Red, Brown & Blue

It’s 4:54 p.m. on a Friday and I’m still waiting for the Centers for Disease Control to call me back. I’m staring at a nearly empty margarita glass and glancing over at my phone 100 times a minute hoping they’ll call me and grant me the interview I requested almost eight hours ago.

Only a few sips left in the glass and the battery bar on my phone isn’t showing me much love and I’m waiting for the studio to kick me out as they have lives that involve happy hour.

Those who know me might be very confused by this scenario. You see, my day job is in PR. It’s usually me begging annoyed journalists to pay me attention, as well as devote overly positive, extremely biased coverage to my clients.

What they don’t know is that I’m also a producer for a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio program, called Red Brown and Blue, which – if all goes well – will reach more than 3 million weekly listeners in 75 markets across the U.S.

You think that would be enough to get the CDC to jump all over an interview to educate the masses about what we should be doing amidst this pandemic, but it’s not. Adding to my frustration is the conversation Rudy Ruiz, the host of Red Brown and Blue, just had with the head of programming for GLR Networks, Jimmy Perez, who salivated upon hearing about our in-language programming on the swine flu and how it’s impacting Hispanics.

Why, you ask?

And I quote: “We’re seeing nothing – no campaign – from the CDC on this issue in Spanish,” Perez said.

Did I mention that every day, 29 million people tune into Perez’s stations throughout the US, Latin America and Europe?

Maybe it’s the alcohol but this isn’t making sense to me. Whether you’re a journalist or a PR pro, a fundamental pillar of Communications 101 is knowing your audience. And when it comes to disease control, this lesson could not be more critical or vital to do what the CDC was formed to do, control disease. Whether you’re one of those conservative nut jobs, like talk show host Michael Savage, who actually believes immigrants carried this disease into the country as an innovative form of terrorism, or just a rationale person who knows we should try to educate everyone and their mama about this thing, if new arrival Mexican immigrants are indeed ground zero for containment, why ignore them completely?

Adding insult to injury, this fool Savage is screaming the following into my ear:

“Make no mistake about it! Illegal aliens are carriers of the new strain of human swine avian flu from Mexico. Make no mistake about it! Our incompetence at the CDC will hide this from you. Make no mistake about it! This is a disaster.”

Wow, believe it or not, I actually might agree with the latter two points…unless my phone rings. If it doesn’t, I guess another margarita may be the only way for me and my Spanish-speaking audience to make it through the weekend.

Rolando Rodriguez writes for CATALINA, a magazine that breaks stereotypes of Hispanics in the media and entertainment. In addition, Rolando is a producer for Red Brown and Blue, a nationally-syndicated, Spanish-language radio program. He is also Managing Director of Public Relations, Government Relations & Community Based-Outreach at Interlex Communications, one of the nation’s only advertising firms dedicated to socially conscientious multicultural marketing.