Newspaper Tree El Paso

June 17, 2008

The Morning Zoo, on KHRO

by NPT Staff

***

Strelzin started to negotiate with David Candelaria, general manager of Entravision, which owns KHRO, over his hours. Instead of going 10-1, he wanted to go 9-noon. On the line was state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh. Some selected comments:

-- Strelz: I don't understand. Give me one lousy hour.

-- Candelaria: We made a deal.

-- Shapleigh: To remove Paul is going to create a lot of pushback to the station. … I have concerns about who is paying Freyermuth for the time.

-- Candelaria: Don't worry about it.

-- Shapleigh: I'll call you later this afternoon and visit with you.

-- Strelz: I'm just asking for one hour.

-- Candelaria: This is what we talked about. You agreed to it.

-- Strelz: I didn't realize what the backlash would be.

-- Candelaria: You shouldn't have agreed to it. You walked out on Friday happy as a clam.

-- Strelz: I wasn't happy.

-- Candelaria: You said you loved me.

-- Strelz: I do love you, you brought me back to radio.

Later some of the callers took after Candelaria:

-- Thomas: Mr. Candelaria, I respect your right to run your station as you see fit, but since the airwaves are belong to the public, and as an owner of those airwaves, we do have a right to express our discontent with it.

-- Candelaria: Absolutely you do.

-- Thomas: You should have gone with a skinhead. This guy is repugnant.

-- Candelaria: I respectfully disagree. I know Greg, I know his family, he's married to a hispanic woman.

-- Thomas: Are you gonna say his past record on the radio doesn't speak for itself, sir?

-- Candelaria: Actually it does, and that's the only reason I'm bringing him in!

-- Thomas: If Paul was having problem with revenue, keeping his show in that slot, why didn't Abel or you come to this list...

-- Candelaria: We have, we have, we have, we have, it's just a better move for our company and our station and for the listening public

-- Thomas: Norma Chavez, she's already got advertisers backed-up that want to back Paul, keep Paul in this slot, this is where he belongs, this is what the people want, Mr. Candelaria.

-- Candelaria: If the people wanted him, they would show up in the ratings!

-- Thomas: Those numbers might not necessarily be true, sir.

-- Candelaria: I agree with you.

-- Thomas: You're saying the numbers may be skewed, but you're going to make a judgment call on numbers that may not show the reality of the fact.

-- Candelaria: No. We're gonna make a judgment call on the survival of the radio station.

-- Thomas: Sir, it sounds like you have a problem with the sales department. Let us help you keep Paul in that spot. Make a commitment to your listeners that you made...

-- Candelaria: We already have.

Then the conversation turned to Strelzin's hours:

-- Candelaria: According to Arbitron and the personal people meters ... actually the most coveted slot nowadays is afternoon drive from 4 to 7 p.m.

-- Strelz: I'll take it.

-- Strelz: You know, I'm thinking maybe I ought to go 4 to 6.

-- Strelz: Everything stays the same, I'll go 4 to 6.

-- Candelaria: We'll talk about it.

-- Paul: Oh no no. We're talking right on the air. Be a man, come on out. Come on out. Come on out.

A series of callers brought up politics, business, and their support of Strelz:

-- Giselle: Taking Mr. Strelzin off, he's a funny man, he tells good stories, he's energetic and he's dynamite and I can not see anybody being better than he is.

-- Candaleria: Well he's not going off the air, ma'm. He's staying on. He's just moving to a different time slot.

-- Giselle: Just taking him off the morning, right?

-- Candelaria: Well, yeah.

-- Giselle: Because he stepped on some Republican's toes...

-- Candelaria: No ma'm, that's not true.

-- Giselle: It is a liberal media, but it's being bought by the Republicans.

---

-- Larry: It's a lively show today. Oh man, and I can imagine why. I'll tell you what. I think this is my opinion and the opinion of thousands of El Pasoans. It's very very clear that this move is strictly a financial decision, you made it very clear David, for your station. And this decision is also very obviously set in stone, unfortunately manipulated by the very small but very conservative and very wealthy political forces of our city.

