland Raiders football games and will continue for all home games. R Dub did not know if Zaragoza will continue in that capacity.

In an internal memo to the advertising community, general sales manager David Howard wrote: “After conducting a major research study our audience told us that they wanted a host that was more relatable to them, their needs, and the community. Based on this criteria and the fact that Hot 92.3's audience comp is over 50% ‘assimilated’ Latino, we are proud to offer the only Latino morning drive personality in ‘General Market’ radio. We are beyond confident this will generate huge gains for both the radio station and our advertisers.”

HOT afternooner Renee Taylor is sitting in during morning drive this morning.

Cleaning out the Garage on a Sunday

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