Morning co-hosts Elizabeth Cruz and Demetrio Flores of Ultra Radio Richmond (Photo courtesy Demetrio Flores)
Elizabeth Cruz and Demetrio Flores, hosts of the Spanish-language morning radio show on Ultra Radio Richmond, broadcast a big sound out of a little studio in a storefront station at Regency mall.
On a recent weekday morning, while the pair promotes an upcoming Family Festival concert and rodeo at the Richmond Raceway, listener Jessica Chavez calls in to win a pair of tickets. Chavez says she is excited to attend the musical performances featuring over six groups with an emphasis on Northern Mexican regional ensembles known as “norteña,” including the band Bronco as a headliner.
“A qué te dedicas? [What kind of work do you do?]” Flores asks Chavez during their on-air conversation.
“Limpiando casas [Cleaning houses],” she answers.
Flores plays “Oro” (meaning “gold”), Chavez’s favorite love song by Bronco, a group of musicians and singers who wear black cowboy hats, black leather Western wear decorated with glitter, and big silver belt buckles. Flores chats with Chavez on the air about where she lives in Richmond, asking her if she is married and what her husband does for a living. Construction, Chavez tells Flores.
Originally from El Salvador, Flores has lived in Richmond for two decades and likes traditional folkloric music called “El Xuc.” Cruz, who has lived here for more than a decade, prefers bachata, music that originated in the Dominican Republic (where she’s from) and is associated with a form of dance. Both bring a broadcasting background. On Ultra Radio, they champion a playlist of “exitos,” or hits, from a diverse and growing community.
Ultra airs on three frequencies, 1480 AM, 1540 AM and 94.1 FM, under the umbrella of oldies station Boomtown Radio. That last frequency took to the Richmond airwaves on September 2018. Michael Mazursky, owner and president of Boomtown Radio, points to demographic numbers showing 125,000 Hispanics in the Richmond area as the reason for his move to put the first secular Spanish-language music station on Richmond’s FM airwaves.
“There will be 250,000 by 2030,” Mazursky says of the region’s projected Hispanic population.
The three frequencies cover the area. To emphasize that, recordings of deep-voiced announcer Freddy Rios regularly boom, “Una sola estación de radio!” to remind listeners that wherever they are in the region, they can hear hits played by one station — Ultra Radio. Rios’ exaggerated consonants and drawn-out vowels are easily recognizable.
A native of Tucson, Arizona, who grew up in Los Angeles, Mazursky is no stranger to Spanish-language radio stations. His father owned a Spanish-language radio group with stations in Texas, Nevada and California, and he later owned a station in Chicago, where Mazursky worked as a manager.
He breaks down the Richmond area’s Spanish-speaking population as 60 percent Mexican; 20 percent from Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; and 20 percent Caribbean from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
He describes Ultra’s music as international hits, which Flores programs with staffer Selvin Paredes. The station also highlights contests and promotions, traffic, weather, sports, and news from the listeners’ countries of origin. Pressing issues are part of the agenda on the morning show.
“We speak of the problems and the violence [in Latin America],” Cruz says. “People want to know what’s happening.”
Cruz and Flores hold live broadcasts at community events that take place outside stores and restaurants, as well as mobile consulate visits in the Richmond area by government representatives from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
Seventy-five advertisers tout their wares on Ultra Radio; though the majority are local, national advertising accounts with Goya Foods, Walmart and Target indicate the importance of the Spanish-speaking market. Local government officials appear as guests to explain municipal issues and opportunities for children.
With more than 2,300 Facebook followers as of this summer, Cruz and Flores say their local listeners include natives of Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama, and their playlist must reflect that. During the winter, the station’s Facebook page showed a high of 16,000 interactions on certain days.
On this weekday morning, they play ballads, cumbia from Colombia, reggaeton from the Dominican Republic, banda from Mexico and merengue from New York-based musicians.
For Cruz, there is an advantage to living in a city that has an emerging Latin market.
“Here in Richmond, you can innovate,” says Cruz, who enjoys the slower pace of life as compared to larger cities with bigger, more established Hispanic populations.
Ultra Radio has no current competition on the FM dial. As a result, the playlist is a mishmash of styles from Latin America, such as Tribal Monterrey’s party song “Tequila,” which celebrates traditional and contemporary Mexican culture; the salsa rhythm of “Si No La Tengo” (“If I Do Not Have Her”) by Diablos Locos, expressing the tribulations of love; and Thalia’s pure pop “Lindo Pero Bruto” (“Cute but Stupid”).
Through interactions with Flores, Cruz and Mazursky, callers and advertisers show a growing demand for the entertainment and the community that’s being formed.
“People just gravitate to it,” Mazursky says, turning up a reggaeton song on his office speaker and bopping along to the beat.
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