LaPowerFM 105.3

[davideduardo]

What do you mean when you say European music? What Artist?
When Reggaeton was big 2004-2007 stations like KIIS fm Los Angeles and WHTZ in New York played all the top Daddy Yankee,Nore,Don Omar songs. Any time Shakira,Pitbull & Jennifer Lopez have a new release all the the CHR stations always play them. KIIS fm Los Ángeles even use Spanish in the imaging.

"When reggaeton was big" is now. It is bigger than ever, and is essentially all of CHR radio in Latin America.

And Pittbull, Jennifer and Shakira are sooooo yesterday.

Who is "Nore"?

 

[old school radio]

"When reggaeton was big" is now. It is bigger than ever, and is essentially all of CHR radio in Latin America.

And Pittbull, Jennifer and Shakira are sooooo yesterday.

Who is "Nore"?

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are SOOO yesterday🤣🤣🤣? Yes we have big Artist like Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Maluma, Annuel. Some of them don't even speak English. You can't compare the cross over Jennifer Lopez,Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin did. I can't believe you just asked me who N.O.R.E Is? That song was probably the #1 Spanish reggaeton anthem for years. What's next your going to ask me who's Daddy Yankee,Tego Calderon and Hector el father 🤣?
(just busting your chops) i know is probably to early in Los Angeles.

 

[davideduardo]

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are SOOO yesterday🤣🤣🤣? Yes we have big Artist like Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Maluma, Annuel. Some of them don't even speak English. You can't compare the cross over Jennifer Lopez,Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin did. I can't believe you just asked me who N.O.R.E Is? That song was probably the #1 Spanish reggaeton anthem for years. What's next your going to ask me who's Daddy Yankee,Tego Calderon and Hector el father 🤣?
(just busting your chops) i know is probably to early in Los Angeles.

There is no artists named "nore" as you originally posted. "Nore" is not N.O.R.E. of course.

And N.O.R.E. is not a core reggaetón artist and is not played on Spanish language CHR stations, which is why I questioned who he is in the context of Hispanic Spanish language radio. He got essentially zero airplay in Latin America... just as Eminem did not, either. He had a crossover or two around 2004, but that was it. The music did not sell, so he reverted to English language material.

As an example, "Oye Mi Canto" has about 0.001% of the YouTube views as the leading reggaetón songs.

Yes, Jennifer López crossed over to Hispanic radio a little bit. But to do the break-out movie about Selena, she had to learn Spanish which was, up to then, "kitchen Spanish". She is Newyorican, not Puerto Rican. And Shakira, to have a hit a couple of years ago, had to combine with Carlos Vives as her trademark "rock en español" is essentially dead everywhere except Argentina (where it is in recession, too) where Spanish langauge rock by non-Argentine artists has essentially no airplay.

 

[BamaTX]

There is no artists named "nore" as you originally posted. "Nore" is not N.O.R.E. of course.

Is there really a need to be anal retentive about this? I think it was obvious who he was talking about. This is akin to obsessing over Grey vs Gray or NWA vs N.W.A.

And N.O.R.E. is not a core reggaetón artist and is not played on Spanish language CHR stations, which is why I questioned who he is in the context of Hispanic Spanish language radio.

Not anymore, no. But in the early 2000s, his one hit wonder was extremely popular within the "Hurban" format. Unfortunately, his crossover career died with the format's demise.

As an example, "Oye Mi Canto" has about 0.001% of the YouTube views as the leading reggaetón songs.

Sure, he didn't achieve the same level of popularity as some Reggaeton artists are getting today. But 0.001% of today's popularity? I think you're being a bit bearish.

Context matters.

Youtube didn't even exist when the song was released. Posting the song years after it was popular isn't going to get you the same number of clicks. Especially on a one hit wonder that had limited radio distribution and didn't have the same social media opportunities Reggaeton has today.

Now you're free to compare the song to other hits of the era and make a case about how unpopular it was. But you also have to remember that the song had limited radio outlets. I remember the song being one of the biggest hits on KLOL after Mega launched. Unfortunately, "Hurban" left as fast as it came. No one cared about the shopping habits of Hispanic teenagers, so corporate America did what they do best; they followed the money and abandoned the format.

Today, those teenagers that weren't worth selling to have all grown up. And wouldn't you know it, Reggaeton seems to be extremely popular again. Ain't that the darndest thing? And I bet you all of these grown Reggaeton listeners would know the song if you played it for them.

 

[old school radio]

There is no artists named "nore" as you originally posted. "Nore" is not N.O.R.E. of course.

