Another conservative Radio Mambí host says he’s leaving as Miami station changes hands

Nelson Rubio, host of a popular Spanish-language radio show on Miami’s Radio Mambí, announced Tuesday that 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 fellow former Radio Mambí hosts 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 Herald that he’ll be hosting a new morning show at Americano Media from 6 to 9 a.m., and that he’ll 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 in Miami 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 and when 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. Yet Rubio is brand new, Jorge Arrizurieta, the president of Americano Media, said.

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 run, or what is said on shows, according to the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Latino Media Network says that their sole mission remains to ensure representation and diversity of the Hispanic community within all the markets they will serve.

“Transition of the stations will happen following FCC approval and a one year transition agreement between TelevisaUnivision and Latino Media Network,” the spokesperson for LMN said. The process is expected to conclude in late 2023. In the meantime, Univision will continue to be the sole operator and manager of all 18 stations, the spokesperson added.

Americano Media is still recruiting new talent for the “country’s first conservative network in Spanish” and August 8th, they will start streaming their programs on TV, according to Arrizurieta.

Amid the controversy, Americano Media has benefited. Rubio, alongside Ubieta and Alexandrino, appeared Tuesday morning at a press conference held by the CEO and founder of Americano Media, Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo, at the Intercontinental at Doral Miami hotel, to officially announce their moves.

Still, other Mambí hosts are staying, at least for now.

Rubio’s morning co-host at Radio Mambí, Rodrigo Durán, was on Tuesday morning discussing his feelings about the sudden exits from the station. Several other hosts are staying with the station, as well, according to El Nuevo Herald sources, including Jorge Díaz-Díaz, Humberto Cortina, Omar Moynelo and Ninoska Pérez Castellón.

“I wish our colleagues great success, but those of us staying here, we haven’t signed any bonus or contract,” Pérez Castellón told El Nuevo Herald. “We have a responsibility to our audience and we’re continuing here until we determine what we are going to do.”