FCC approves Latino Media Network acquisitions

[davideduardo]

But you say no Hispanics listen. So the venture will be a flop.

None are listening now, and if there is any group that uses less AM radio, it is Hispanics in larger markets where there are multiple FM choices.

I use BIN as an example of a network that's sold on the basis of a mission, not programming, listeners, or Nielsen ratings. I expect that to be the case here.

I don't I think they are positioning to go after national brands and marketers who have separate Spanish / Hispanic (separate things, by the way) budgets. All their hires up to now (there are unannounced mid-level hires who I know who confirm this).

They think Spanish language radio in the US has failed to recognize "social needs" of Hispanics and that there is a huge untapped market there.

 

[TheBigA]

They think Spanish language radio in the US has failed to recognize "social needs" of Hispanics and that there is a huge untapped market there.

They are professional fundraisers. You can read it in the CEO interview, and the interviews with the founders. They are the same speeches used by lobbying groups or non-profits to raise money from corporations. They're going after a very different group of funders for different reasons. They are NOT playing in the same field as Univision or any similar commercial group. It's about having a voice rather than attracting listeners. Two very different things.

 

[davideduardo]

They are professional fundraisers. You can read it in the CEO interview, and the interviews with the founders. They are the same speeches used by lobbying groups or non-profits to raise money from corporations. They're going after a very different group of funders for different reasons. They are NOT playing in the same field as Univision or any similar commercial group. It's about having a voice rather than attracting listeners. Two very different things.

No, it is declared to be about having an alternative voice prior to the 2024 elections. For that to be effective, they have to have listeners.

 

[radiofan2023]

No, it is declared to be about having an alternative voice prior to the 2024 elections. For that to be effective, they have to have listeners.

Which articles mention trying to impact the 2024 elections?

 

[TheBigA]

No, it is declared to be about having an alternative voice prior to the 2024 elections. For that to be effective, they have to have listeners.

You're posting things based on rumor without documentation.

Nowhere have they said anything about the 2024 election. Even if they did, there's nothing illegal about it, and there's a group you know about that is representing the other side. So it's not unfair. Everyone has access to the public airwaves.

Audacy Launches Radio Libre 790 in Miami | Audacy Inc.

MIAMI, FL – September 30, 2022 – Audacy (NYSE: AUD) announced the launch of Radio Libre 790 (WAXY-AM) in Miami. The new Spanish conservative talk station

audacyinc.com

What they HAVE talked about is creating a multi-media service that isn't focused on AM radio. As I said, they will use the stations as a base of operations, but the main thrust will be in other platforms.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

But you say no Hispanics listen. So the venture will be a flop.

As a listener, I just want to have something compelling to listen to on WADO 1280 again. :-/
But of course I'm almost 50 plus and I have no PPM.
So as my boss tells me, "I don't count". And he's right. :-/

 

[davideduardo]

Which articles mention trying to impact the 2024 elections?

Internal chatter as evidenced by the resignation of almost all the conservative anti-Castro air staff at WAQI in Miami. This was based on their interpretation of statements by the new owners after the sale was announced.

(I programmed 10 of those stations as Spanish language talkers quite a few years ago)

 

[TheBigA]

Internal chatter as evidenced by the resignation of almost all the conservative anti-Castro air staff at WAQI in Miami. This was based on their interpretation of statements by the new owners after the sale was announced.

What they said was it was based on their dislike of George Soros. They didn't want to get paid with his money.

Soros takeover: Nelson Rubio exits Radio Mambi before ‘extreme left’ group purchases conservative station

Nelson Rubio will join fellow now-former Radio Mambi hosts Lourdes Ubieta and Dania Alexandrino at Americano Media instead of working for a George Soros-linked liberal group.

www.foxnews.com

Meanwhile, Mambi is still the highest rated Spanish language talk station.

 

[davideduardo]

You're posting things based on rumor without documentation.

I am basing it on statements made to staff members of the stations they bought during the period between the announcement and the actual recent closing. I worked with many of those people and actually hired a good number of them.

