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Opposition to Univision sale

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I looked at the list and it looks like most of the stations being sold are AMs, with Univisión keeping their FMs in those markets. It appears that they included FMs only in markets where they are exiting completely.

I wonder what "miracle programming" the new owners have that they believe will reverse the trend of Hispanic-targeted formats (and their audiences) migrating to FM, just as practically everything else has?
 
TheBigA said:
The NPR station in Miami did an interview with one of the new owners about what they plan to do:

www.wlrn.org

A new Latino media group is buying up — and shaking up — Spanish-language radio

Univision is selling many of its Spanish-language radio stations — including Miami's ultraconservative Radio Mambí — to a group led by Democrats.
www.wlrn.org www.wlrn.org
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The article got a number of things wrong, including the fact that WURN does not beat WAQI in ratings. Of course, WURN is a relatively new station, while WAQI has about 40 years of history as a Spanish news and talk station.

It is interesting to see Agustín Acosta featured. I trained him as a music jock back in the early 80's at Metroplex's WHTT and his first experience with news was covering the President Regan shooting which happened during his shift and he had to coordinate calls and reports. I later helped him become a talk host when I was programming WQBA... and where I also worked with Ninoska.

Interestingly, while I was writing this the article that talked about Acosta's "false" reports on WURN that I am referring to was replaced with a generic one about the sale. The content-critical article was moved to Report Spotlights 'Under-the-Radar' Spanish-Language Radio Disinformation In Miami
 
DavidEduardo said:
Interestingly, while I was writing this the article that talked about Acosta's "false" reports on WURN that I am referring to was replaced with a generic one about the sale.
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You're referring to this:

“Y’know, as someone who works with hundreds of election volunteers," Mercado said, "to me Agustin Acosta’s comments that 'Thousands of dead people voted, that thousands of people who weren't citizens voted, that thousands of people voted from prison' (and, by the way, Mercado is quoting Acosta directly from the "Cada Tarde" recordings) was really alarming because it really does undermine belief in our democracy and our electoral process."
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The writer of the story quotes Andrea Mercado. She's the one who calls the reports false. I'm not aware that he had any facts to back up his accusations. But whenever they've been brought up in court, they've been shot down.

www.factcheck.org

Thin Allegations of 'Dead People' Voting - FactCheck.org

Several of President Donald Trump's supporters have claimed or suggested -- without providing evidence -- that a substantial number of votes were fraudulently cast by "dead people" in Pennsylvania.
www.factcheck.org www.factcheck.org

Since you know and trained him, is he a news reporter, or is he a commentator? If he's commenting, then he can make up whatever he wants. If he's presenting news, he would need to attribute his numbers to something or someone. Otherwise it's false.
 
I may be wrong, but the three tower array for KTNQ appears to be on the roof of a large warehouse building in Industry. So I guess there won't be any valuable tower property to sell.
 
Thats one way to keep trucks from running to your towers. If I think there is another station diplexed on those towers too. There are 5 towers total. Yes KEIB 1150 is on those tower.
 
TheBigA said:
Since you know and trained him, is he a news reporter, or is he a commentator?
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Comentator for last 25 years, first on WQBA then several of the locally owned stations.
 
TheBigA said:
I may be wrong, but the three tower array for KTNQ appears to be on the roof of a large warehouse building in Industry. So I guess there won't be any valuable tower property to sell.
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It's five towers, half wave, shared with 1150 in LA. The land is owned by one of the sons of Cecil Heftel, and KTNQ leases from him and then KTNQ sub-leases to the iHeart station.

The array is not on the roof. The warehouses were built around the towers and there are "wells" where the towers are located. The counter-poise system is at roof level, over the parking lots. Designed and installed by Ron Rackley.
 
The New Chico said:
Sure looks that way. Actually 5 towers spread over the two big warehouse structures. What a wild setup!
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What is fun to see is the copper "net" of wire over the parking and loading dock areas.
 
