Gilbert Guzman - Constant Force The Pegasus Story - Part 1
Frank Del Rio Dj Pebo Marty Guzman (Cirkis)
Frank Del Rio
Frank Del Rio was influenced by Saturday Night Fever: [the movie] having everything he wanted. It was all New York stuff. The styles, the DJs and the music was all still too advanced for L.A. and very difficult to mix. It was all live instruments and drums. They didn’t have any electronic equipment such as beat machines.
He joined World Wide Productions in Huntington Park High School led by his partner Marcos whom he joined because they had the same equipment. They merged and became mobile dj “Finesse” and went up against other powerful systems like Pegasus and Audio Climax. Huntington Park, Bell, Maywood was theirs, but they ventured into East L.A. and surrounding areas. They competed in football games against Playboy Productions and other popular productions of the time around the Copa on Soto Street where Ray was the resident DJ.
The early 80s had a lot of good disco, when disco was flaunting its “stuff.” He was in the record pool getting a lot of domestic local stuff.
Frank had a sound system and was a lot into Rock n Roll, Boston, Led Zepellin and stuff like that. [he played at] A few parties and [began] getting really interested in stuff like that then went and purchased some professional equipment, thinking EVs (without the Cerwin Vegas) for the lower end. A friend of his, Ernie Moreno, worked for a sound store and needed somebody to help him at a nightclub in Hollywood named Tropicana. Frank eagerly agreed and thus began his nightclub disc jockey career before moving to Circus Disco in 1988.
He praised Ernie for his mixing abilities and learned a lot from him being partners with him at the Tropicana. “He’s the one that was really good. It was just that ‘touch’ on the turntables that was really cool. The pitch was really excellent but him [as well in] the handling of the mix itself, you know. That’s what really got me going. He was a great dj, awesome. He had a love interest that kind of took him away from his profession. But he became very, very good, probably one of the best ones I’ve ever heard.”
On May 28 2005, Frank returned to his glory days as the much-anticipated guest DJ for Back To Disco’s Rock Of The 80’s at the Granada in Alhambra, reminiscent of the olden days at the Casa Camino Real. Tommy Arenas came through as his manager at the time. Frank joined a legendary lineup of DJs such as Tony Morales of Elektra/Ballet, Infinity, Prophecy, Face to Face, Vinde Champagne, Shezoray, Alpha Surveyor, Eclipse, and more. Back To Disco had the honor of employing Frank’s flawless mixing talents for several years until his passing.
We honor you, simply one of the best ever.
