TEMPE, Ariz. — KJZZ is proud to announce the opening of its international business desk in Mexico City. Rodrigo Cervantes has already started working as the bureau chief while a senior field correspondent will be selected shortly; both will base their operations out of the studios of Concepto Radial on the Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Mexico City campus. With this desk, KJZZ becomes the first local public radio station in the United States to open an international news bureau.
The inauguration of this new desk comes at an opportune time, as trade has drawn Arizona and Mexico closer together. Total imports and exports reached $15.8 billion in 2014, and Mexico is now the state’s top trading partner. Because of this, decisions that are made in Mexico City have significant effects on the Phoenix economy and businesses based in the state. KJZZ has opened the Mexico City Desk in order to keep listeners informed about the complexities of international trade, new business investments on both sides of the border and the economic policies agreed on in the Mexican capital.
Rodrigo Cervantes sees the international bureau as a “natural fit” because Arizona and Mexico already have so many cultural, economic, and social connections. “The goal is to make those connections work and build a bridge between Mexico and the audience of KJZZ,” he said. And by opening this “door to the Mexican capital, we’ll be opening up the rest of Latin America to Phoenix," said Cervantes.
Cervantes comes to KJZZ from Monterrey in northern Mexico, where he was the Business Editor for Grupo Reforma’s El Norte daily newspaper. Before that he spent seven years as the newsroom editor of MundoHispánico, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Spanish-language media company. This new position at KJZZ is something of a homecoming for him, since he earned his undergraduate degree from the Tecnológico de Monterrey at Mexico City before going on to get his MBA at CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Cervantes and the future senior field correspondent will be able to use the Tecnológico’s Concepto Radial studios in return for offering university students there a unique opportunity to gain skills and experience in public radio journalism.
Mark Moran, associate general manager for news, considers the Mexico City Desk “the next logical extension to covering the American Southwest.” KJZZ currently leads the Fronteras: The Changing America Desk multi-station collaboration, covering border issues and the region's changing demographics. The project began in 2010. The Mexico City Desk builds off of KJZZ’s proven experience in telling international stories and shifts the spotlight to the Mexican capital. “We need to understand our region on a much broader level,” said Moran, because “the policies that are written in Mexico have a direct economic impact on the state of Arizona.”
KJZZ 91.5 FM, serving approximately 300,000 weekly listeners in the Phoenix area, broadcasts a mix of local and NPR news, entertainment, jazz and blues.