DavidEduardo said:
What is fun to see is the copper "net" of wire over the parking and loading dock areas.
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I read several years ago that the RF shielding in those buildings is so good that the KTNQ's 50 kW signal received in the buildings is the equivalent of the xmitter facility being at least a mile away.

Speaking of copper netting, many years ago when the 1340 KIST tower was on top of a hotel building on State St in Santa Barbara, that copper ground radial netting was actually quite beautiful. And not to mention, coverage, at least in a car radio, was seemingly nearly local all the way to Thousand Oaks. Since they moved the facility to another location and reduced power the signal in that area is much weaker. Of course it's KCLU now and is on 88.3 in TO, and 102.3 in SB so the AM is virtually meaningless.
 
ercjncpr said:
radioinsight.com

FCC Approves Latino Media Network Purchase Of 18 Univision Stations

The FCC has approved Latino Media Network's $60 million acquisition of eighteen stations in ten markets from TelevisaUnivision. The approval
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
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Something is either missing, or I just haven't seen it, but the press release being circulated about this new company does not seem to indicate the main language that will eventually be spoken on these stations. Spanish?, English?, French?, multiple ...?
 
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TomásEstefan said:
Speaking of copper netting, many years ago when the 1340 KIST tower was on top of a hotel building on State St in Santa Barbara, that copper ground radial netting was actually quite beautiful.
Click to expand...
It was an office building, not a hotel (the KIST studios were on the top floor and the transmission line literally went through the roof to the tower) but I did get to see the radial netting back in the 1980s when I worked in Santa Barbara and it did indeed have an artistic quality to it.
 
BLA said:
Something is either missing, or I just haven't seen it, but the press release being circulated about this new company does not seem to indicate the main language that will eventually be spoken on these stations. Spanish?, English?, French?, multiple ...?
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The presumption is that the stations will remain programmed in Spanish, given the corporate name and the backgrounds of the principals, although precisely what changes in format will be implemented have not been disclosed.
 
K.M. Richards said:
The presumption is that the stations will remain programmed in Spanish, given the corporate name and the backgrounds of the principals, although precisely what changes in format will be implemented have not been disclosed.
Click to expand...

My theory is they haven't totally figured that part out yet. They have money and ideology, and they have to shape that into a radio format. It can be done, but some of the investors may have to temper their politics to get it done. For the short term Univision have them a pretty good template to work with. If they stay within the lines, they can do OK.
 
TheBigA said:
My theory is they haven't totally figured that part out yet. They have money and ideology, and they have to shape that into a radio format. It can be done, but some of the investors may have to temper their politics to get it done. For the short term Univision have them a pretty good template to work with. If they stay within the lines, they can do OK.
Click to expand...
Let's see, where have I heard that phrase before - "they have money and ideology, and they will shape that into a radio format". Ah yes, it was Air America, one of the worst conceived networks and formats to ever disgrace the national airwaves.

After their ratings embarrassment, scandal, and absolute radio failure (despite mountains of free positive publicity from the MSM) on a national scale, these (similarly minded) people are back. So we can probably expect ¡Aero America Dos!. These people never learn. Remember how Air America failed because it wasn't "messaged correctly"? We can probably expect the same here.

Looking forward to it, but I won't be able to track and mock because I don't speak Spanish. I can remember back in the day listening to Al Franken in the mornings. When a talent-challenged comedy guy has no writers and has to do four hours of AM Drive live, it becomes what it was, a radio train wreck! But since it was just me and dozens of others listening, no one really knew, but it did provide so much mock-worthy material. Ah, Good Times!
 
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ChannelFlipper said:
Let's see, where have I heard that phrase before - "they have money and ideology, and they will shape that into a radio format". Ah yes, it was Air America, one of the worst conceived networks and formats to ever to disgrace the national airwaves.
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Obviously they didn't have enough money. You pick on the low hanging fruit. You obviously don't remember an all-female radio network that got started around the same time. They tried the same thing, only with all female staff. The failure was quicker & worse.

There are a lot of rich people out there. The trick is getting some of them to use some of that cash in radio. So here's a group that's managed to get some rich people to commit. Now comes the hard part.
 
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