Whenever there’s Spanish rock on KCSB-FM, there’s a good chance radio host Angel Lopez’s show “Rock Latino” is on. The show has been on the airwaves for 28 years and has recently expanded its reach since becoming bilingual.
Angel Lopez and his wife Teresa Arenas Lopez hosting their show “Rock Latino.” Courtesy of Angel Lopez.
“To me, to play that music, it’s like, ‘Let’s give opportunity to that music.’ There is truly no [Spanish rock] up there on the commercial radio stations. So that’s why I wanted to present the music not just to [UC Santa Barbara], but everywhere around,” Lopez said.
KCSB is UCSB’s noncommercial, educational FM station established by students in 1962. “Rock Latino” began in 1996 and features Spanish rock music, both old and new, along with artist interviews. Some of Lopez’s favorite bands to play include Caifanes, Héroes del Silencio and Soda Stereo.
Lopez grew up in Mexico City and was a sonidero — or DJ — throughout his youth. According to Lopez, it was harder to get involved with radio in a large metropolitan area such as Mexico City due to high competition. In 1988, he immigrated to Santa Barbara and discovered bands such as Mexican rock group Caifanes whom he would share with others on his trips back to Mexico.
“I come from a big city. When you go to [a] radio station, it’s like, you have to really know somebody that wants you there,” Lopez said.
After coming to Santa Barbara, Lopez DJed house shows and events for roughly seven years while working on the night crew at the supermarket Vons. He played music during his shifts until his friend Carlos Cuellar, a local artist, suggested he get involved with KCSB as the station was noncommercial and would allow him more freedom to play what he enjoyed.
“When you immigrate from another country, you bring all your music, your ideas, everything,” Lopez said. “I brought a lot of tapes and a lot of music, and I started to kind of get into the idea of becoming a DJ here in Santa Barbara.”
He first reached out to Elizabeth Robinson, former KCSB assistant director for independent media, with his idea of bringing Spanish rock to the local area and joined the station’s training program, KJUC-AM, in 1995. The quarter-long program teaches participants the basics of broadcasting.
“There is no radio station to play this music. So I have this great idea. Why don’t we start doing this type of music? Why don’t we start doing the show?” Lopez said. “KCSB gave me an open door that I could play technically, whatever I want, because we don’t work for ratings. We don’t work for money, we just work for the passion of the music.”
After completing KJUC, he began using the lunch breaks from his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shifts at Vons to host “Rock Latino” on KCSB from 4-6 a.m.
“I used to punch out for lunch, come and do my show, and then go back to work,” Lopez said.
Eventually, “Rock Latino” moved to the prime-time slot from 6-9 a.m., when local high school students would get ready for school. Lopez said that due to the wave of immigration from Latin American countries in the 1990s, many local students engaged with his show.
“Kids getting up to go to school, the first thing, ‘Let’s play “Rock Latino.”’ And they would call, they’d give, you know, shout-outs and all that stuff. So those years were, to me, possibly the best years,” Lopez said.
During the ‘90s, the population of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. rose by almost five million, doubling their working-age population throughout the decade. America saw similar increases from other Latin American countries in the same decade.
Lopez’s life has changed immensely since the inception of the show nearly 30 years ago. He now works as a heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor and has two daughters with his wife Teresa Arenas Lopez, who he married in 1995.
After decades of hosting mostly on his own in Spanish, his wife joined him last year and began including English segments.
“I talked to [Arenas Lopez] and said I had to do something on the show because I’m not feeling the energy anymore,” Lopez said. “[I asked her] ‘Why don’t you come?’ [She does] everything in English because she was born here. I do everything in Spanish.”
Lopez said the change has allowed non-Spanish-speaking audiences to discover the genre.
“Non-Spanish speakers will listen to rock en Español even though they don’t even understand,” Lopez said.
Through the station, Lopez has had the chance to meet some of his favorite artists, such as the Caifanes, which has had a wide reach throughout the U.S. and Latin America.
“We are very fortunate through the station. Doing the show for so many years, we get to meet a lot of artists that we grew up with [that] we were listening [to] as kids,” he said.
Lopez credits the “evolving” music scene of Spanish rock as the reason he has been able to maintain the radio show. He hopes to continue playing the music he loves while expanding into more production and putting the show on more platforms.
“I feel that the music is still evolving. There’s new artists. Like I said, we play old stuff with new stuff. I get to meet a lot of cool people, a lot of cool kids, new artists,” Lopez said. “And I think that’s just like being a father for your kids, you know. Even though they grow up, you still have to have that touch with them. That’s why I keep doing the show.”
A version of this article appeared on p.6 of the Nov. 21, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
Thank you for the interview.