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A few Houston radio observations

105.3 is no longer carrying MASALA radio.

Also I read on LA CALLEs Facebook page:

Listen to us on 102.5 in North Houston, changes coming.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Was familiar with the categories, but I don't have the trained ear to recognize all the different Tropical sub-genres when listening!

I wonder how much of an audience there is for Tropical in Houston. There have been some efforts here with the format in the past--I think one or two of KAMA's predecessors on 104.9 ran a Tropical-leaning format, and IIRC KEYH had a short-lived Tropical format called "Sonido" which may have targeted Central Americans. My memory may be somewhat fuzzy on these.

I understand the demographic differences, just wonder if there are sufficient numbers to support the format here.
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I think Sonido was targeted more towards Mexicans from Mexico DF. As they played lots of cumbias from banda like Chicos del Barrio, Sonora Dinamita and Banda like that.
 
Mrtejano said:
I think Sonido was targeted more towards Mexicans from Mexico DF. As they played lots of cumbias from banda like Chicos del Barrio, Sonora Dinamita and Banda like that.
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Central American focus. Mexico City has not had a tropical / cumbia station for several decades. Sonora Dinamita is from El Salvador (and a rip-off of the name of the big Colombian group),
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I wonder how much of an audience there is for Tropical in Houston. There have been some efforts here with the format in the past--I think one or two of KAMA's predecessors on 104.9 ran a Tropical-leaning format, and IIRC KEYH had a short-lived Tropical format called "Sonido" which may have targeted Central Americans. My memory may be somewhat fuzzy on these.
Click to expand...

The whole Mexican keyboard-base cumbia "sonidero" style pretty much died in the early 2000's. The genre was so widely bootlegged that record companies like Monterrey based DISA just quit producing.

The Colombian cumbia, not as compatible with Mexican taste, was also fading as the Vallenato took over in the tropical arena but, other than Carlos Vives, did not gain international acceptance.
 
old school radio said:
You can't possibly take anything serious from the translator owners. Too many failed attempts with ALL Spanish formats. Just a Complete Disaster!
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Limited coverage in an 11-county market is part of the issue.

Then, all the viable formats are taken on much better signals: Adult hits, CHR, Adult CHR, Regional Mexican (one all-personality, the others two regional variants).

So low budget translators with limited coverage are doing either limited-appeal niche formats or trying to compete with well done bigger stations in a market where there is not enough trickle-down money.
 
In order to make money, you must first have some money to invest. All the Transalator owners have no money for marketing, research, pay roll,sales staff etc etc.. Transalators that are owned and operated by serious companies do well even in the niche market.
 
old school radio said:
In order to make money, you must first have some money to invest. All the Transalator owners have no money for marketing, research, pay roll,sales staff etc etc.. Transalators that are owned and operated by serious companies do well even in the niche market.
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Not always. Smaller geographical markets like Austin can see well performing translators, whether independent or associated with a group. In big area markets, like Houston, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, etc., a translator can not make much of a difference or have significant impact.
 
old school radio said:
I agree.. But i don't think we've seen one Transalator programmed correctly and done the right way. I would love to see it. We probably won't.
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Translators are just low power radio stations. There is no "special sauce" to making them work. In Houston, the HD-2/3 plus translator combos get over 5 total shares and a couple bill significant numbers. Albuquerque also has some significant translators, due to their location at the big mountain transmitter site.
 
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