Wes Hall, Jimmy Reyes, Victor Zaragosa,
Art Laboe, and Damon Knight

Spaghettini is an upscale restaurant in an upscale area of Seal Beach. Cary Hardwick opened the restaurant 22 years ago. For the next 12 years, the restaurant was only open on Sunday for dinner … that is, until an entrepreneurial radio salesperson, Jamie Young, from KTWV made the suggestion for a Sunday brunch. “It was overwhelming at first,” said Hardwick taking a break from the sold-out Sunday brunch. “I thought it would be kind of fun to try and the first few brunches we literally had thousands of phone calls. For twelve years I had nice increases every year – 4, 5, 6, 7% growth – and the first year with the WAVE we had a 31% growth. It took us from being a nice local restaurant to more of a destination restaurant for Southern California.”

Hardwick (left with Zaragosa) made the switch to HOT because of the opportunity to meet a lot more new people. “We’re just exposing who we are to a whole new audience.” He did not make the change in radio affiliation lightly. “It was a little scary, like stepping off a cliff, but I felt very well protected and backed up by the great staff at Clear Channel, starting with Robert Lyles, in charge of marketing. They have a great infrastructure in place, as far as on-line, marketing, promotions and I’ve really been impressed.”

Victor Zaragosa, morning man at Hot 92.3, presided over the Sunday morning brunch broadcast. He is coming up on three years with doing mornings from an impressive career in San Francisco. “I don’t think of the people who listen as listeners or part of an audience. I treat them as family and I’m just a family member with them each morning.” Victor settled in Santa Clarita.

Art Laboe, Abby Ashlock (Greg's fifth grade daughter) and Greg Ashlock

“I did not know the incredible fan base that Art Laboe has,” exclaimed Hardwick. “There were hundreds of people who called this week asking when he would be here and could they meet him. He has people that really love him.”

Renee Taylor and Ron Shapiro

As far as the inaugural Hot 92.3 Sunday Brunch, Hardwick said: “I couldn’t be happier. The response, the phone calls and the people who showed up have been quite overwhelming.”

Jimmy Reyes has seen it all, working with the morning hosts for well over a decade. “This really feels right with Victor,” said Jimmy. “It has taken some time readjusting the music but I think right now we’re on point. Everything we do, our listeners do. We just hang with them. We’re just one of them and I think that separates us from other radio stations.”

Jimmy recalls the seven months with Sinbad doing mornings. “It was quite the experience. The guy is great, but he just didn’t like getting up in the morning and he would make that known,” said Jimmy. “When Sinbad started, his partner was Michelle Visage, who was in New York at the time. He had to talk with her but couldn’t see her and that was a challenge. A comedian likes to get a reaction.”

Jimmy Reyes

Attending the Hot Sunday Brunch not mentioned above included: Vanessa Herron, morning show producer; Anthony McBride, board op; David Howard, general sales manager; Lisa Marie Gallegos, executive assistant to John Ivey; John Ivey, pd; Nemika Trotter, promotions director; Ron Shapiro, APD; Angel Nagar, marketing coordinator; and Jerrell "Boogie" Lowery, promotions; and Gabriella La Susa, promotions.

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