Bilingual AC in Chicago

[DrJerry]

Emmis Launches Bilingual AC La Exitosa 98.7 New York

As first indicated in our 1/5 Domain Insight, Emmis flipped 98.7 WEPN-FM New York and Gospel 1190 WLIB to Bilingual

radioinsight.com

Just landed in NYC. Demographically, seems a fit for Chicago? I'd like to see/hear it here.

Thoughts?

 

[davideduardo]

Emmis Launches Bilingual AC La Exitosa 98.7 New York

As first indicated in our 1/5 Domain Insight, Emmis flipped 98.7 WEPN-FM New York and Gospel 1190 WLIB to Bilingual

radioinsight.com

Just landed in NYC. Demographically, seems a fit for Chicago? I'd like to see/hear it here.

Thoughts?

It does not fit any market where the bulk of Spanish speaking immigrants are working class people who came here to improve their income and standard of living.

This is a format for markets like Miami and Orlando where most came due to destroyed economies (Puerto Rico) or socialist governments (Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Perú) or terrible drug violence and destroyed economies (Ecuador). The folks who went to those places are middle and upper income class, grew up going to bilingual schools and listening to stations that played lots of English language pop music.

Listeners to Spanish language radio are generally almost all first generation. The folks in Chicago from Mexico never listened to English language music "back in the homeland" and won't in Chicago. Or Philly. Or Detroit.

 

[exbloguero]

Mexico never listened to English language music "back in the homeland" and won't in Chicago. Or Philly. Or Detroit.

If I listen to it, I have been consuming those styles for years. And more so in the cities on the borders, there are thousands of cases from wFM to XENK, without going through regional projects like "Energia digital in Sonora, Stereo cien in CDMX, or chains like extasis de radiorama or MIX de Grupo Acir"

 

[Identnut]

If I listen to it, I have been consuming those styles for years. And more so in the cities on the borders, there are thousands of cases from wFM to XENK, without going through regional projects like "Energia digital in Sonora, Stereo cien in CDMX, or chains like extasis de radiorama or MIX de Grupo Acir"

And that's the issue. The formats in Mexico that get the biggest ratings shares aren't the ones that bill the most. The Regional Mexican stations will get 20 shares but because AC markets to higher socioeconomic levels, the AC stations will bill twice as much.

The people from Mexico who will listen to bilingual AC stations will generally stay in Mexico.

 

[davideduardo]

If I listen to it, I have been consuming those styles for years. And more so in the cities on the borders, there are thousands of cases from wFM to XENK, without going through regional projects like "Energia digital in Sonora, Stereo cien in CDMX, or chains like extasis de radiorama or MIX de Grupo Acir"

My point is that the vast majority of Mexican immigrants to to the US... and to Chicago specifically.... are from the C-, D and E socioeconomic levels, not A, B and C+.

A is "wealthy" and B and C+ are upper middle class and middle class. The folks whose kids go to private schools, learn English, go to college or a professional school. They are also the people who generally do not emigrate from Mexico because they live better there than they could in the U.S.

I was definitely "A" when I owned a dozen stations in Ecuador. Were it not for the government exiling me (and killing my associate newspaper editor) I would have stayed there. I went to Puerto Rico where I had a one-bedroom apartment; In Ecuador I had a hose with 3 live-in maids, a gardener, a watchman and a bodyguard and ate out every night and took trips to Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Europe once a month at least. Who would leave that?

Back in the 60's when I was an "intern" ("Aprendiz") at Organización Radio Centro I was specifically tasked to XERC, Radio Éxitos, which played English and Spanish top 40. That station had almost all A and B socioeconomic class listeners. Our sister, XEJP, Radio Variedades, played only Spanish top 40 and included some of the groups like Los Apson that Éxitos did not play. It's audience was almost all C- and D class.

When Arbitron tried to introduce its ratings to Mexico between 2000 and 2005, they hired me as a consultant. I did meetings with every group in CDMX and learned how the stations with 15 to 20 shares that played grupera billed well less than half of what stations with a 4 to 5 shared that played all English music.

That is how, back then, stations like XENK 620 with nearly no ratings and "música que llegó para quedarse" all in English from the 50's made good money, but the all norteña station on 1590 that had decent shares could not even afford to keep its transmitter operating!

 

[A_b_m_90]

May 100.3 will do that next if Throwbacks doesn't work out.

 

[Gregg.]

Except for Miami, I would not call the Spanish-English AC format a success. Yes, it's on two more large market stations, WOEX Orlando and WEPN-FM New York.

It worked great in Miami! It took iHeart-owned WMIA-FM from the 2s to the 5s. Magic 93.9 is currently #5 in Miami. But the story isn't as good in Orlando. Cox put it on WOEX in October of 2024. It's currently at #12 in the market. Not much different from where WOEX was doing a more mainstream Latino format.

Now it's on in New York as Emmis tries to find a way to boost the value of 98.7 so it can be sold. Emmis has been trying to sell 98.7 for about 1/2 year with nobody willing to pay anywhere near the $50 million price tag. So Emmis figures, if it's hard to sell just an FM signal with no format, let's try something else. Let's try that format that was so successful in Miami and has buzz around the radio industry.

But I am skeptical. Is Miami the one place where English AC with a few Spanish AC songs, Spanish-speaking DJs and Spanish liners will work? As David tells us, the large majority of Spanish-speaking people in Chicago, Atlanta, Sacramento, etc. aren't likely to be fans of a station that plays Elton John, Janet Jackson and George Michael, even if the DJs speak Spanish and the commercials are in both languages.