Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo is preparing to return to the airwaves…
The Mexican radio personality’s El Show de Piolín will air on American General Media’s KLVO-FM (Radio Lobo 97.7/94.7 FM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico and KBET (La Caliente, 96.9 FM) in Bakersfield, California starting in January 2015.
The Piolín show will air from 6-11 a.m. weekday mornings, Sotelo’s longtime timeslot with Univision.
Radio Lobo is the most recent stop in Sotelo’s beleaguered journey of the past two years, which has taken him from giant Univision Radio to SiriusXM, and now, to AGM.
In September, less than a year after its highly-publicized launch, Sotelo’s four-hour daily morning show on SiriusXM radio was canceled. Sirius said in a statement that they had “mutually agreed to end the relationship.”
Sotelo came to Sirius from Univision Radio, where for years he held court on a nationally syndicated morning drive show that boasted high ratings, high influence and high prestige; even President Barack Obama and wife, Michelle Obama, went on his show.
But on July of 2013, Univision abruptly canceled the morning staple, which originated daily from KSCA (101-FM in Los Angeles). Soon after, a former coworker publicly accused him of “physically, sexually and emotionally harassing” him for three years, among other claims. Sotelo promptly denied the accusations, and last year, he filed a lawsuit against six former Univision employees and their Los Angeles attorneys, alleging civil extortion and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit claimed the defendants “attempted to extort $4.9 million” from him under the threat of publicly embarrassing the plaintiff and damaging his reputation by the disclosure of false and misleading allegations.
However, in August, Los Angeles county judge dismissed the suit and ordered Sotelo to pay back $100,000 in legal fees.
A month later, Sotelo’s Sirius show was canceled.
Now, listeners can hear him again, but certainly nowhere near the scale he once had.
For American General Media, getting so big a name — even despite the controversy — is a coup.
“I am extremely excited about the return of Piolín to our family of stations,” said AGM president Rogers Brandon in a statement. “The show was there when we launched La Caliente and was instrumental in making the station a dynamic force for our listeners and clients.”
