Palm Springs Fuego is the future

[Nick Seneca]

I'm so impressed with the new Fuego format which airs on KPST 103.5 here in the Palm Springs market.

Kudos to Entravision for coming up with this fresh new format for American radio. For those unfamiliar with the "Bilingual Rhythmic" format, it's comparable to Rhythmic CHR except that just about every track is entirely in Spanish. The LA based air personalities are fluidly bi-lingual, incorporating both languages into their breaks. And they're perfect! They're youthful, conversational, totally natural and non-hyped in their deliveries, and full of relevant content! Eddie "Shoboy" Sotelo is the morning host.

Curiously, all the imaging is in English with the occasional espanol thrown in. "Fuego - playing hot hits sin tanto bla, bla, bla!" Love it! It's a female cold voice, with few, if any production elements.

I'm neither a businessman nor a statistician, but this is a format that acknowledges the developing demographic reality of our country. It'll be interesting to see if it really takes hold. Right now, it seems to be on smaller signals, but I would love to hear Fuego on a full market coverage large market 50 kw FM. I think it'll happen eventually.

I'm hoping that Fuego is emblematic of evolution to a time when Southern California and Northern Baja will have become a truly bi-cultural society. A region where all people of all ages on both sides of the border have at least a working knowledge of each other's language. A region where everyone enjoys and embraces each other's music and cultural heritage. I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime, but perhaps we're on the way.

Nick Seneca

 

[Kelly A]

So in other words, you think the station is En Fuego?

 

[Nick Seneca]

So in other words, you think the station is En Fuego?

lol, well, it may not be en Fuego; I don't recall hearing any local advertisers yet. Nevertheless, this is a forward-looking format. I do hope that young non-Hispanic listeners will stumble upon this music and come to think of it as their own.

Nick Seneca

 

[davideduardo]

I'm neither a businessman nor a statistician, but this is a format that acknowledges the developing demographic reality of our country. It'll be interesting to see if it really takes hold. Right now, it seems to be on smaller signals, but I would love to hear Fuego on a full market coverage large market 50 kw FM. I think it'll happen eventually.

To cover the Palm Springs market all you need is a Class A FM or even a translator with adequate height. The market is very small geographically, and in a valley.

I'm hoping that Fuego is emblematic of evolution to a time when Southern California and Northern Baja will have become a truly bi-cultural society. A region where all people of all ages on both sides of the border have at least a working knowledge of each other's language.

How many fluent Spanish speaking non-Hispanics do you know? I do not know any.

 

[Saladressing]

I'm so impressed with the new Fuego format which airs on KPST 103.5 here in the Palm Springs market.

I agree. Also Fuego 102.9 in ABQ is a great example of this format. IIRC that station runs a mixshow at like 3am or something that features hip hop tracks. Random, but cool.

And of course there's the brand new Fuego 106.7 in the Phoenix West Valley.

The Denver market still is without this Hispanic Rhythmic format which is confounding due to the demographics of that particular metro area. 34 percent of Denver's population is Hispanic. By way of comparison, Phoenix, thought of generally as a city with a high Hispanic population, is at 43%. When you're driving around the Western U.S. and listening to old fashioned radio like I do when entering a city for 30 mins or so just to sample the market and you get to Denver, it is a lacking format there for sure.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

To cover the Palm Springs market all you need is a Class A FM or even a translator with adequate height. The market is very small geographically, and in a valley.

How many fluent Spanish speaking non-Hispanics do you know? I do not know any.

I actually know at least two. I’m surprised you don’t. I’m sure the number who do are isn’t big, however.

 

[davideduardo]

I actually know at least two. I’m surprised you don’t. I’m sure the number who do are isn’t big, however.

Very common for me is to start speaking Spanish with a Latino and have them answer back in often broken English. Despite the fact that I speak perfect, accent-less university level Spanish, many just can't fathom the fact that a gringo speaks Spanish better than they do!

And there you have the reason why bilingual stations do not generally succeed in the US. First generation nearly all Spanish. Second generation, Spanish at home (with no formal language training) and English with friends and at work. Third generation: Spanish with the grandparents, and nowhere else.

Remember, they had to teach J-Lo Spanish so she could to the Selena (Quintanilla, not Gómez) movie! She is third generation Neuyourican.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Very common for me is to start speaking Spanish with a Latino and have them answer back in often broken English. Despite the fact that I speak perfect, accent-less university level Spanish, many just can't fathom the fact that a gringo speaks Spanish better than they do!

I never spoke Spanish at that level, though it was good enough to hold extended conversations with cabdrivers in Spain, but I've noticed something similar. It probably didn't help that I look like a person with northern European ancestry. My theory is that there's a sense of propriety involved - i.e., when in Rome do as Romans do, and so, for everyday business with Americans, English is the proper language to use even if it's difficult to do so, with Spanish reserved for the home and others of a similar background.

