Article from The Press Enterprise: Written by Janet Zimmerman
http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130917-region-dying-musician-finally-gets-radio-play.ece
Long before he was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2010, Sergio Palafox dreamed of hearing his music played on the radio.
Now, weakened by the cancer and nearing the end of his life, Palafox, 31, will finally get his wish.
Coyote Radio, the online station at Cal State San Bernardino, will host an interview with the fledgling musician and play his tunes. The live show airs from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, on the Internet, at http://radio.csusb.edu, and will be replayed several times through Sunday.
Getting to the university’s studio in a wheelchair and on oxygen will take all the strength Palafox has left, said his friend, Yvonne Hernandez, of Ontario. He will be accompanied by a few friends and family, but other observers will be limited. He was too weak on Tuesday to speak on the phone from his Fontana home, where he is on hospice care.
“He’s excited. He’s just trying to get his rest so he has enough energy to get there,” said Hernandez, who is the mother of Palafox’s 3-year-old son, Gavin.
Palafox’s booking at Coyote Radio came in a roundabout way.
One of his friends won him tickets to the Rock the Bells, the hip-hop music festival in San Bernardino on Sept. 7. It was there he met Amanda Fernandez, of Rancho Cucamonga, a junior at CSUSB.
She chatted with Hernandez and Palafox and learned about his plight. Fernandez also found out about his desire to hear his songs played on the radio.
That’s when she told them she is the promotions director for Coyote Radio.
“I told him I’d do my best to make it happen,” she said.
Fernandez, 20, felt an instant connection to Palafox because of her own health struggles. For nearly a decade she has battled lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue, joint pain and headaches, and endured treatments that included chemotherapy.
“I related to him. Music was my outlet when I was really sick so I knew how important it was to him,” she said.
Fernandez went home and listened to Palafox’s music on YouTube and SoundCloud, a social platform for music sharing.
“I thought it was really good. He makes beats, he raps, writes and plays guitar. I was amazed because it’s really well put together. It sounds professional and the lyrics are good,” she said.
Some of Palafox’s YouTube videos were put together while he was in the hospital for one of two bone-marrow transplants. His track “Survivor” was recorded at City of Hope in Duarte, with the microphone fastened to his IV pole.
Palafox’s lyrics in his song “Still I Try” delve in to his fight against cancer, and the piece “My Angels” is about the strength he draws from his four children.
Palafox’s other children, Isaac, 11, Anabelle, 9, and Angelina, 7, live with their mother in San Bernardino.
Palafox, who was a hospital maintenance worker before he got sick, taught himself to play the keyboard and guitar. He writes, performs and produces his own music.
Coyote Radio’s music director described the music as “super positive, Chicano hip hop.”
The Palafox special will be a first for Coyote Radio, which has never done such an extensive promotion of an artist, said Lacey Kendall, a broadcast and marketing consultant to the university.
The station plays all genres of music by unsigned artists from San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.
“Our goal is to elevate local artists,” Kendall said.
For Palafox, it worked.
The Sergio Palafox Radio Special
Music and interview airs live on Wednesday, Sept. 18, from 10 to 11 a.m.; reruns at 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday, and noon Sunday on Cal State San Bernardino’s Coyote Radio, online at http://radio.csusb.edu.
Palafox’s work can be heard on YouTube and SoundCloud by searching Mistery909
The Empires Dungeon 