Emmis Hires a Manager For La Exitosa 98.7

[davideduardo]

Only their black peers, it appears. Don't Hispanics ever become fans of rock, country , K-pop or other musical preferences of their non-Hispanic, non-ethnic white or Asian classmates?

Remember, there are certain "hard to discuss" racial issue here. Hispanics can be of any race or mix of races, but predominantly those coming from the Caribbean Basin are Afro-Antillean and those from Mexico to Perú are of Indigenous heritage... totally or partially. In other words, they are not "New England white folks".

So the tastes, without creating subsets, will generally be more "ethnically influenced" than one might expect.

 

[davideduardo]

A bit of history:

While talking about Exitosa in New York, the model for all these English language music and Spanish announcers and ads stations is WFID in San Juan.

In 1983, WFID was a Beautiful Music station that was not "winning" in ratings or sales. It was sold, and the new owner hired me to "modernize" it (his term). So we looked at the over-radioed market and first concentrated on sales. 95% of a San Juan significant station's revenue came from agencies. At agencies, the buyers and planners were generally middle class or upper middle class younger women who had gone to bilingual schools.

With that in mind, I created a format based on the single question of "what would a 30-year-old media buyer listen to?" We came up with a format that had "snob appeal" by playing nearly all English AC hits along with a percentage of Puerto Rican pop artists in Spanish and a few Latin American or Spanish singers or groups.

We hired DJs who were of the same background, and who knew how to pronounce the English song titles and knew the music.

WFID sold on that "snob appeal". It was perceived as being a station for those with more spendable income, and had a huge power ratio approaching 2:1.

Like all of Latin America, most middle and upper class kids go to private schools that are bilingual. They like the stations that play English pop music. So when repressive governments (Venezuela, Colombia) or a huge economic downturn (Puerto Rico) drives middle and upper class people into exile, many will find a station similar to what they grew up listening to and use it in their new home.

In markets where there are few upper income immigrants, such a station will not work.

An alternative is the K-Love model in LA, where we combined pop in Spanish, pop-sounding Regional Mexican and a few English language songs to appeal to the narrow but adequate group of listeners in LA. It turned out that there were enough of them that did not want norteña and banda to get us to #1 with a 7 share, but that had much to do with combining a percentage of Mexican listeners with all the non-Mexicans in the market!

 

[Barry]

What about the Juan format, which mixes in lots of soft Mexican songs with other Hispanic pop tunes. Is that doing well in some markets?

 

[radiofan2023]

What about the Juan format, which mixes in lots of soft Mexican songs with other Hispanic pop tunes. Is that doing well in some markets?

It’s number Juan!

 

[Identnut]

A bit of history:

While talking about Exitosa in New York, the model for all these English language music and Spanish announcers and ads stations is WFID in San Juan.

In 1983, WFID was a Beautiful Music station that was not "winning" in ratings or sales. It was sold, and the new owner hired me to "modernize" it (his term). So we looked at the over-radioed market and first concentrated on sales. 95% of a San Juan significant station's revenue came from agencies. At agencies, the buyers and planners were generally middle class or upper middle class younger women who had gone to bilingual schools.

With that in mind, I created a format based on the single question of "what would a 30-year-old media buyer listen to?" We came up with a format that had "snob appeal" by playing nearly all English AC hits along with a percentage of Puerto Rican pop artists in Spanish and a few Latin American or Spanish singers or groups.

We hired DJs who were of the same background, and who knew how to pronounce the English song titles and knew the music.

WFID sold on that "snob appeal". It was perceived as being a station for those with more spendable income, and had a huge power ratio approaching 2:1.

Like all of Latin America, most middle and upper class kids go to private schools that are bilingual. They like the stations that play English pop music. So when repressive governments (Venezuela, Colombia) or a huge economic downturn (Puerto Rico) drives middle and upper class people into exile, many will find a station similar to what they grew up listening to and use it in their new home.

In markets where there are few upper income immigrants, such a station will not work.

An alternative is the K-Love model in LA, where we combined pop in Spanish, pop-sounding Regional Mexican and a few English language songs to appeal to the narrow but adequate group of listeners in LA. It turned out that there were enough of them that did not want norteña and banda to get us to #1 with a 7 share, but that had much to do with combining a percentage of Mexican listeners with all the non-Mexicans in the market!

