Another conservative Radio Mambí host says he’s leaving
Nelson Rubio, host of a popular Spanish-language radio show on Miami’s Radio Mambí, announced Tuesday he was leaving the conservative talk-radio station immediately, citing its sale to a new ownership group.
Rubio, who was not on air Tuesday morning during his normal time slot, joined Lourdes Ubieta and Dania Alexandrino in jumping ship to Americano Media, a conservative Spanish-language news organization launched in March on satellite radio.
Rubio told the Miami Herald he’ll be hosting a morning show and will be the director of news for the organization.
The hosts’ moves are a boost to Americano Media and a blow to Mambí, which for decades has been an institution for Cuban exiles and a place for conservative Hispanics to talk freely about politics.
The AM station’s owner, TelevisaUnivision, is in the process of selling Mambí to the newly created Latino Media Network as part of a larger, $60 million deal involving 17 other radio stations across the country. The hosts and a number of Florida Republicans have criticized the sale of Radio Mambí, saying the new owners have liberal views and predicting the content at the station will change if the FCC approves the deal.
“It is very difficult to make the decision to leave a station like Radio Mambí, because there is a bond that one has with the community that makes you very close to them,” Rubio said at an Americano Media press conference held Tuesday in Doral to announce the hosts’ decision to join the station full time. “It is not easy to make a decision like this, but there is something that is above all things: working conditions and money . ... Dignity is not negotiable.”
Alexandrino and Ubieta already had shows on Americano Media.
Ubieta says hosts were offered a cash bonus worth “thousands” of dollars to stay on at Radio Mambí through the transition, on the condition that they sign a non-disclosure agreement. She says she declined the offer. Univision has repeatedly declined to discuss the sale with the Miami Herald.
The three former Mambí personalities have also focused their criticisms on the financial involvement in the deal of Lakestar Finance, an investment firm with ties to billionaire George Soros, a major donor to progressive causes.
But while Lakestar Finance was involved with the purchase, it was only to provide debt financing to Latino Media Network, a spokesperson for Soros said. Soros was not personally involved in the transaction and will have no say in the way the station will be run or what is said on shows, according to the spokesperson.