Epmediagroup’s Weblog

Today El Paso Media Group started yet another media venture in El Paso, a bilingual talk radio show on an all-Spanish language station, KAMA 750 AM, called Charlando con La Gringa and I’m the gringa you are supposed to charlando with. And the totally fun part is I know about 17 words in Spanish (comer, dinero, adios, gracias, queso, malo, etc.). The bilingual part of the show comes when a caller only speaks Spanish to me and I say, “what?” Actually, today was a total success as I had Jessica Valdez and Christine Aguilar in the studio with me and they both speak lovely Spanish and Pete the board operator speaks Spanish too; The three of them handled the Spanish callers beautifully.

Mayor John Cook joined us during the second hour of the show and several callers had the chance to chat it up - once caller was a pro-recall and that added a little grit to the show. I prefer the callers add grit and I stay behind the scenes as a “moderator” - I think it’s better that way,sometimes…

Melina Castro was supposed to open the show but she had a family emergency and will reschedule. I plan to talk to her about fashion and how cute she is.

My college roommate that is spending the summer in upstate New York called the show to wish me well and several other fans. That was fun. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes. If you listen in and have comments, send them to lisad@epmediagroup.com or call the show between 4-6 p.m. weekdays at 880-5262, I would love to hear from you.

Lisa Degliantoni, Host of Charlando con La Gringa, KAMA 750 AM

I was on the radio this morning promoting my new column. It’s called What’s Love Got to do With It, where I basically give you my two cents on life, love, relationships, and anything you’d like! So please write in and let me know what’s bothering you. Is your boyfriend going out a lot with his friends? Is your girlfriend always putting you down? Do you want to get married, but your loved one isn’t ready? Write me at jessica@epmediagroup.com or go to newspapertree.com and click on my column under culture.

-Jessica Valdez

My Monday and Friday radio show from 10-11 a.m. on 1650 KHRO radio allows me to meet some of the most interesting people in the region - locals and people traveling through. Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Matula Kiladi, a very young, ambitious artist who wants to put El Paso on the map, in a hip hop kind of way.

Kiladi’s first song “My Rims Keep Spinnin” has a slick beat, that is hard to resist. Written and produced with Kappa of CDG Productions, this first track shows promise of big things to come from this new talent.

You can read more about Kiladi on his myspace page and you can see him perform live at the Best of El Paso Magazine party on June 26 at Grace Gardens.

We’re going to try and do our best to get Kiladi the recognition he deserves for his talent and drive, and if you can help spread the word, great.

-Lisa Degliantoni

After many hours working tirelessy to figure out what our readers want most out the website for El Paso Magazine, we finally launched our new website! www.epmediagroup.com is going to keep you “in the know” about El Paso and all the amazing things that make our city unique. From gorgeous homes, to recipes to party pictures, we intend to create an online conversation amongst lovers of all things El Paso.

The website was programmed and designed by Brandon Silverstein at Impulse Development as was our online newspaper www.newspapertree.com. You’ll see similarities in the layout and the navigation bars, which is intentional, as we want to brand our online properties.

There are rumors that The El Pasoan is next in line to get a new website and if that happens, you’ll be the first to know!

Of course if you visit www.epmediagroup.com, we’d love to hear your feedback. Click around, read some articles, view some slideshows and let us know what you think. You can call 915.351.0605 or email us at info@epmediagroup.com.

It’s that time of year to honor and acknowledge the Best that El Paso has to offer. Welcome to the 4th annual El Paso Magazine Best of El Paso Survey. This survey should take you 10 minutes to fill out and thanks to cookies, you can only take this survey once from your computer.

Here are the categories; Cars, Home & Garden, Radio, Shopping, Television, Music, Beauty, Art & Culture, Nightlife, Eating, Sports & Rec., Kids, Pets & Local Flavor.

This survey closes on April 30. The winners will be announced in the June issue of El Paso Magazine and at the Best of El Paso Party at Grace Gardens on June 26.

You don’t have to fill out every answer (there are 141 questions), but you do have to go the last page in order to submit your ballot. Click the link below to begin the survey!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=s1ZRbskRma6Uzq5kVUk6fQ_3d_3d

I host a radio show on KHRO 1650 AM, Mondays and Fridays from 10-11 a.m. My job as host is to promote and talk about stories in El Paso Magazine, take calls from listeners and interview interesting people, all in a very pro-El Paso stance- it’s totally my speed.

Today on my show, I was joined by Ben Fyffe and Victor Guerroro from the Museum and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD). They were on to promote an upcoming Education Evening to help introduce the “Downtown Cultural Corridor” (a very sexy phrase to describe the culture cluster that is popping up around the City Hall side of Downtown) to teachers.

Part of the interview focused on a study that came out in 2004 about the benefits for children that participate of 100 minutes of art each week. (100 minutes of art to include drawing, painting, dancing, singing, etc.) The results of the study are so interesting I just had to blog about it!

2004 National AFTA Study Found that students who participate in 100 minutes per week of Arts are:
4 x more likely to be recognized for academic performance
3 x more likely to be elected to class office
4 x more likely to enter a math or science fair
3 x more likely to win an award for school attendance
4 x more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem
2 x more likely to read for pleasure
4 x more likely to participate in a youth group
4 x more likely to perform community service

So, the next time you are looking for ways to improve your child’s chances of growing up to be a fantastic citizen of the planet, add a little art to their life and wait for the results!

Lisa Degliantoni
lisad@epmediagroup.com

We joined the blogsphere! And each day you can count on reading news and views from El Paso Media Group consisting of El Paso Magazine, Newspaper Tree, The El Pasoan and www.inthe915.com.

The posts will be authored by anyone on the team, so you can look forward to hearing from the editors and designers and interns and other contributors. We’ll use this as a forum to exchange reader suggestions, concerns and feedback while we share all that’s fit to blog about El Paso.