La Junta and WORT-FM Turn 50 in December: Expressions of Latin Culture (Part 2 of 2)
Ricardo Gonzales (standing) started La Junta when WORT-FM first started broadcasting in December 1975 and Agustin Olvera and Alfredo Rodrigues (not pictured) continue the program today.
by Jonathan Gramling
In some ways, WORT-FM and the Madison area’s Latine community have grown hand-in-hand since WORT was founded back in 1975. Before that time, the Latine community was small and almost invisible. And listener-sponsored radio was just a dream of a group of community activists who wanted an alternative to commercial radio. Fifty years later, La Junta is a vibrant part of the Latine community.
In some ways, the music played on La Junta is reflective of diverse Latine culture. And yet there is a common bond in how the music became popularized, in Mexico City.
“There has always been among Mexican people a love of tropical music, what is called tropical music, La Musicale Tropical, in Mexico, especially around Mexico City and Vera Cruz because Vera Cruz is on the Gulf of Mexico,”Gonzalez said. “There has always been a relationship between Vera Cruz and Havana. And in Mexico City, the mambo became internationally popular through Perez Prodo and his orchestra when they were in Mexico. People think it is New York. Yes, New York is where all of the Latin people came. But that wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s. In Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s, a lot of the artists from Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America, but especially from Cuba and Puerto Rico because you’re talking about people like Daniel Santos and Rafael Fernández, Puerto Rico’s great composer and others who reached a level of popularity in Mexico because in the 1930s and 1940s, Mexico City was the hub of Latin music. They made movies. They had a movie industry. They had orchestras. Mexico City has always been a huge city. I think that connection is overlooked sometimes when we think about this music. I see it as Latin dance music, Caribbean-based.”
“Another reason why a lot of the artists went to Mexico is because it was the biggest market, said Agustin Olvera. “It had the biggest population, financially, at best, all middle income who could buy the music. So the artists woulds go to Mexico to capture that market and sell their music. That’s a big reason why Mexico was very important in getting things off the ground for music.”
Started by Ricardo Gonzalez as WORT-FM was getting started, Gonzalez brought other DJs into La Junta. One of them was Olvera.
“I moved here in 1990 for work,” Olvera said. “And people said, ‘You’ve got to go to The Cardinal Bar.’ So I went to The Cardinal and I started hearing WORT and started listening to La Junta on the radio. And so I introduced myself to Ricardo one time at The Cardinal Bar and I explained to him that I used to do a jazz program in Iowa at St. Ambrose College. I was able to convince them to let me play salsa. So I started to play salsa in Davenport, Iowa. A friend of mine loved Mexican music. He said, ‘Hey, do you think they would let me play Mexican music? Why don’t we do a petition.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we just ask?’ We asked and they gave him a two-hour program, which expanded into an eight-hour Mexican music program. I think it is still going to this day. I asked Ricardo, ‘Do you need any subs? I’d be glad to.’ I came in. I did a playlist for him. He gave me a little trial. He said, ‘Yeah, when we need somebody, we’ll give you a call.’ Little
by little, he started giving me a call. Eventually he said, ‘Look, why don’t we put you in a regular rotation?’ That’s when I started doing a regular show. Ricardo was very welcoming and gave me a chance. And 30 some years later, I’m still doing it.”
About 12 years ago, Gonzalez left La Junta in Olvera’s hands. Olvera and Alfredo Rodriguez are the main DJs with Lil Cat evolving into a regular DJ. And Arnold Gonzalez is a sub. And Ricardo Gonzalez never completely left.
“I kind of retired from La Junta 12 years ago,” Gonzalez said. “But I’ve always come back. Agustin drags me back. ‘Do you want to do a show?’ We’ve been talking about two programs to do before the year is out. One would be a tribute to Celia Cruz because this year is her centenary. She would have been 100-years-old. And the other one is a show that Agustin and I are thinking of about doing together to mark the 50th anniversary of the station and of the show.”
Despite the changeover, La Junta still plays a diversity of Latine music.
“I don’t think it has changed much, depending on the DJ,” Olvera said about La Junta. “DJ Lil Cat loves jazz. She plays a little bit more Latin jazz. Alfredo likes more contemporary music and more pop style, so that is what he plays. I like the newer salsa and timba that comes out of Cuba. So I will play the new stuff, but I like the classics. I play songs that I heard growing up from my father. Sundays were Latin music day. He would put records on the home-made stereo that he built. My mom would dance around. And my father would be watching, tapping his feet. He loved Latin music. But he liked modern dance music. He loved Tito Puente and Victor Rodriguez. I grew up in a Mexican family. My grandparents were from Mexico. But we didn’t listen to traditional Mexican music because my father liked more contemporary music. He was involved with the American GI Forum. It was a veterans organization to help veterans. And they plugged dances. He hired Tito Puente to come and play at one of their dances. So I grew up listening to this music a lot.”
