• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Cumbias on the radio

KilowattKat said:
Are there any terrestrial radio stations that play exclusively Cumbias, in the US? Any recommendations for streaming.
Click to expand...
One of the Entravision stations in LA did all cumbia back about 18 years ago, with a lot of cumbia sonidera (club cumbia). It did not last very long as it burnt out. The recording industry cut back on that (particularly DISA records in Monterrey) because it all got pirated and they made no money.

Remember, in places where the ethnicity is mostly Afro-Antillean, cumbias are not heard at all.
 
I'm finding that one needs to look outside the US. The top countries are Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Argentina, where it's the most popular, and where I have found some radio stations with a Cumbia format (except Mexico).
 
KilowattKat said:
I'm finding that one needs to look outside the US. The top countries are Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Argentina, where it's the most popular, and where I have found some radio stations with a Cumbia format (except Mexico).
Click to expand...
In Argentina, it is called "bailanta" and appeals to the very lowest income levels. When I worked with Emmis to find a format for their Buenos Aires stations, we researched over 20 different music blends. Bailanta came out ahead of everything, but we got advertiser feedback that no agency would buy that format. So we picked the #2 choice, which was Argentine Rock and debuted at #1 after just 20 days on the air with an 18 share.

In Colombia, most cumbia is from the 60's and 70's and has been mostly replaced by Vallenato music at that level. Some stations play some as oldies, but not common. Tecnocumbia iin Perú was also a 90's phenomenon with artists like Rosie War and the like. Also very much in decline.

There is some pop cumbia in Mexico that crosses over into grupera formats as well as occasionally into pop when a cumbia group records with a pop star, like the Angeles Azules have done.
 
It has an interesting history! What I have enjoyed listening to most so far, are the Mexican Cumbias from the 60's and 70's. From reading the history, nowadays, it is now mostly fused with other styles and genres, and with a number of subgenres. Of the more recent stuff that I like is the reggae-cumbia fusion of Flowering Inferno Quantico.

There are a lot of variations to explore. I can thank listening to XERCN 1470 for my discovery of Mexican Cumbias. Unfortunately, it's only as a music specialty block, and not a format
 
KilowattKat said:
It has an interesting history! What I have enjoyed listening to most so far, are the Mexican Cumbias from the 60's and 70's. From reading the history, nowadays, it is now mostly fused with other styles and genres, and with a number of subgenres. Of the more recent stuff that I like is the reggae-cumbia fusion of Flowering Inferno Quantico.
Click to expand...

When I was about 14, I discovered XEB on 1220 AM in Mexico City. It was all cumbia and traditional "tropical". After local 50 kw WGAR signed off at midnight, I'd listen or have my tape recorder set to do a 2-hour tape then.. I'd listen to the tape when doing my homework the next evening. But every so often I would pester my mom (using some of my very small pay from WJMO/WCUY) to call and request songs.

I knew enough Spanish to ask for songs, mostly Sonia López and the Sonora Santanera cumbias like "El Ladrón" and others. The jock got to know me, and he'd put me on the air in my mangled Spanish to do the request and kind of joke with me.
 


Back
Top Bottom