-- Candelaria: You're wrong. The bottom line is the survivorship of the radio station; is to get some ratings to get some revenue obviously 'cause we're not getting any now, and just to give it more of an open forum. The truth be known, when we first started this talk radio, is I wanted to have a right a left and a moderate ...

We started out with "Air America", it didn't work unfortunately. I think Randy Rhodes was the only one that carried any weight on it. We couldn't continue so we got Paul. Paul got involved and he was more local and we followed up with some other local people, but the bottom line is that we're not getting enough action. Action is from ratings, from revenue, the whole bit, the community at large...

-- Larry: I got a couple of predictions in reference to this issue. My prediction is that this station is going to spend many thousands of dollars, whether it's your money or Republican money or anybody else's money, to promote that other show. Thousands of dollars that should have been spent promoting the Paul Strelzin show. And I don't think that has happened. Another prediction that I'll tell you. And of course we wont know until these things happen, but it will happen. After November, as soon as the elections are over, they're gonna leave you high and dry, these other folks. Okay? I guarantee it. Because that's the way politicans have been for generations here in this community. So after November, they're leaving, and then what are you going to do? Call Paul Strelzin and say, 'okay Bubba, we need you again.' And you know what's so sad and dangerous? That your station is being used to manipulate the political environment.

-- Candelaria: Larry, don't be Chicken Little. The sky's not falling. Don't be Chicken Little, because it's not the case. It's not the case, it's not the case, you're wrong about it.

-- Larry: One more thing. What's so sad is that at the end of the day, where is Univision's and Telemundo's sense of honor and sense of true committment and respect, not only to Paul but also the the community, to our community, to our city. And I'll tell you what, the answer is not in selling your soul.

-- Candelaria: I agree. Look in the mirror. The answer isn't there either. So you know, we're doing what we think is in the best interest of the station and in the community.

---

-- Mike: You can say what you want. The other radio stations here in this city have caved into the same republican, conservative, money-grubbing, power-broking people and you're joining right in with them.

-- Candelaria: Who are the people who are buying us out?

-- Mike: It does not represent the whole of El Paso. Nor does it represent the community at all. So you can say what you want and make all the excuses you want but it is not coming to pass. And I will definitely turn off the morning drive time because Freyermuth is not, number one, he's not interesting and he's the same old B.S. you can get from listening to Rush Limbaugh limbo or anybody else. At least David K was sort of a moderate and he espoused his opinions, but I can't believe you're actually taking Sito off either. That's one of the most intelligent people on the radio. You guys can kiss my butt. Bye bye.

-- (Promotions Manager) Abel Rodriguez: First of all we didn't say we're taking him off. Though some of these things going to be rearranged into the weekend. What we had from 10 to 1 was a bunch of swiss holes. You used to laugh at me because I came up with a la carte.

-- Candelaria: Don't you love it when someone calls in just tells you to kiss their butt and like a coward runs away?

-- Paul: No no no. They're not cowards.

-- Unknown: Some of them are!

-- Paul: They like radio and they're your listeners. And then you get more new people today, and the problem is sometimes they don't call in. But I really think in the long run, we maybe need a seperate sales person for KHRO that'll go out. It's funny that people will buy time if they will go out and be approached.

---

-- Scott: There's such a thing as quality, authenticity and integrity. And Paul represents that. He connects with the grass roots of this community. It's not just a quick flash in the pan, money. I used to listen to Freyermuth. He makes David K sound like Bobby Kennedy.

-- Unknown: Can we used that in the promo?

-- Scott: Paul, what you ought to do is a compromise. I'd rather have Paul in the morning and Freyermuth in the evening. But Paul you blast him in the evening.

-- Paul: Well, I would have loved to have had the opportunity. Now that I double think it, they need to respect my thoughts because there's a lot of people they heard today calling in supporting my show that do listen and will buy time and I think I guess I ought to go 4 to 6 on drive time.

-- Scott: That's probably the best thing because you're going to get a lot of listeners in the evening that are going to retort what this guy says in the morning.