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Hispanic stations

Many cities and towns in Indiana are now 10% Hispanic. So it's an easy 10 in the ratings.
There are 3 in the Indianapolis area, 1 near Fort Wayne, and some in Goshen and Elkart.
I am sure many more to come.
 
As noted by Timewarp there are several in Goshen/Elkhart. WKAM 1460 is a local AM station, plus there are a couple of religious satellite translators and local church run LP Hispanic stations.
 
In the early 70s WBMP Elwood had a Spanish Language music program, I think every Sunday night. Paul Guitterez (sp?) was the host. If my memory is correct, he hosted the show thru the mid 80s.
 
WGRT/Danville used to run "La Hora Latina" on Sunday afternoons back in the late 70's. Oscar Moralez was the host and he would tape the show on Saturday afternoons. I think it ran for a few years before the station changed formats. Kind of ironic that almost 30 years later, the station is now total Hispanic.
 
WEDJ makes good ratings in Lafayette even though their signal here is poor. This would be
an easy 10 for someone.
How about WGLM or WIBN? GOOD BUSINESS MOVE?
 
When broadcasting neglects 10 percent of the population, we force people to use something other
than radio. The Lafayette market has a growing Mexican population and they need service.
It seems WGLM or WIBN would be a good choice for Mexican programming.
 
Why would WIBN want to give up the revenue it currently has to start from zero in a marketplace that is very specialized? Same with WGLM. 1410 makes sense as its it has other formats to bring in billing. The standalones would be bankrupt within a year, even if every hispanic listened.
 
I don't think ANY Indiana market has 10% of their population Hispanic. Evansville and Indianapolis certainly don't.
 
US Census estimates ....

Goshen Indiana was 19.3% Hispanic in 2000 ... one of the reasons WKAM became a Hispanic station. The county Goshen is in (Elkhart) was 12.3% Hispanic in 2005.
Marion County (Indianapolis) was 5.9% Hispanic in 2005.
Evansville - 1.1% Hispanic in 2000.
Overall Indiana is 3.5% Hispanic in 2000 increasing to 4.5% in 2005.

The US was 12.5% Hispanic in 2000. Obviously there are some communities above and below that percentage --- perhaps not an entire Arbitron market in Indiana would cross 10% but there are communities where at least 10% of a station's coverage area would be Hispanic.
 
gr8oldies said:
Why would WIBN want to give up the revenue it currently has to start from zero in a marketplace that is very specialized? Same with WGLM. 1410 makes sense as its it has other formats to bring in billing. The standalones would be bankrupt within a year, even if every hispanic listened.
Click to expand...

Gr8oldies is right. The only station where a Spanish-language format would make sense is on WSHY (1410). The station has no ratings and it would be a perfect place to put on a format that superserves Lafayette's Latino community as well as tap into a new group of potential advertisers. There are an adequate amount of businesses in Lafayette that cater to the Latino community, however, there may not be enough to really keep the station afloat on its own, but then again, the station makes no money anyway so any new revenue would be a positive.
 
In the past year there was a Spanish station in South Bend broadcasting somewhere in the 98.x range.
 
But having just "one town" with a bunch of Spanish people, and the other towns 98% white, 2% other then Hispanic isn't going to intice someone to switch to Spanish just because. They need to see the percentage grow to 10% of the coverage area before they'll even consider.
 
It depends on how much further the signal goes than that "one town".
Or at least how far the station wants to focus away from it's home.

WKAM is an excellent example. A small AM station in a community with 19% Hispanic population. Any other format and the station would be just another voice in the noise but they went after the niche in their back yard. The other stations in the area are LPs with small coverage areas. LPs are non-comm so they are not expected to be commercial successes ... they just have to get enough support to pay the bills.
 
What are the statistics of how many Hispanics prefer to watch or listen to programming in Spanish language? There are Hispanics who claim English as their primary language.
 
The Lafayette market has a high enough hispanic population to warrent FM. Maybe one of the two
new stations comming to this market after October will be wise enough to do it. One is a class A,
the other a B1.
 
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