WKCR is pleased to announce its 24-hour birthday broadcast honoring the life and legacy of El Rey of Timbales, Tito Puente, airing from midnight to midnight on Sunday, April 20th, 2026, in celebration of what would have been his 103rd birthday. This special programming will preempt all regularly scheduled Sunday programming.

Born on April 20, 1923, in the New York borough of Manhattan, and grew up in Spanish Harlem.
Puente was first introduced to music through the radio. As a seven-year-old, Puente beat on pots and window frames and was sent to 25-cent piano lessons. He switched to percussion by the age of 10, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa. Puente also learned from the trios and bambas that played at Plaza San Jose in old San Juan. Mambo music and its Afro-Cuban roots influenced Puente and the music he would later produce. When he was 16, he played with Ramon Oliver’s band, subsequently joining Machito’s band.

Puente served in the Navy during World War II, where he played woodwinds in his ship's big band and learned how to arrange. After the war, he attended the Juilliard School of Music to study conducting and orchestration. He also studied jazz drumming and applied his training to timbales, marimba, and vibraphone. In 1948, he started his own group, the Picadilly Boys, which became one of the regular orchestras at The Palladium Ballroom until that venue's closing in 1966.

Tito Puente was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Today, Puente’s legacy remains present in Spanish Harlem, with Tito Puente Way encompassing 110th Street, where the Mambo King spent his early life.

Listeners can join us in honoring El Rey de Los Timbales on 89.9FM or stream his 24-hour birthday celebration live on our website, wkcr.org. Online listening is available 24/7 at wkcr.org via our web stream.