Born and raised in the Bay Area, Rudy Ortiz is an on-air personality for 102.9 KBLX/San Francisco in the morning. As a top-five station in the market, 102.9 KBLX The Best Throwbacks & R&B begins their weekdays with Freska & Ortiz from 6-9 am.
Before entering the radio industry, Ortiz was a full-time stand-up comic. He was doing a gig when he was approached with an opportunity that would change his life forever.
“I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for about 15 years now. About 10 years ago, I was doing a gig over at a comedy club in the Bay Area, and I met Jason Barrett’s girlfriend there. She thought that he (Jason) might be interested in my work. At the time, I did a lot of sports jokes. I ended up meeting him and realized we had already met each other a couple of times. He asked me if I’d be interested in doing a weekend sports talk show, and the rest is history,” says Ortiz.
Ortiz credits Barrett for helping him get his start in the radio business and is very appreciative of the opportunity to be himself early on. Little did Ortiz know that he would co-host one of the best morning radio shows in the country one day. The transition from stand-up comedy to radio could be a difficult process for many, as they are two very different worlds. Not for a pro like Ortiz:
“They’re not really the same exact thing, but there are some similarities. So, there are skills that you get in stand-up comedy that you can apply to radio, and that’s pretty much what I did. I saw those skills that I was using in stand-up, and I just applied them to radio, and one does help the other one out. I will admit, a lot of times, you get stand-up comics that go into the studio, and they think that it’s the same thing, but there are some big differences between the two. So, you do have to learn how to play both. I had to learn how to be a radio guy after doing stand-up comedy for a while,” adds Ortiz.
As many of us know, working in radio requires a great deal of passion. If you’re not passionate about what you’re putting on air, then that energy will reflect to the listeners. Especially when it comes to being on music radio today, listeners will either quickly turn the channel or connect their phones and stream their music. For Ortiz, being on the radio has been a blessing in disguise. I was curious to learn about what he enjoys the most about being on the radio.
“Well, there is a level of intimacy when you’re speaking to the audience on the radio. I mean, you’re talking to a broad audience, you’re talking to thousands of people at a time, but you really do try to reduce it to talking to one person. And I’ve always felt like that was one of the big keys. You try to make it seem more intimate. There is a level of intimacy on radio that you don’t necessarily see in stand-up comedy. It has its own kind of lane also because you can’t talk about all the things that you talk about on the radio or on stage. You can’t talk about all those things on the radio. There are some parameters in the radio world that don’t exist in the standup comedy world, thankfully,” answers Ortiz.
While, for the most part, it was a seamless transition from stand-up comedy to radio, I was curious to know about any trials or tribulations. The radio industry is quite different today than it was 10-15 years ago. Especially, with Ortiz’ busy schedule balancing both a top-notch morning show on KBLX, and his career in stand-up.
“I’m a morning guy. All I’ve ever done is morning radio. So, standup comedy happens at night, so you end up burning the candle on both ends. You’ve got to learn how to get those naps in the middle of the day. My biggest challenge is just finding a place in my day to rest because usually, radio shows in the morning, morning talk shows start around five or 6:00 AM, and comedy shows start at 9:00 or 10:00 PM. So, if you’ve got shows during the week, (which I do many times), you just got to figure out a way to, as they say, thug it out. That’s what I’ve been doing for a while. The naps come in handy. You learn along the way how to balance it out,” replies Ortiz.
Since KBLX is one of the best Urban AC stations in their respective market, I was excited to get a peek behind the curtain. During my time as a Program Director for an Urban AC station in South Bend, I had my great deal of challenges. It really comes down to the decision to dip into the new R&B/hip-hop music of today to try and lure in a younger audience or stick to the old school. As a station, KBLX sticks to what the Bay Area loves, old school Tupac, Snoop Dogg, TLC, Usher, and all the old school R&B/hip-hop artists. Staying true to playing The Best Throwbacks and R&B.
Typically, in the Urban AC market today, most morning shows are syndicated. Many feature The Steve Harvey Morning Show. It was refreshing to learn more about an urban station that features live on-air personalities in the morning.
“The one thing that I love about KBLX in San Francisco is that we really do focus on having that Bay Area local flavor. You tune into some of these other stations, and many of them are syndicated. You just don’t feel like the person that you’re listening to is local or knows anything about the freeway that you’re driving on or the traffic jams that you’re about to encounter or whatever’s going on in your city that weekend. I appreciate that KBLX has always stayed true to that, and we remain the station that tries to be about the Bay Area. It gives me an opportunity to tap into people who are interested in what’s going on in their backyard as opposed to tuning in to a show that’s being recorded in Texas but being played in California. KBLX has done a great job of not doing that. We always remain local with people on-air that are from the Bay Area and know the Bay Area well,” adds Ortiz.
They’re also a very busy station around this time. KBLX does a Feed The Bay food drive where tey collect non-perishable food and monetary donations for those in need throughout their community. You can donate here:
In addition to his radio duties, Ortiz still does his fair share of comedy shows. His personality is infectious, providing numerous laughs throughout our interview. Rudy is headlining at Laughs Unlimited in Sacramento on August 23rd and 24th. Be sure to check out his website, rudyortiz.com, to get more information. You can also follow Rudy on Instagram @ItsRudyOrtiz.
