klat houston

[mrtejano]

Well it seems that Univision is trying to get some ratings by having their own Christian station. Formally this station was on KAMA 104.9 HD2 now it's on 1010 AM as well. Amor Celestial, which means CELESTIAL LOVE is on air playing slow contemporary worship songs. No Regional mexican songs, no Mariachi, no Norteño only slow songs.

 

[JoeFM1]

interesting.... Anything to try to get listeners back to antique modulation

 

[Anonymouse]

KCOR 1350 is now playing Spanish Christian music as well here in San Antonio.

 

[davideduardo]

Well it seems that Univision is trying to get some ratings by having their own Christian station. Formally this station was on KAMA 104.9 HD2 now it's on 1010 AM as well. Amor Celestial, which means CELESTIAL LOVE is on air playing slow contemporary worship songs. No Regional mexican songs, no Mariachi, no Norteño only slow songs.

This format was created in Los Angeles by a member of the K-Love 107.5 team for KLVE-HD-2 over 5 years ago. It's a true contemporary Christian format in Spanish.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Right now KLAT is running Astros baseball, so we'll have to wait a few hours to see if Amor Celestial continues on 1010. A quick Google search does not show anything about a format flip or a possible demise of the Univision America talk format.

Is Amor Celestial is distributed by satellite, along with other Univision national formats? Could have been nothing more than feeds getting mixed up at the uplink site, which would explain KCOR.

I'll try to see if I can hear KFLC in DFW to see if there has been a change there.

UPDATE: Checked KFLC 1270 in my wife's car, which also has HD Radio. The KFLC signal is almost lost in the co-channel pileup, but on peaks I could hear that it was playing what sounded like Spanish language Contemporary Christian (BTW I know it was KFLC due to DFW ads in a commercial break.) Not the same as what was being played on KAMA HD2, but close. The KFLC signal was too poor to see if it was the same feed but out of sync with KAMA.

David, had you heard anything definite about these possible changes? You have mentioned before that Spanish language talk radio tends to do poorly.

 

[davideduardo]

Right now KLAT is running Astros baseball, so we'll have to wait a few hours to see if Amor Celestial continues on 1010. A quick Google search does not show anything about a format flip or a possible demise of the Univision America talk format.

The Univision América network ended last month. Each AM station returned to local programming; the press release said that this was to reinforce the "local media" focus of Univision.

http://www.mediamoves.com/2015/06/univision-radio-cancels-talk-shows-flips-am-net-to-music.html

Is Amor Celestial is distributed by satellite, along with other Univision national formats?

None of the Univision formats is satellite distributed. Some of the individual shows are, but the music programming is done locally.

David, had you heard anything definite about these possible changes? You have mentioned before that Spanish language talk radio tends to do poorly.

Spanish language talk radio has only been successful in a few cases in the last 20 years, and then when done locally on stations like KTNQ, WADO and WAQI. The costs are high, so only a few markets can support such a format.

 

[mrtejano]

There was no mix up, the legal ID kept saying in Spanish YOU'RE LISTENING TO AMOR CELESTIAL KLAT 1010 and 104.9 KAMA HD2. A station full of Faith

 

[Mediafrog+]

Wouldn't surprise me if Univision were to sell off most of its AM's, only keeping the top billers. KLAT would probably be put on the block in that case. The different day and night transmitter sites must be a bit of an expense and hassle.

 

[Rolando Becera]

Spanish talk can be quite successful if it's run intelligently and it is not costly. Perhaps a good, professional news operation is indeed costly, but not a talk format. Univision America was a failure as I told Univision presidente Jose Valle when he came up with the idea because spanish radio needs to be local. Especially AM's. Valle (and I suppose others) decided to do away with all local programs. I do not want be misunderstood, but I had a quite successful talk show on KLAT and KESS (Dallas) for years....But Valle (and others?) let their ego interfere. Now, they have a bunch of AM's they don't know how sell and market and promote.....Selling an hour here and an hour there is not professional radio. Actually, Univision only continued what HBC started years ago. As much respect and love I have for various executives for whom I worked, they simply were seduced by the so-called expert consultants they listened to instead of listening to us jocks who were the only real experts.

I still believe that AM Spanish radio has a role and it can be successful. It can be sold. But it can not be run at corporate level. It has to be run locally and without any "experts." It has to be run by talented broadcasters, not by salesmen.

