KROI didn’t own a TV station with a news staff already in place.
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Country Legends cuts
- Thread starter Mediafrog+
- Start date
But it was a total flop. If you look at the markets where CBS owned TV and radio together, they didn't just use the TV news staff on their all news radio stations. The radio stations had their own independent staff. In that same way, when CBS sold their radio stations, the radio stations were able to operate without TV support.
Cox understands that because they own WSB and WSB-TV in Atlanta.
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That is absolutely not going to happen, on any FM signal in Houston. TV stations are slashing staff and expenses. And the failure of News92FM is a cautionary tale not lost on broadcasters here.
Really, the more you look at it, the more a 107.5/97.1 simulcast makes a lot of sense if the plug is ever pulled on classic country.
97.1 is not going to be competitive by itself (even though it is one of the better rimshots), while 106.9 is probably the best non-Missouri City signal that isn't KLTN. 107.5/106.9 has always seemed a little overkill with enormous amounts of overlap.
97.1 is not going to be competitive by itself (even though it is one of the better rimshots), while 106.9 is probably the best non-Missouri City signal that isn't KLTN. 107.5/106.9 has always seemed a little overkill with enormous amounts of overlap.
Agree with you on all that. 106.9 might be a good place to launch an English language Hispanic leaning format due to its coverage characteristics.
Eventually The Eagle will need revamping/updating as the current audience ages out.
But would the 107.5/97.1 simulcast be more fitting for country music than 92.9, given that each of the signals have city-grade / easy indoor signals over Houston's exurbs? Though, if classic rock moves to 92.9, they may need to consider catering to Latino listeners by reducing the amount of southern rock and playing more familiar rock tracks from the 80s and 90s, or at least follow the same playbook as WBGG (BIG 105.9) in Miami.
I'm not sure what new format should launch on the 106.9 signal, though the likes of KODA and KMJQ have been unchallenged for the longest time.
I'm not sure what new format should launch on the 106.9 signal, though the likes of KODA and KMJQ have been unchallenged for the longest time.
However, there is no consistency or commonality among Hispanics who listen to English language music. If you look at the preferences of English dominant Hispanics in San Antonio (where 80% of Hispanics are English dominant) you can see that they listen to everything from rock to country.
Assimilation is Univision's Achilles heel. Immigration is extremely important for their long term viability.
Very odd how African Americans and Hispanics are taking different paths as minorities. African Americans have TV and radio operators that specifically target their tastes, but assimilated Hispanics who don't speak Spanish have nothing (at least in the mainstream media, that is).
I have two Hispanic nieces, ages 8 and 17, both born and raised in St. Louis. They don’t see themselves as any different from you or me. They wouldn't argue they have nothing that caters to them. Their favorite stations play CHR/Top-40. The 17 year old loves Billie Eilish.
That's my point. They've assimilated into mainstream society.
There is no English language media that caters specifically to English speaking Hispanics. Compare that to African Americans, who have brokered an identity in film, music, and TV for themselves. Why this is? I'm not sure. There isn't an Hispanic BET or an English language genre that specifically targets Hispanics. The closest you get to this is Reggaeton, but the music is still predominantly in Spanish.
Now, I'm not saying all African Americans watch BET or listen to R&B, but the choice is there for them. The same can't be said for Hispanics.
NBC has that channel dedicated to Bilinguals on one of those Telemundo sub channels.
There are a bunch of differences between a race and a culture.
"Hispanic" is not a race. It is a cultural commonality based on speaking or coming from an area or nation where Spanish is spoken. It's a broad and imprecise classification.
Under the US Census and OMB definitions, even a native Nahuatl or Quechua speaker from Latin America who does not speak Spanish is "Hispanic" because of their origin or ancestral heritage. An Argentine of full Italian heritage (the largest group in Argentina, BTW) is Hispanic, as are Holocaust survivors and their descendants who migrated to Latin America. The large Asian communities in Peru and Cuba, including a past Peruvian president, are also Hispanic.
Or, as one cultural pundit put it, "Twenty nations divided by a single language".
And, of course, there are more different popular kinds of music from Latin America than there are mainstream types in English prevalent in the US. Each nation, and even regions within nations, have their own multiple kinds of music, along with more international types such as rock en español, pop, ballads, boleros, pop oldies, and so on. For example, the #1 music format in Puerto Rico would get nearly no audience in Mexico or Chile.
