It's 3:30 PM on a Saturday and Liliana Ayende arrives to the 105.9
studio in Manhattan in a flurry of apologies for being late, cursing changes to
the New York subway system's weekend schedule that almost everyone else in the
city has known about for months. Ayende, the thirty-one years old energetic and friendly DJ of the Latino Mix program weekdays from 10 AM to 3 PM, hasn't had time to notice the
world outside her studio. For six months, the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and Cuban mother from Jersey City, New Jersey, has been taking Spanish-speaking listeners in
the New York on a trip to the top spot in the country's toughest radio market.
In the process, Ayende has been blazing a trail for women in radio.
Latina women in particular.
Ayende was faced with male criticism in her other job locations, she said. "When I got (to Philadelphia) men would look at you like ‘ah-hah she is a girl,’" Ayende said referring to her old job as a DJ at La Mega 104.9 FM in Philadelphia. "When they see you on stage interviewing an artist, and when they see you on air doing a lot of technical stuff... they see that it is not just to open the mic and talk, but there’s a lot of things going on at the same time and they see what you do, that is when they appreciate you more."


Not only does Ayende show men that she can do her job well, she alsohas proven that she can stay in the moral standards that people have of women.
"I just want to bring self-esteem to women," she said. "When they listen to the station I want them to feel happy about themselves and try to do it in an educated way, where women can feel like they have a friend over the radio,and they don’t feel intimidated by me." Ayende realizes that as a woman in radio it is not easy to find a job. You have to prove yourself time after time and work hard.

"If you are a women in radio you have to open up the doors for
yourself," she said. According to Ayende a way to open up the doors is to find internships
in what you love to do. She found her internships during her years at Sacred
Heart University in Puerto Rico. She recommends others to get internships
during their senior year of high school and during their college years.
Ayende believes that finding a job that gives you a lot of money is
not important. As long as you have passion for what you doing, she said, money
shouldn’t matter until your happy doing your job. "First you have to follow you passion," she said. "You have to want to do this for free. Don’t try to do it because of the money. The money will follow you." Her parents wanted to help her figure out what her passion was and what she wanted to do with her life. As an only child Ayende would receive everything she wanted, she said. But her parents didn’t want to spoil her. By giving Ayende what she wanted, was her parent’s way to assure that Ayende knew what she wanted to do. "To have parents like I have it was a great experience," Ayende said.
"The self-esteem they put in me was great."
She took that self-esteem with her in her job search to work at a radio station in Puerto Rico. Her search was successful; she ended up interning at WAPA, a radio station for 9 months. She finally got her break-through after a DJ that work at the radio station got sick Ayende asked her boss for the opportunity to prove herself as a DJ for one day. Ayende did just that. She ended up working at the radio station as a DJ for one more year. "Since the time (the boss) gave me that opportunity," Ayende said. "I knew what to do because I was there 9 months without pay. And everyone would be like ‘why you going there wasting you time,’ I was not wasting my time, I was learning."Her knowledge came in handy when she was competing against 10 men for a nights and weekend DJ position for COSMOS 94.7 FM, a Top 40 station. After being interviewed, Ayende received the DJ position.

She worked at the station for 3 years until she was called to work at the radio station in Philadelphia full-time. Ayende enjoys her constant interaction with celebrities like Marc
Anthony, Olga Tañon, Elvis Crespo and the deceased Celia Cruz. She takes advantage of
her power as a member in the media when it comes to getting front row seats
to a concert and getting special treatment for being a radio personality.
But with the position as a radio DJ, Ayende has to make the audience feel
like she is next to them no matter what they are doing. Some people can be
home cleaning, others in can be driving or be at the beach tuning in to the station.
"It is hard to believe that millions of people are listening to you,
because you are here in four walls," she said."You open the mic like‘who is
listening to me?’ but there are people listening to you.

When a DJ talks you have to smile. If you smile, even if they not seeing you, they will perceive that your smiling." In radio a lot of energy has to be put in into your voice. You have to be creative and edge, Ayende said. After being in radio since 1991, Ayende still find enjoyment in her job as radio DJ. "I feel passion about music that is why radio for me it’s everything," Ayende said. "I am doing my hobby and I am being paid for it."