Fidelity, today, however, does not sound like that anymore. The songs are virtually all in Spanish, and there are some soft salsa, merengue, and bachata titles mixed in - and in the case of the latter they're either homegrown artists like Manny Manuel and Olga Tañón or international superstars like Juan Luis Guerra and Romeo Santos.

Fidelity's AC competitor, SBS's Estereotempo, however, does play English tracks. I listened to it recently and the first thing I heard was Phil Collins. This is interesting because for a long time, when it was on 99.9, its slogan was "Solo baladas, solo en español." They brought the gold back when they resurrected it on 96.5, but it's mostly absent now.

 

[Identnut]

What about the Juan format, which mixes in lots of soft Mexican songs with other Hispanic pop tunes. Is that doing well in some markets?

It's a Mexican format. Dominicans do not listen to cumbia or banda. And they will only listen to rancheras if it is big crossover hit by Alejandro Fernandez or Christian Nodal.

 

[davideduardo]

What about the Juan format, which mixes in lots of soft Mexican songs with other Hispanic pop tunes. Is that doing well in some markets?

That format was created by Amalia González and me in 2000 for the HBC purchase of KRCD/KRCV (FM) in LA. It is not the "Juan" format; the one with that name is a copy or adaptation of what we did in LA 25 years ago (and later took to a dozen other markets like Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Diego).

The format, to us, was really "Mexican Gold AC". It was mostly grupera (Bukis, Yonics, etc) and bolero ranchero (Vicente, Javier Solis, etc), a little cumbia and ballads mostly by Mexican artists from José Jóse to Enrique Guzmán and even some soft Maná songs.

The problem with that concept today is that there is not enough newer music from the 90's and 00's to replace the very old 60's and 70's core of Recuerdo 25 years ago. No matter what you do, the format will lean very old today.

 

[davideduardo]

Fidelity, today, however, does not sound like that anymore. The songs are virtually all in Spanish, and there are some soft salsa, merengue, and bachata titles mixed in - and in the case of the latter they're either homegrown artists like Manny Manuel and Olga Tañón or international superstars like Juan Luis Guerra and Romeo Santos.

Much of that educated middle class that liked Fidelity 40 years ago has moved to Orlando or elsewhere on the mainland. The core is gone.

Fidelity's AC competitor, SBS's Estereotempo, however, does play English tracks. I listened to it recently and the first thing I heard was Phil Collins. This is interesting because for a long time, when it was on 99.9, its slogan was "Solo baladas, solo en español." They brought the gold back when they resurrected it on 96.5, but it's mostly absent now.

Estereotempo began after Z-93 pushed most of the audience to FM in 1979 (in 6 months, FM listening went from less than 10 share points to over 50). Estereotempo hired a consultant and tried to imitate the former success of Hot AC 11-Q (WQII) which suffered immensely from the move of listeners to FM. When it began, it was the same blend as 11-Q, with a couple of English language cuts per hour.

 

[davideduardo]

It's a Mexican format.

And that is how we designed it. The format had not existed in Mexico because it was "too C-D-E" appealing in the ratings there where income, not age, are the major factors. That format was as original as any that have come out in the last 50 years or so, and even required that Arbitron create a new format name for it.

The creation involved two separate AUI tests (Appeal, Usage, Intent) studies to find that seemingly separate genres could be combined to create a new format. And then 1300 songs were tested in extensive and deep AMTs.

Dominicans do not listen to cumbia or banda. And they will only listen to rancheras if it is big crossover hit by Alejandro Fernandez or Christian Nodal.

Like in Puerto Rico: rancheras are nice at a party where tequila is served. Or at a Mexican restaurant where tequila is served. See the common thread emerging?

Cumbias in Puerto Rico are about as appealing as old bath water.

 

[exbloguero]

Remember, there are certain "hard to discuss" racial issue here. Hispanics can be of any race or mix of races, but predominantly those coming from the Caribbean Basin are Afro-Antillean and those from Mexico to Perú are of Indigenous heritage... totally or partially. In other words, they are not "New England white folks".

So the tastes, without creating subsets, will generally be more "ethnically influenced" than one might expect.