Assimilation is generational. The person who arrives as a later teen or adult from Latin America does not change their music tastes and first language preferences much in the vast majority of cases. This is particularly true with people whose education level is minimal.
Fully assimilated Hispanics are generally third generation and beyond. Second generation learns "kitchen Spanish" at home but goes to school and works in English. By the third, they likely only know a few words to say to "abuelita" during a family visit.
The real issue is that there are Hispanics who are Black, white, indigenous, and even Asian. And there is every combination in between.
In the mid-70's, I led a petition to the FCC by stations in Puerto Rico to not fill in the annual employment form for both race and ethnicity. On the Island, we had disgusting and demeaning requirement to determine who was "Negro" and who wasn't because almost everyone has a bit of African heritage; where does one stop being Black or white? The FCC accepted that as an exception for Puerto Rico as trying to classify a racial rainbow was just impossible.
What David is saying is quite true.
I recall my early days at KINL in Eagle Pass, Texas. KINL opted for a fulltime Top 40 format and took the community by storm. Eagle Pass is on the border with Piedras Negras, Mexico, a much larger city. One of the fans of the station was an employee at the English Top 40 XHTA FM. XHTA was American hits, Spanish language commercials and there was no microphone in the XHTA studio. He'd call when I was on the air at KINL from time to time. He spoke perfect English. His parents left Germany after World War II and settled in Mexico. By label, this German, Spanish and English speaking German-heritage man is Hispanic. A girlfriend I had in Eagle Pass traced her heritage to Spain. It seems her grandparents left Spain for the Texas/Mexico border at some point. She spoke what David called 'kitchen Spanish'. She was very assimilated and frankly didn't see herself as Hispanic.
I recall my early days at KINL in Eagle Pass, Texas. KINL opted for a fulltime Top 40 format and took the community by storm. Eagle Pass is on the border with Piedras Negras, Mexico, a much larger city. One of the fans of the station was an employee at the English Top 40 XHTA FM. XHTA was American hits, Spanish language commercials and there was no microphone in the XHTA studio. He'd call when I was on the air at KINL from time to time. He spoke perfect English. His parents left Germany after World War II and settled in Mexico. By label, this German, Spanish and English speaking German-heritage man is Hispanic. A girlfriend I had in Eagle Pass traced her heritage to Spain. It seems her grandparents left Spain for the Texas/Mexico border at some point. She spoke what David called 'kitchen Spanish'. She was very assimilated and frankly didn't see herself as Hispanic.
You know why that is. Everyone who reads this knows why.
African Americans have their own identity and culture because they have been excluded from American culture for so long. Most would assert that they're still treated like second class citizens. Certainly, we've come a long way toward becoming an inclusive and open society, but we still have a long way to go.
Our current system of music categories, by the way, dates back to the 1920's and 30's and was designed to make sure Black artists wouldn't be sold in the same stores as white artists in the South. I'm oversimplifying it a bit, but that's the gist of how country and R&B became music genres.
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I'm not saying "Hispanic" is a race. Most differences are cultural rather than racial. A Caucasian Cuban and Afro-Cuban have more in common when it comes to media consumption than a white southerner from Georgia and a white city slicker from San Francisco.
Univision and Telemundo have managed to keep a balance.
But I regress, we are talking about creating media for assimilated Hispanics. Where exactly they trace their roots to would not matter. African Americans don't get picky with their media because their ancestors where from Angola instead of Gambia. The same thing would apply to fully assimilated Hispanics.
Right, but for assimilated Hispanics, why would this matter? We are talking about creating media that is strictly targeted at assimilated "LatinX" (my understanding is that a massive amount of Spanish speaking people reject that term).
We're talking about fully assimilated Hispanics (who wouldn't be speaking Spanish or be interested in "bilingual" media).
What they want is better representation in mainstream media. That's been a campaign for years.
Hispanic Underrepresentation In The Media
The media industry plays an important role in educating and entertaining the public—from producing movies and television programming to publishing books and providing news coverage. But this industry has been criticized for its lack of diversity. As we mark National Hispanic Heritage Month...
We're talking about on camera, behind the camera, and in ownership. Not "separate but equal." Actual equality.
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