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Star 94.1 HD3 has awakened again!

P

powers

Was tuning around today and found a new station on KMYI-HD3 called Retro. I'm not sure if it's just for testing purposes or permanent (or, permanent-for-now). It's a Spanish language station that plays mostly English 80s/90s pop hits and it mirrors a channel on the iHeartRadio app but does not simulcast that channel's playlist. The announcements are in Spanish and reference iHeartRadio.

I like the format, which is similar to Sunny 98.1, albeit a little more AC. Since the music is mostly English, it'll appeal to all listeners, but I don't understand the presentation being in Spanish, unless it is perhaps targeting Tijuana listeners who have an HD radio. It's a nice find though. More upbeat than the previous "Breeze" format that was there.
 
powers said:
I like the format, which is similar to Sunny 98.1, albeit a little more AC. Since the music is mostly English, it'll appeal to all listeners, but I don't understand the presentation being in Spanish, unless it is perhaps targeting Tijuana listeners who have an HD radio. It's a nice find though. More upbeat than the previous "Breeze" format that was there.
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It won't have much of any appeal to anyone who isn't bilingual. Not sure why iHeart is doing it in San Diego other than to have a terrestrial feed for the stream so it can pay lower royalties, though.

As people have discussed on some of the Florida boards, where iHeart is doing something similar with "Magic" in Miami and Ft. Myers, mostly English music with Spanish announcing is common in the Spanish speaking world. Mexico has a handful of such stations itself. That format, however, is mostly popular with those who have higher educational attainments, which means the well off. You don't see it in many US markets with heavy Mexican populations because most Mexicans who come here are trying to escape poverty in Mexico and, thus, don't come from the upper middle and upper classes.
 
I caught a legal ID at around 3 PM. It wasn't yet correct as KMYI-HD3. I didn't catch the call sign, but it was identifying as an HD2 in San Antonio. I couldn't find it on iHeartRadio's listings in San Antonio so it might be new there and perhaps in other markets as well. I know that even though iHeartRadio took down quite a few HD extra channels they still keep at least one going for each of their specialty live channels on the iHeartRadio app. The station I used to work for in Monterey (pre-iHeart/Clear Channel), KDON, was the headend feed for their Real Jazz channel, but last year when I was in Monterey it had switched to Kids Pop music as "Kids Club Radio."
 
It sounds like this is "Magic - tus favoritas de siempre" but not Magic branded as the brand is already in use in San Diego

But, According to https://hddirectory.neocities.org/ San Antonio Listing for KXXM, a HD2 had been added listed as "Spanish Hits "Retro". So maybe not.
 
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speer360 said:
Found it
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Yes, I found it as well, and I've been listening to the stream for the past hour. The station on the stream is ID'ing as KHFI-HD2 (or 3, not sure) in Georgetown, which is in the Austin market. So my guess is the San Antonio station (likely KXXM as mentioned previously) is now carrying the format as well and feeding a slightly different version of the format to KMYI-HD3 and maybe other stations too. Remember, the format is the same format but not identical to the version that is streaming and on the app. So KHFI is feeding it for the app stream and KXXM is feeding it to KMYI and/or other stations.
 
The other thing I can't understand about this format is that I've listened for about 70 minutes now, and have not heard a single Spanish song. So why the sweepers in Spanish? I understand that this is similar to music stations in many markets in Mexico, where they play play little to no songs in Spanish, but since this is iHeartRadio and serving stations in the US, it makes no sense to me why they wouldn't be presenting the format in English, or at least in a bilingual fashion. I know that Texas and California have highly concentrated Hispanic markets, but the music is obviously presenting to English listeners. I'm enjoying it, and I'm sure many other listeners who find it on HD Radio will enjoy it, but the announcements in Spanish (right now they are just sweepers every couple of songs) kind of throws off the whole format. In San Diego, they are on the HD3 of an English targeting station anyway, so this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Any explanations?
 
powers said:
The other thing I can't understand about this format is that I've listened for about 70 minutes now, and have not heard a single Spanish song. So why the sweepers in Spanish? I understand that this is similar to music stations in many markets in Mexico, where they play play little to no songs in Spanish, but since this is iHeartRadio and serving stations in the US, it makes no sense to me why they wouldn't be presenting the format in English, or at least in a bilingual fashion. I know that Texas and California have highly concentrated Hispanic markets, but the music is obviously presenting to English listeners. I'm enjoying it, and I'm sure many other listeners who find it on HD Radio will enjoy it, but the announcements in Spanish (right now they are just sweepers every couple of songs) kind of throws off the whole format. In San Diego, they are on the HD3 of an English targeting station anyway, so this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Any explanations?
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They are targeting listeners who speak Spanish as a primary language or are bilingual. That's why the imaging is in Spanish. They don't care about getting listeners who have a primary language of English with that channel. iHeart already has stations going after those listeners.

Again, why iHeart would be taking that approach in San Diego doesn't make much sense to me. San Diego's Mexican population wouldn't be expected to be listeners to that station, and I don't think it has a sales team on the Mexican side. Then again, HD Radio has been slow to catch on with no guarantees that it ever will. Anything on HD subchannels is going to have a hard time getting listeners. If nothing else, we're talking about it. That's probably more than it would get with most of the other formats iHeart has to offer on HD.
 
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