Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dial up a new show
WLRN’s ‘Sundial’ focuses on S. Florida culture.
How do you follow up a popular radio show like WLRN’s “Topical Currents,” which ended its 18-year run Sept. 28?
You start with a new host. That’s the station’s afternoon news anchor, Luis Hernandez. And a catchy South Florida name, which took a couple of tries.
“We wanted sun somehow in the name,” Hernandez said of the brainstorming meetings at the South Florida NPR affiliate in Miami. “We came up with ‘Day in the Sun’ and we all loved it. We wanted that one,” he said. But the staff found it had already been used in a segment about Miami Beach by its mayor, Philip Levine, on Sirius XM. Then there was “Under the Sun,” but that had been used years ago by WLRN for a special series.
Other rejected ideas included “Hear It Now,’ “Front Page’’ and “Around South Florida.”
The winner: “Sundial,” which debuts 1 p.m. Monday with Hernandez as the solo host.
“It could be dial like dialing in or dial like a dial on the radio,” said Hernandez, a Puerto Rican native who grew up in West Palm Beach and lives in Kendall. “Dial in and tell us your thoughts.”
Since 1999, listeners from Monroe to Palm Beach counties have been doing just that during the 1 p.m. “Topical Currents’’ program. Its creator and cohost, Joseph Cooper, retired Sept. 28. Cooper’s co-host, Bonnie Berman, is staying with the radio station but will not be part of “Sundial.”
The new one-hour show will continue its predecessor’s focus: highlighting local authors, chefs, media personalities and South Floridians discussing culture, arts, news and politics.
“We are not reinventing the wheel. That program, a lot of the time, hit on exactly what we want to do, which is local, what life is like in South Florida. Everything from the news to where to eat, the arts, and everything, and that’s what we want to keep doing,” said Hernandez who has been at WLRN since 2014. “What is unique about life in South Florida, this show has to be the voice of that.”
In addition to local newsmakers, Hernandez will have WLRN reporters talking about their latest investigative pieces.
Hernandez said his show won’t strictly stick to a script. He enjoys speaking off the cuff.
“I like to have conversations with people. I like to go completely off script right away if I know I can go in another direction with somebody and I am not afraid to do that,” he said. “It’s going to depend on when that guest is sitting in there with me if I need to do something to really get them to open up, then that’s what I am gonna do. I am not always going to follow the script.”
The show, which will air 1 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, can be heard on 91.3 FM in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami area and 91.3 FM or 101.9 FM (depending on location) in Palm Beach County.
Hernandez said he hopes his listeners, “feel like they understand what’s happening in their community and they were entertained, that they enjoyed it and want to come back the next day.”