-
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
LaPowerFM 105.3
- Thread starter +713
- Start date
Is Houston unique among American radio markets in its "Wild West" translator landscape? The Houston forum has been full of claims and counterclaims regarding Houston translators for years, while other forums have gone without the slightest hint of licensee irregularities since the radiodiscussions forums launched. And if such activity is known by so many in the radio business, why doesn't the FCC ever do anything about it? You'd think it would be aware of an ongoing problem in Houston by now, wouldn't you?
Good question. It does seem unique, and it seems also that this is due to one licensee and his extended family and associates.
Part of this is that in bigger geographical area markets, the big stations don't go for translators as they add so little. So the possible translators may get grabbed by less experienced licensees and sometimes they don't know how to follow the rules.
As an example, if running as licensed, the translator in question covers about 200 thousand people in the 60 dbu contour. That is less than 3% of the total market. It would add little to a bigger station for its HD2 or HD3, or even to a desperate AM.
Steve Lee, who was the last FCC engineer in Houston and I discussed this before his retirement. Steve and I had known each other since high school. I told him Houston would likely see pirates and illegal ops on translators and he said "yeah probably so". Now Dallas oversees Houston. Johnny Le there knows whats going on...but right now under Covid, unless there is a life threatening interference issue, they are under a "no travel" ban.
A
AnyHuman
Guest
They're calling it LaPower maybe because it's at high power? Almost advertising their crimes LOL.
No, not a logical analysis. They are using it like "Latin Power" as a social statement.
So basically only interference against cellular, first responder, and other emergency services are being enforced at the moment?
I think we're overthinking this. With how unprofessional this operation is, it wouldn't shock me if they just added the "La" simply because all the twitter handles, websites, and Facebook names with the 'Power', 'Houston', and '105.3' keywords were all taken up. I took a listen all the way out in Brookshire today and they definitely aren't calling themselves "La Power" on every cheesy sweep. It's simply "Power FM" or "Power Ciento Cinco punto Tres Effe Eme".
I'm still puzzled as to why these people are stubborn in making "Tropical" work in some way, shape or form. This ain't the market for that type of music. If they're really desperate to make something work, I would have just straight up stolen Entravision's Fuego format. It's unique and since you're not using numbers to sell to your clients, you may as well sell the format as "New, fresh, and transcendent".
Having said that, I'm not too sure the Fuego format is doing well in Sacramento or McAllen. Seems like a total flop thus far. But like I said, if you're not showing your clients actual statistical data...then why not? This seems like something up their wheelhouse.
Are you bilingual or Spanish dominant? The name is stupid, but makes sense in a way.
On the other hand, the content of the website disappeared today and they just have a music player and the name is displayed as just "Power" without the "La".
The station is not "Tropical": it is anything but tropical. It is rhythmic, mostly, based on reggaeton and related current rhythmic stuff, with a Mexican cumbia, maybe a vallenato, a salsa, or an AC ballad tossed in. But at least every other song is reggaetón, with variety stuff in between.
Reggaetón and friends is the de facto CHR format from Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile to San Juan and LA and Miami and NYC. Conceptually, reggaetón is the totally international format that works anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. But this station is mixing with totally incompatible things... ultra incompatible.
It's a musical cazuela. A little of everything, and a lot of songs that don't fit at all. Suck quotient is about a 9.5 on a scale of 10.
If anything, it is not rhythmic enough. It's way too broad and not focused enough on the true popular rhythmic stuff.
Last edited:
No spanish since HS Spanish class. But the name sounds stupid when directly translated. I know spanish is very gender based when describing things. "La Power" practically translates to "La Poder", no? Shouldn't it be "El Poder"? Like I said, the most spanish I know is generic and basic things like "Hola" and "Adios". But even I know the name makes absolutely no sense. If you had to explain that "La" is short for Latin or Latino, then the name is already a failure.
But not that is matters since it seems they've dropped "La" from most of their imaging. Even their RDS displays "Power FM".
They're branding themselves as "Tropical y Urbana". Sure seems like they'll try to fit in some of the music that failed on Rumba/Kalle. But alas, I'm not familiar with the genre. I'm more familiar with Regional Mexican music. Accordion = generally means "Northern regional" (which is very big among the border region of Texas). Sadly, that's where my knowledge ends.