 

[davideduardo]

I still believe that AM Spanish radio has a role and it can be successful. It can be sold. But it can not be run at corporate level. It has to be run locally and without any "experts." It has to be run by talented broadcasters, not by salesmen.

In reference to this, I'd point to the legislation of the H. Congreso de la Uniión, Mexico's Congress, which declared via legislation that AM broadcasting in "normal situations" was not viable today. They proceeded to create a process whereby about 75% of Mexico's AM stations migrated to FM and could not be replaced.

Only some station in border zones and major cities and a few that program to indigenous populations will remain at the end of the process.

This is what Canada has done in a somewhat different manner, reducing the AM herd by more than half.

The major issues are the increasing man-made noise on AM, the inadequate coverage of growing metro areas by "old" AM stations and the rejection of the band by most people under 50 irrespective of the programming offered.

In the US and Mexico, where agency sales are important, stations appealing to older audiences are not "bought" for client campaigns.

In the US, I can't think of a single successful AM Spanish language station except in markets where there is no Spanish language FM.

 

[Rolando Becera]

David, so Mexico and Canada find that AM stations are no longer viable. Wow! Descrubireron el agua tibia. I have no idea what works in Mexico and Canada....at my age and at this moment in time I'm quite happy singing and enjoying my retirement. But I insist that if an AM station were to be run intelligently here in Houston and in Dallas, it will be successful If I were younger I'd be willing to tackle it. But, I repeat, it has to be run locally....no experts or consultants or salesmen in the GM office.....the Sales Dept has to be under programming.....everything has to be run by people who know not by those who think they know....

 

[mrtejano]

David, so Mexico and Canada find that AM stations are no longer viable. Wow! Descrubireron el agua tibia. I have no idea what works in Mexico and Canada....at my age and at this moment in time I'm quite happy singing and enjoying my retirement. But I insist that if an AM station were to be run intelligently here in Houston and in Dallas, it will be successful If I were younger I'd be willing to tackle it. But, I repeat, it has to be run locally....no experts or consultants or salesmen in the GM office.....the Sales Dept has to be under programming.....everything has to be run by people who know not by those who think they know....

Mr Becera (assuming it's really you) I want to welcome you here. I always enjoyed listening to you on the Radio since I was in High School. This Reagan High school Graduate from class 2001 enjoyed your program and miss the days when you were on air. And I agree with you, Univision has changed a lot since back in the days. I really enjoyed KLTN 102.9 when it was ESTEREO LATINO. Now it's just almost the same as 93.3. They did away with PARTY 104.9 to start AMOR/TUMUSICA/LATINOMIX which has nothing on MEGA 101. Even though some won't agree MEGA 101 Rules on that format. UNIMAS caught my attention for a while and then it made me lose interest in it. I started listening to La Mejor 104.5 now. Univision had Premios Furia Musical, never heard from them again.

 

[frankberry]

mrtejano,

I believe it really IS Mr. Rolando Becera.

Frank

 

[davideduardo]

David, so Mexico and Canada find that AM stations are no longer viable. Wow! Descrubireron el agua tibia. I have no idea what works in Mexico and Canada....at my age and at this moment in time I'm quite happy singing and enjoying my retirement. But I insist that if an AM station were to be run intelligently here in Houston and in Dallas, it will be successful If I were younger I'd be willing to tackle it. But, I repeat, it has to be run locally....no experts or consultants or salesmen in the GM office.....the Sales Dept has to be under programming.....everything has to be run by people who know not by those who think they know....

The biggest issue is that most larger market AM stations in the US do not cover their entire metro (Nielsen's MSA) day and night. In fact, in the top 100 markets, there are less than 175 stations that cover 80% or more of the market day and night. So that is less than two per metro that can even compete in the entire marketplace.

And as noise levels increase, coverage is effectively reduced. The ITU a few months ago determined that it requires a 10 mV/m signal to overcome interference in urban environments. And reception at any power level is horrible inside homes and commercial buildings with CFL or LED lighting, computers and CPU-controlled devices as well as dimmers, wall warts and the like.

The last generation to grow up on AM is now in its 60's and 70's, meaning that the biggest challenge is to get anyone that advertisers care about to listen to a band they consider to have bad quality and which is noisy and "full of static".

 

[davideduardo]

Univision had Premios Furia Musical, never heard from them again.

Furia Musica (Owned by Televisa) stopped publishing a US edition, and the "Premios" died with it.