It's just past 9 o'clock on a foggy Southern California morning, yet Pepe Barreto has already been at work for more than four hours. Businesslike in a long-sleeve shirt and tie, he sits in a spacious studio surrounded by a battery of computer screens, looking more like a stockbroker than the top personality on Southern California's top-ranked radio station.
Down an adjoining hallway and around a corner, in the studio of KLVE-FM's (107.5) sister station, KSCA-FM (101.9), the scene couldn't be more different. The tiny booth, crowded with five men, has all the charm and civility of a high school locker room, with everyone talking and laughing at the same time. In the middle of the crowd, wearing bright yellow pants and enough ornate jewelry to make Dennis Rodman jealous, sits Renan Almendarez Coello, the only morning radio host in the Los Angeles market with better audience ratings than Barreto.
Separated by just a few dozen yards in their studios and by just a few percentage points in the ratings, Barreto and Almendarez are worlds apart in just about every other way. One is a born-again Christian from South America who is as comfortable speaking English as he is Spanish. The other has been married four times, says he has fathered 19 children and takes pride in the fact that he's succeeded without learning English.
One is painfully serious; the other could make light of a train wreck. Yet it's their dramatic differences that have made a rousing success of Heftel Broadcasting's decision to put both on the air at the same time.
"It's like Leno vs. David Letterman," says Allen S. Klein of Media Research Graphics, which analyzes the Spanish-language radio market in Southern California. "You have two guys, [and] people have an affinity or feel more comfortable with one than the other."
For much of the last three years, however, it's been Barreto's show that has drawn the largest audience of any morning-drive program in the market. His five-hour show, which starts at 5 a.m., first topped the quarterly Arbitron rankings in March 1995, and since then, he's slipped from the top spot just twice--finishing second to KLSX-FM (97.1) and syndicated shock jock Howard Stern in the fall of 1995 and to Almendarez last summer.
The fact that their paychecks are signed by the same person does little to temper the ferocity of the competition between Barreto, 50, and Almendarez, 44. After all, finishing second to someone you see every day can get old after a while.
"On the air, it's serious competition," Almendarez says. "We say hi to each other in the parking lot, in the bathroom. We're friendly. But on the air, we're competition."
"I guess when you're on the air, everybody competes with each other," Barreto says. "I try to focus on my show. I've learned through the years that you have to stay focused on your show, not to divert your attention to what any other person does or does not [do]. In this business, there are ups and downs. What really counts is that you stay up most of the time."
Barreto's rise began three years ago when the programming team of Bill Tanner and Pio Ferro came to Los Angeles from Miami to refine KLVE's format of adult-contemporary music. Long commercial blocks were eliminated, deejays were ordered to cut back on the chatter, and the station's regular playlist of Spanish-language music was trimmed to a svelte 380 titles. In six months, the station went from 11th in the market to No. 1, a spot it has held in nine of the 12 most recent ratings periods, including the last eight.
Many of KLVE's listeners are English-dominant Latinos who tune in to hear soft ballads and love songs by Mexican artists such as Ana Gabriel, Luis Miguel and Alejandro Fernandez. And the station promises them 50 minutes of music every hour.
But while the music may drive KLVE's programming, personalities are what frequently attract listeners during the competitive drive-time hours. And Barreto's unobtrusive, button-down style has provided both a perfect complement to the station's easy-listening music and a dramatic contrast to the wacky and racy drive-time shows hosted by Almendarez, KTNQ-AM's (1020) Humberto Luna and the formerly top-ranked team of Juan Carlos Hidalgo and El Peladillo on KLAX-FM (97.9).
"People like to be represented by the type of programming I do," Barreto says. "They feel that this is the programming they want to represent their values, their idea of how the rest of the market wants to perceive Hispanics."
Which isn't to say Barreto doesn't let his well-coiffed hair down once in a while. He does. Each Friday, for example, he plays matchmaker, taking calls from lonely listeners and setting them up on dates with other callers. But fittingly, Barreto insists that the segment is a public service, not a gimmick to increase his audience.