Nowhere have they said anything about the 2024 election. Even if they did, there's nothing illegal about it, and there's a group you know about that is representing the other side. So it's not unfair. Everyone has access to the public airwaves.

There have been many statements to existing staff and new hires, many of both that I know, that they need to have... and I paraphrase... "a fair voice" on the air prior to the 2024 elections.

What they HAVE talked about is creating a multi-media service that isn't focused on AM radio. As I said, they will use the stations as a base of operations, but the main thrust will be in other platforms.

That makes for good press, but since they have no significant programming staff and no new talent hires, it is hard to tell if they even know how to program the radio stations they bought. The only change made so far is to change the syndicated morning personality on KGBT-FM in McAwful from one Univision team to another UVN talent.

 

[TheBigA]

I am basing it on statements made to staff members of the stations they bought during the period between the announcement and the actual recent closing.

But you have no documentation. No links to articles with quotes. That's why I call them rumors.

That makes for good press, but since they have no significant programming staff and no new talent hires,

Once again you're thinking strictly as a radio programmer, and that's not how they're thinking at all. Multi-platform means an emphasis on non-broadcast digital media.

 

[davideduardo]

What they said was it was based on their dislike of George Soros. They didn't want to get paid with his money.

No, they disliked the fact that the new ownership was "liberal and Democrat affiliated" and they are all staunch Republicans and hate anyone suggesting closer relationships with Cuba.

Meanwhile, Mambi is still the highest rated Spanish language talk station.

Not really. WAQI is down from as high as a 3.5 before the sale was anounced to a 1.5 in 12+ last month. In two of the last three months, WURN has tied or beaten them. Even WWFE has tied at least once since most of the WAQI staff has left.

 

[davideduardo]

But you have no documentation. No links to articles with quotes. That's why I call them rumors.

So an article is better than actually having talked to the people who, up until last year, I worked with? Many of them have called me for advice and help finding new jobs outside the new company.

Once again you're thinking strictly as a radio programmer, and that's not how they're thinking at all. Multi-platform means an emphasis on non-broadcast digital media.

The new head of the company is talking in pure press-pleasing terms. She has no experience anywhere near an enterprise that has to create 24 hours of content daily in multiple separate markets in addition to streams of that and original content and podcasts.

I'm not a radio programmer. I am, among other things, a programmer who looks at content creation, not the pipe that will take that content to users. I'm also a former group station owner, syndicated format creator, station and group manage, group head of programming and group head of sales.

So I look at all content as "our product" and analyze channels of distribution based on reach, economics and future potential.

 

[RadioGuy1864]

Once again you're thinking strictly as a radio programmer, and that's not how they're thinking at all. Multi-platform means an emphasis on non-broadcast digital media.

Then they could have saved themselves a ton of money and not bought "walking-dead" AM stations. If they want to be digital/podcast/internet media etc. why do the need AM radio stations that no one will listen to?

 

[davideduardo]

Then they could have saved themselves a ton of money and not bought "walking-dead" AM stations. If they want to be digital/podcast/internet media etc. why do the need AM radio stations that no one will listen to?

And that is an indication of how they went into this proposition with just one intent: to keep all those Spanish language stations that were up for sale from going to a conservative group. In this case, they were alarmed that Salem would buy the stations and so, they outbid Salem.

Interestingly, in the only market where Univision had a well-performing AM, Salem responded by re-entering Miami with several new purchases! They now have Spanish talk on 990, 670 and 1550. One of these has tied WAQI at least once in recent months following the departure of almost all of WAQI's talk hosts.

 

[TheBigA]

No, they disliked the fact that the new ownership was "liberal and Democrat affiliated"

How are they different from the top brass at Univision?

Univision Media Bias Rating

Learn the AllSides Media Bias Rating of Univision. AllSides rates the media bias of hundreds of news outlets, media sources and writers.

www.allsides.com

Here's a quote from the Rubio:

"I don't agree with, nor do I share the ideology of the group of purchased Radio Mambi… very simply, George Soros represents the extreme left," Rubio told Fox News Digital through a translator.