I'll leave you with this; if a person like me who can't speak spanish can see the flaws in their Spanish language format, then they're in way over their heads. If this operation lives past 2021, then it would be because of their sales team and not the people in charge of programming. Those people don't belong in radio IMO.
A
AnyHuman
Guest
Their audio quality, online at least, sounds pretty good. Not stereo though.
LOL David you should write to the station, I believe they have a contact page on their website. Power 105.3 FM
LOL David you should write to the station, I believe they have a contact page on their website. Power 105.3 FM
Why would I want to write to them?
They apparently have a belief that a "variety hits" format will work.
Back in 2000, the first "Recuerdo" was put on in LA. It combined more traditional regional Mexican, grupera, pop and ballads in a single format. In the industry, it was considered to be a "pozole" format; pozole is a Mexican soup with a little of everything in it. And that was not said kindly.
Yet the format, on dreadful signals, became the #3 Spanish format in LA, and was soon expanded to ten more markets to great success despite early criticisms.
To create that format, which had never been done before, we did two Awareness-Trial-Usage studies costing nearly $100 thousand. In the first, we found Traditional Regional, Grupera and Gold Pop/Ballads all scored high and the groups were similar. So we went back and tested a combination of two of the three and all three and found a new format that was a blend.
So what I am saying is that an unlikely blend can work. I don't think this is viable, but the fact that they are combining genres is not necessarily wrong.
On the other hand, adding things like salsa seems wrong. Years ago in LA when we did lots of big 5th and 16th events, but had a city requirement to vacate by sunset, we'd put a salsa band on as the last act. Within 10 minutes, the park would be empty!
There are lots of expressions in Spanish that just don't translate, just as there are in English. For example, in English I am my ancestors "descendant" but in Spanish I am their "ascendant".
"La Poder" is gramatically incorrect, but since the noun has no gender vowel at the end, it sounds interesting and sort of anti-conventional. Yes, it is stupid. But perhaps intended to call attention to them.
The music did not fail; the stations failed. Reggaetón and associated styles is the biggest musical genre in all Latin America right now... the first truly international genre that can sustain a top-rated station in any country in Latin America since the Spanish Invasion of the late 60's to early 80's (Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, etc.)
The question is whether today's generation that is exposed to all kinds of music on the Internet will accept such a broad blend of reggaetón along with ballads, salsa, cumbias, vallenatos, merengues and even some borderline regional. I find some of those genres to be restrictive based on both age and national origin or heritage.
I agree that I do not think it will last, but it's because the translator only covers about 3% of the Houston metro population and the presentation is weak and there is about zero music flow. It's a playlist on shuffle, not programmed for flow and feel like a good mixer in a club would do for mood control.
Obviously, they think that there is room for a "variety" format based on reggaetón. I think they are just absurdly wrong.
Back to the elephant in the room: what station is this Translator linked to and repeating?
Answer:
1. None
2. Ninguna
3. All of the above
Last edited:
And that gets back to the Wild West scenario. There's a sheriff (FCC) but he's in Dallas and afraid to go to Houston and bring the desperados to justice because he might get sick.
KQQK tried the spanglish format (86-89)
A lot has changed since then... that is over 30 years ago and there is a huge community of Hispanic Millennials who are ready for a cross-cultural format. But mostly KQQK did it all wrong. Just as Super Q in Miami around 1980 did it wrong.
Keep in mind that most Top 40 / CHR stations, many AC stations and nearly all rock stations in Latin America play a mix of English and Spanish music. The difference in the US is that the use of Spanglish in the presentation is becoming more and more common; this is not flipping between languages, though. It is street Spanglish, which is a tongue all to itself and only understood by relatively proficient bilinguals.
When I did South America's first Top 40 station in the 60's, we played about 50% Spanish language music; the rest was in English, Italian and French. We even had a representative (usually me) at the San Remo music festival in Italy each year and played the best songs as soon as a plane could get them back to the station. So playing international music is hardly unusual.
- Status