Note that not all of Mexico's population comes from indigenous roots, only the inhabitants of central and southern Mexico. Meanwhile, the population of the northern Pacific is a distinct variant of European origin. In fact, there are populations whose roots are Japanese. But Mexico is diverse, and that's evident in every state of the country.

 

[davideduardo]

Note that not all of Mexico's population comes from indigenous roots, only the inhabitants of central and southern Mexico. Meanwhile, the population of the northern Pacific is a distinct variant of European origin. In fact, there are populations whose roots are Japanese. But Mexico is diverse, and that's evident in every state of the country.

Good points.

The same is true in much of Latin America. There is a corner of Ecuador, around Esmeraldas, where African heritage folks are predominant, just as they are in the NW Colombian area that brought us the amazingly good pop music group Cohocquibtown.

Peru has an Asian community, and more Argentines are of Italian heritage than from Spain.

My wife, from rural Jalisco, is green eyed and confused for being Spanish.... which her families were, way back in history.

Many people do not understand that much of Latin America is as diverse as the United States. In particular, the economies and social issues of much of Europe and the areas now considered Lebanon and adjacent areas, drove many to nearly every Latin American nation. So you have the Spaniards, the indigenous populations, and everything from Holocaust refugees and survivors to all kinds of European and middle eastern folks mixed in there as well.

Richest man in Mexico: Carlos Slim. Or look at the president, Claudia Sheinbaum with a fascinating family history from a very troubled Europe. Claudia Sheinbaum - Wikipedia

 

[XCountry285]

I doubt Audacy cares how "boring" Q104 is. The demographics for the market are bad for rock. Multiple versions of it at 92.3, the ending of the legendary WNEW, and despite being well-programmed, 90.7 isn't doing in the NYC ratings what comparable operations like WXPN are managing elsewhere. It's not a good fit for rock formats anymore.

Much as I wish it was. I enjoyed the first version of WRXP, but that like many other experiments, can't be maintained in that market in a sustainable way.

RXP 2.0 was perfect.

 

[K.M. Richards]

RXP 2.0 was perfect.

Except for being commercially viable ...

 

[XCountry285]

Except for being commercially viable ...

RXP 1.0 in my opinion was a train wreck.

 

[K.M. Richards]

RXP 1.0 in my opinion was a train wreck.

And also not commercially viable.

 

[lanceventa]

Except for being commercially viable ...

The second version of WRXP, which the poster referred to was a straight ahead Alternative under Merlin Media and received a 2.7 share in its final monthly prior to the sale to CBS to become WFAN-FM. It was always filler until sold, but that version in 2012 was commercially viable.

The original AAAish version was the one that was a stretch but in the 2008-09 time period that it operated, the logic behind the brand was correct.

 

[K.M. Richards]

The second version of WRXP, which the poster referred to was a straight ahead Alternative under Merlin Media and received a 2.7 share in its final monthly prior to the sale to CBS to become WFAN-FM. It was always filler until sold, but that version in 2012 was commercially viable.

I would agree, except that I consider any format used as filler while a station is looking for a buyer to be something less than commercially viable. YMMV, of course.

 

[XCountry285]

The second version of WRXP, which the poster referred to was a straight ahead Alternative under Merlin Media and received a 2.7 share in its final monthly prior to the sale to CBS to become WFAN-FM. It was always filler until sold, but that version in 2012 was commercially viable.

The original AAAish version was the one that was a stretch but in the 2008-09 time period that it operated, the logic behind the brand was correct.

Straight AAA like 107.1 The Peak would have worked great!

 

[TheBigA]

Straight AAA like 107.1 The Peak would have worked great!

.....in the suburbs, where it exists.

 

[Weiserguy]

.....in the suburbs, where it exists.

The "donut" (i.e., the suburbs) surrounding NYC contain about as many people as the "hole" (i.e., NYC itself). So you could program a AAA format from a full-signal city station. Just because a significant portion of the inner city population won't take to it doesn't automatically make AAA a non-starter, if the people that will try it in the city plus the people in the suburbs who'll give it a try is large enough.

A reminder from history: the original progressive rock station was created on that very 98.7 signal in the mid-sixties. Were it not for the internal machinations of RKO General and Bill Drake, WOR-FM might have been what Metromedia and WNEW-FM became. You never know what you've got till it's gone and someone else has succeeded at it.