The Denver market still is without this Hispanic Rhythmic format which is confounding due to the demographics of that particular metro area. 34 percent of Denver's population is Hispanic. By way of comparison, Phoenix, thought of generally as a city with a high Hispanic population, is at 43%. When you're driving around the Western U.S. and listening to old fashioned radio like I do when entering a city for 30 mins or so just to sample the market and you get to Denver, it is a lacking format there for sure.

But, to state something that gets said all the time, "Hispanic" is a broad category. In Denver it can encompass people from rural Mexico, people who came from families who arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries to the Spanish-American regions adjacent to New Mexico, people from El Salvador, and more recent immigrants from Colombia and especially Venezuela. All are different from one another in various ways. At the present time, regional Mexican formats seem to predominate on Spanish-language radio here. That may change over time, but, right now, there's not a lot of money in the newer immigrant communities, many of whose members didn't come here legally. They're just trying to survive.

You can say a format is "lacking", and you may be right, but the economic base has to be there to sustain it.

 

[davideduardo]

I never spoke Spanish at that level, though it was good enough to hold extended conversations with cabdrivers in Spain, but I've noticed something similar. It probably didn't help that I look like a person with northern European ancestry. My theory is that there's a sense of propriety involved - i.e., when in Rome do as Romans do, and so, for everyday business with Americans, English is the proper language to use even if it's difficult to do so, with Spanish reserved for the home and others of a similar background.

The problem for me is that my vocabulary in things related to home, family and friendship is considerably limited in English. Think of things like not knowing the English names for different kinds of tools... or how to talk to a plumber for home maintenance.

I've never found any sense of propriety since I first lived in Mexico 62 years ago! It is just that there is zero expectation that a "gringo" might speak good Spanish. In my decades in Puerto Rico, I saw many, many "continentals" (non-Puerto Ricans assigned to mostly management and high tech jobs in local branches of mainland companies) and can't think of more than one or two that spoke good Spanish.

One exception was the head of the FCC field office. On one inspection of a major San Juan station, he looked meticulously at the AM site, noting even one or two things he found lacking. He then went outside and asked the two station engineers for a shovel to inspect the condition of ground wires. At that point, one of the engineers said to the other, "when is this #$#$%& going to stop.

The FCC engineer tore up his brief list of faults and started all over, spending three hours and noting things like cold solder connections on a patch panel, cables not tied and laced and the like. The FCC engineer was married to a Puerto Rican and had learned rather good Spanish but did not use it at work... but he sure understood it!

But, to state something that gets said all the time, "Hispanic" is a broad category. In Denver it can encompass people from rural Mexico, people who came from families who arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries to the Spanish-American regions adjacent to New Mexico, people from El Salvador, and more recent immigrants from Colombia and especially Venezuela. All are different from one another in various ways. At the present time, regional Mexican formats seem to predominate on Spanish-language radio here.

And, as the name says, it is music for Mexicans and some northern Central Americans. Each of the other nations now providing large immigrant groups has very different local equivalents of what is the "country music" of each nation.

That may change over time, but, right now, there's not a lot of money in the newer immigrant communities, many of whose members didn't come here legally. They're just trying to survive.

But it is unlikely they would get on the lists that Nielsen uses to recruit diary-keepers or, even less, metered households. And people with undefined immigrant status will generally not accept being part of a survey where they give their address and other data.

You can say a format is "lacking", and you may be right, but the economic base has to be there to sustain it.

So far, the only formats that have commercial acceptance in the Southwest are Regional Mexican, Rhythmic CHR (reggaetón, etc) and Mexican Adult Hits (Regional soft hits and pop ballads and the like).

 

[Mark Roberts]

The problem for me is that my vocabulary in things related to home, family and friendship is considerably limited in English. Think of things like not knowing the English names for different kinds of tools... or how to talk to a plumber for home maintenance.

I've never found any sense of propriety since I first lived in Mexico 62 years ago! It is just that there is zero expectation that a "gringo" might speak good Spanish. In my decades in Puerto Rico, I saw many, many "continentals" (non-Puerto Ricans assigned to mostly management and high tech jobs in local branches of mainland companies) and can't think of more than one or two that spoke good Spanish.

One exception was the head of the FCC field office. On one inspection of a major San Juan station, he looked meticulously at the AM site, noting even one or two things he found lacking. He then went outside and asked the two station engineers for a shovel to inspect the condition of ground wires. At that point, one of the engineers said to the other, "when is this #$#$%& going to stop.