When Olvera is the La Junta DJ, being on air is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what goes into producing the show.
“It takes a number of hours preparing the programs,” Olvera said. “I will spend 10 hours looking for new music especially. Because everything comes out on YouTube, I can find the latest releases, things that came out yesterday. The record companies put their stuff out there. And so I am always looking for new material. And then I go through my old collection of music and try to find stuff. ‘I haven’t played this in a while.’ Sometimes it gets hard because there is so much to choose from. There are so many great songs that I would like to present. And then I also try to find something that maybe I am really keen on, but I see that it is on the charts doing very well. It’s what people are buying and want to hear. I’ll put it on. It’s a variety of music, the latest, but also the classic, the old stuff going back to even the 1940s and 1950s. With stuff from the 1940s, the sound quality is not very good, so I tend to avoid that. Stuff from the 1950s is decent enough to play.”
And Olvera feels a responsibility to educate his audience about the music.
“As well as present the music, I also like to talk about the music or the artists just to give people some information, educational as well as entertaining,” Olvera said. “I find that interesting. I hope the audience finds it interesting. I just announced that La Sonora Matancera is now 100 years old. I find that fascinating, that a band would be around that long. Last week, I played a song and Randy Brecker, a famed jazz trumpet player, was playing on this salsa release. And I find that interesting. There are a lot of jazz artists who like to play Latin music. Almost all of the put out at least one Latin album, sometimes two, because they love the sound of it and they bring in other Latin artists, percussionists, to play with them. But a lot them enjoy playing Latin music. And we’ll hear it often in their concerts. They’ll do 1-2 numbers.”
And then there are the mechanics of putting on the show.
“You put the music together,” Olvera said. “You present it. You run the control board. That’s all part of being the DJ.”
La Junta has had an impact on individual lives.
“As a DJ my most touching moment was when I received a letter from a prisoner in Waupun who thanked me for playing music from his youth before he got caught up in drugs and alcohol and ended up in prison,” Olvera recalled. “The music took him back to a happier time in his life, so he was able to "escape" prison if only for a few hours. I remember a call from a woman who was milking her cows. She wanted to say that she just loved what we were playing. Another woman said, ‘I’m dancing in my kitchen. I’m just enjoying this so much.’ It’s always nice to get those calls.”
And La Junta has helped foster an environment in Madison that was conducive to Latin music.
“Without a doubt, La Junta was instrumental in grooming the market for the Latin music performers,” Gonzalez said. “And of course, the club scene also groomed it. It wasn’t just The Cardinal. The Cardinal was a lone-wolf for a long time. But as of 1990-1991, the Latin Club opened up on Johnson Street and there have been others. Right now, there are any number of clubs that have a Latin Night. There is no doubt that the popularity of traditional Latin music and salsa and any other music, there are artists who have packed stadiums or venues in The Dells. Here we have had artists who have performed at the Barrymore, the Orpheum and the big theaters and filled them up. Without a doubt, La Junta has created that market.”
“I was wondering if La Junta helped to make the environment here in Madison welcoming to Latin music,” Olvera added. “We have 5-6 salsa bands in this town. And we have other Latin groups that come and go. If La Junta wasn’t here, would that environment have been created. Would the audience know to go listen if La Junta hadn’t been playing this music for years? I don’t know. I also know that a university town brings a wide variety of international students and others who come here from Latin America. I’ve got a feeling that La Junta was instrumental in creating the environment where this music could do well.”
And La Junta continues to bring rhythms and music for the listening pleasure every Saturday.
“I think it’s a wide variety of people,” Olvera said about La Junta’s listenership. “I have young people who tell me they’ve been listening. I have older people who tell me they are listening. A lot of the Latinos around town, whenever I run into people, they’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, I was listening to you the other day.’ I know the Latino audience is there. I think La Junta has been successful. When they talk about Saturday programming, everyone says Saturday is the best in terms of the variety of music that gets played on WORT. WORT has only about one percent of the radio market. So roughly they say 600 people are listening in an hour’s time. But they also say that based on the number of people who are listening on their computer, we can measure that. We have actual counts of people listening online. La Junta is probably getting 1,000 listeners.”
WORT-FM has been called one of Madison’s miracles for bringing a rich array of music to Madison from around the world. And La Junta has been a mainstay in bringing that rich music to Madison for 50 years. ¡Viva La Junta!