My Day with the (ex) Barrio Boyz!

A few weeks ago I got to spend an afternoon with Hans, Angel, Louie and David of the Boyz del Barrio, formerly known as the Barrio Boyz. 

If you don't remember them, they used to be the Latino answer to early 90's boy groups like Boyz II Men, NSync, and 98 degrees. They were able to combine smooth R&B with Latin beats and could sing in English and Spanish. Their most famous hit was a duet with Selena, titled "Donde Quiera Que Estes," which was a number one hit.

They're on the comeback trail now and I got the pleasure of interviewing them. Check out my report:

What is funny about this is that I first met Angel Ramirez when I was covering a film he did called "Sacred Game." The movie made it's way through the festival circuit if you missed its release. Afterwards we played phone tag for months in trying to get all the old Barrio Boyz together in one place for the interview.  We finally met up at their music directors home in Upstate, NY and I had a great time talking to them, listening to them reminisce about old times and talk about what they were planning to do in the future.

This is the era of boy band comebacks, I recently went to a NKOTB concert and those guys were better than ever. I hope they do well. Thanks for the interview!

End of An Era At Telemundo 47

Here is a group photo of me (and my baby daughter) with the Telemundo 47 weekend crew on my last day at Telemundo in 2007.

I bring this up because this past Friday was a bittersweet day for me. I was invited to drinks with many of my former colleagues from Telemundo's Noticiero 47, the Local spanish language news program where I started my career. It was great seeing many of the people I worked with, have some drinks, and dance to great music.

Unfortunately, we came together to mark the end of an era at Telemundo 47. They recently announced the elimination of the Morning, Midday and Weekend newscasts, and layoffs for everyone who supported those programs.

The reason of course is the economy. Telemundo, like most networks these days, is struggling to compete in this ever competitive marketplace for ratings and ad dollars vs it's peers and the new media model where people get their news from a lot of sources than just their TVs.

On top of that, Telemundo is affected by the unique position it has been in these last 8 years. NBC Universal, a subsidiary of General Electric bought Telemundo in 2001 for almost 2 billion dollars. These days, GE is struggling as a company, and the NBC divisions are all trying to deal with the changing media landscape. My husband, who follows business closely, once told me that Telemundo will always get the short end of any restructuring stick. If NBC is struggling to find revenue for their news programs on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, it's various websites, as well as it's smaller cable affiliates, will they have any appetite left to spend money and energy trying to save Telemundo, which caters to what they consider the relatively small Spanish-speaking audience? In 2006 The National Association of Hispanic Broadcasters wrote a letter to NBC protesting the cuts announced then in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, and in 2001, the NAHB protested the original proposed purchase of Telemundo by NBC, expressing doubt of NBC's true commitment to the Hispanic Community.

Whatever the business or political reasons, it is always sad to see friends and former colleagues lose jobs. As someone still starting in this business, it does look scary to see the bigger news networks cutting while we are still trying to build.

But like true Latinos, we take these changes in stride. Despite such devastating news, my friends at Telemundo kept their heads up, supported each other, and ended the evening dancing and having a few drinks. Rather than wallow in the events of what happened, they celebrated what they had experienced together, and hoped for a better future.

I am sure I will stay close to all the people who worked with me at Telemundo 47. They gave me my start, showed me the ropes, and allowed me to imagine myself as a reporter. The bright spot of it all is that in this business, people tend to work with each other again and again. I look forward to that possibility.