The fact is the new owners are very mainstream, moderate women who believe in democracy.

So an article is better than actually having talked to the people who, up until last year, I worked with?

Yes. You have rumors.

Then they could have saved themselves a ton of money and not bought "walking-dead" AM stations. If they want to be digital/podcast/internet media etc. why do the need AM radio stations that no one will listen to?

As I said yesterday in this thread, they were looking for a place to base their multi-platform network, and radio stations have the infrastructure they need.

 

[davideduardo]

How are they different from the top brass at Univision?

The real tradition media "Top Brass" at Univision is in Mexico. The folks in the US are working on new media, particularly their Latin American version of Netflix using Televisa's huge inventory of content.

Every paragraph has the name Soros, as though they would be working for him.

And they all believed that everything they did would be done at his dictate, as he provided the money... over 90% of it.

The fact is the new owners are very mainstream, moderate women who believe in democracy.

The new "owners" are two Hispanic women whose past experience is as campaign and labor activists. Definitely not centrists.

Yes. You have rumors.

No, I have loads of contacts directly at the stations this group bought.

As I said yesterday in this thread, they were looking for a place to base their multi-platform network, and radio stations have the infrastructure they need.

The stations right now have zero infrastructure. All but McAllen, Fresno and Vegas have to move to to new facilities, they have to build and staff an administrative office (McAllen in the old Tichenor building that they inherited with tenants they are now kicking out) and a top management (New York in a rental office).

They have no programming origination as of this moment, as they are taking Univision content under contract. They have to hire local management, engineering and sales and set up a group traffic and accounting operation.

Before they can put content on the web or in podcasts, they have to have content creators, talent, production people and web designers and technicians. I doubt that a single person there today knows the difference between HTML, Java and Python.

 

[TheBigA]

And they all believed that everything they did would be done at his dictate, as he provided the money... over 90% of it.

That's common mythology, like NPR is government propaganda because it gets government funding. Soros will have nothing to do with LMN. Nothing. No influence, no input, and no direction.

 

[davideduardo]

That's common mythology, like NPR is government propaganda because it gets government funding. Soros will have nothing to do with LMN. Nothing. No influence, no input, and no direction.

Yet the whole concept was "his" (Soros and his organization's top executives) and they funded two Hispanic women who marched to the same drummer to "lead" the project, while using his contacts to get a band of big-name Hispanics such as Longoria to decorate the website.

The main purpose of the whole deal was to keep a conservative group from buying the Univision spin-offs. Nobody apparently bothered to ask if the stations were worth having.

 

[gr8oldies]

OK I'm told (even by my state government) that Soros runs the world, and that I either a) worship Trump and my state's GQP as Christ himself or b) be a radical leftist socialist Communist and there's absolutely nothing in between. I've also been told to leave my state if I have any problems with absolute one-party rule with no opposition. I imagine this scenario is the same way, in Spanish.

 

[davideduardo]

OK I'm told (even by my state government) that Soros runs the world, and that I either a) worship Trump and my state's GQP as Christ himself or b) be a radical leftist socialist Communist and there's absolutely nothing in between. I've also been told to leave my state if I have any problems with absolute one-party rule with no opposition. I imagine this scenario is the same way, in Spanish.

Not as extreme as that.

The big protests against the Soros instigated and financed purchase of the Univision dog stations all came from the staff at WAQI in Miami.

All are Cuban exiles or the family of exiles. All have personal or family experiences under Castro that are highly polarizing. Some, whom I know, had family or friends killed by the new socialist government. Others were incarcerated or had family put in jail for speaking out against Castro and his government. Others simply got tired of not being able to get food and a decent job. All left Cuba with strong reasons to hate the new government... and they hate anyone who sympathizes with them.

One of my dearest friends in Miami was a child when the Castro agents came to the home of her father, a college professor, and shot him in front of the whole family. Things like that make you hate that sort of totalitarian government.