The FCC engineer tore up his brief list of faults and started all over, spending three hours and noting things like cold solder connections on a patch panel, cables not tied and laced and the like. The FCC engineer was married to a Puerto Rican and had learned rather good Spanish but did not use it at work... but he sure understood it!

And, as the name says, it is music for Mexicans and some northern Central Americans. Each of the other nations now providing large immigrant groups has very different local equivalents of what is the "country music" of each nation.

But it is unlikely they would get on the lists that Nielsen uses to recruit diary-keepers or, even less, metered households. And people with undefined immigrant status will generally not accept being part of a survey where they give their address and other data.

So far, the only formats that have commercial acceptance in the Southwest are Regional Mexican, Rhythmic CHR (reggaetón, etc) and Mexican Adult Hits (Regional soft hits and pop ballads and the like).

The problem for me is that my vocabulary in things related to home, family and friendship is considerably limited in English. Think of things like not knowing the English names for different kinds of tools... or how to talk to a plumber for home maintenance.

Vocabulary has always been harder for me than structure and grammar. I think I'm an outlier in that regard.

(of recent immgrants)

But it is unlikely they would get on the lists that Nielsen uses to recruit diary-keepers or, even less, metered households. And people with undefined immigrant status will generally not accept being part of a survey where they give their address and other data.

To reinforce your point, right now, they might not even have a fixed address.

So far, the only formats that have commercial acceptance in the Southwest are Regional Mexican, Rhythmic CHR (reggaetón, etc) and Mexican Adult Hits (Regional soft hits and pop ballads and the like).

I suppose you could categorize Denver as the Southwest, but that doesn't seem to be the common understanding around here. Either it's the West or Kansas - or, as I like to say, Kansas starts at the intersection of Colfax and York, because that's where the terrain flattens out.

I don't think there's any Spanish-language rhythmic CHR around here but I'm not sure I could detect it unaided. I really can't tell the difference between English-language rhythmic CHR and plain old CHR any more, either.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

Interesting thing about Fuego. They started out playing Spanish CHR, presenting entirely in English. Then they started speaking Spanglish more and more, and I’ve watched their cube diminish dramatically in Sacramento. They have a great signal on L-R and they’re getting killed. This credence to David’s observation that bilingual stations don’t work in the US. If you’re monolingual in either or even dominant on one of them, you may not like it.

 

[davideduardo]

Interesting thing about Fuego. They started out playing Spanish CHR, presenting entirely in English. Then they started speaking Spanglish more and more, and I’ve watched their cube diminish dramatically in Sacramento. They have a great signal on L-R and they’re getting killed. This credence to David’s observation that bilingual stations don’t work in the US. If you’re monolingual in either or even dominant on one of them, you may not like it.

The real issue of bilingual attempts is that it sounds forced or contrived. It's not natural, and not the way bilingual people talk with each other... often called "Spanglish" where words from both languages are mixed naturally.

 

[radioislife2020]

I'm curious about what you think is so Great about Fuego. At least in the Palm Springs market, the station has 0 local presence NONE. You don't see them at Clubs or events you don't see them doing remotes they have very few local advertisers. Last in Spanish ratings. Then again Entravision no longer has much Local presence in this market. KUNA and Grande are really the only stations that are active and full of local advertisers I'm just speaking about Spanish speaking formats.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm curious about what you think is so Great about Fuego. At least in the Palm Springs market, the station has 0 local presence NONE. You don't see them at Clubs or events you don't see them doing remotes they have very few local advertisers. Last in Spanish ratings. Then again Entravision no longer has much Local presence in this market. KUNA and Grande are really the only stations that are active and full of local advertisers I'm just speaking about Spanish speaking formats.

Entravision has a centralized model, which explains the lack of local presence at events. They sell mostly based on their Univision TV affiliation.

Fuego is a concept which I guess they think is attractive to non-Hispanic businesses. The idea that some stations in this type of format have is that, because they appeal to bilingual and better educated Hispanics, they are a better ad medium for general market businesses. Of course, that is pure BS... but it may play with some clients.

Since the Valley is about 55% Hispanic, really no business does not have a predominantly Hispanic staff, and they will see right through that argument; that is the worst kind of stereotyping.

 

[Paul]

Fuego was pretty neat when it was introduced. Now 5 years later, it is struggling in almost every market. Could they fix it? Or did the novelty wear off and it is unfixable? The afternoon guy broadcasts out of the Sacramento studios and does a lot of localized voice tracks for the markets. That is not helping either.

Despite being bilingual myself, I don't enjoy the bilingual programming. I especially don't like when they play a couple of club dance songs like Pitbull, then a Ranchera song. It's like hitting a brick wall.