And N.O.R.E. is not a core reggaetón artist and is not played on Spanish language CHR stations, which is why I questioned who he is in the context of Hispanic Spanish language radio. He got essentially zero airplay in Latin America... just as Eminem did not, either. He had a crossover or two around 2004, but that was it. The music did not sell, so he reverted to English language material.

As an example, "Oye Mi Canto" has about 0.001% of the YouTube views as the leading reggaetón songs.

Yes, Jennifer López crossed over to Hispanic radio a little bit. But to do the break-out movie about Selena, she had to learn Spanish which was, up to then, "kitchen Spanish". She is Newyorican, not Puerto Rican. And Shakira, to have a hit a couple of years ago, had to combine with Carlos Vives as her trademark "rock en español" is essentially dead everywhere except Argentina (where it is in recession, too) where Spanish langauge rock by non-Argentine artists has essentially no airplay.

 

[old school radio]

What's up BamaTX? you seem to be a very intelligent guy. It's hard Arguing with someone who thinks they are always right.

 

[old school radio]

Many times the "mediator" is more like the instigator lol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[BamaTX]

What's up BamaTX? you seem to be a very intelligent guy. It's hard Arguing with someone who thinks they are always right.

If there is one guy who has a lot of knowledge about spanish language radio, it's David. Can he be a bit...punctilious at times? Sure. But I think his resume has afforded him that privilege.

Having said that, I don't think he is right or wrong. I just disagree with his assessment of the song. If there is one thing I remember extremely well was the demise of Rock 101 and the launch of Mega 101. And Oye Mi Canto was one of the songs that saw a lot of airplay from the very beginning.

He is right that Noreaga's Reggaeton career never reached the same level of success as J Balvin (who has collaborated with Regional Mexican artists) or Bad Bunny (who just ventured into Wrasslin' and is making Cheeto/Corona commercials). But N.O.R.E's Oye Mi Canto was extremely popular within the small Hurban circle.

I guess what I'm saying is that the song was nothing to scoff at in 2004-2005, but it also wasn't Old Town Road famous.

 

[old school radio]

If there is one guy who has a lot of knowledge about spanish language radio, it's David. Can he be a bit...punctilious at times? Sure. But I think his resume has afforded him that privilege.

Having said that, I don't think he is right or wrong. I just disagree with his assessment of the song. If there is one thing I remember extremely well was the demise of Rock 101 and the launch of Mega 101. And Oye Mi Canto was one of the songs that saw a lot of airplay from the very beginning.

He is right that Noreaga's Reggaeton career never reached the same level of success as J Balvin (who has collaborated with Regional Mexican artists) or Bad Bunny (who just ventured into Wrasslin' and is making Cheeto/Corona commercials). But N.O.R.E's Oye Mi Canto was extremely popular within the small Hurban circle.

I guess what I'm saying is that the song was nothing to scoff at in 2004-2005, but it also wasn't Old Town Road famous.

Absolutely correct!

 

[davideduardo]

Now you're free to compare the song to other hits of the era and make a case about how unpopular it was. But you also have to remember that the song had limited radio outlets. I remember the song being one of the biggest hits on KLOL after Mega launched. Unfortunately, "Hurban" left as fast as it came. No one cared about the shopping habits of Hispanic teenagers, so corporate America did what they do best; they followed the money and abandoned the format.

I understand what you mean by "hurban" but I have never seen the term used in the music or radio business. It's been called "Reggaetón" ever since it began in the 80's in Puerto Rico and Panamá with Vico C and El General. By 1990, Pichín Román's TV station in San Juan ran reggaetón videos all day long, and had the music on WVOZ (FM) as well.

So by that very early 2000's period you refer to, the genre of music and the format were going on nearly 20 years old. But it had never been played for a mostly Mexican origin audience or, for that matter, used as a fulltime format in places like New York City or Miami that have mostly Caribbean radio audiences.

The original Mega format was rather horrible. It came on in 2004 just as Houston became the new test market for the Arbitron PPM. The format was a disaster demographically and it looked even worse in the PPM, which it appears they had not been observing particularly well. It was not until the PPM officially launched as currency (Houston was the first market in 2007 since it was already running that ownership realized that the format had to be broadened to be more than just hard-core youth oriented.

During the same period, HBC tried reggaetón in NYC as "Kalle" and had similar results. It did very well in 12-24, but there are zero 12-24 Hispanic buys. At that point, CBS woke up and sent in Alfredo Alonso who, at least, broadened the format and made the station more appealing to the local "constituency". It still had enormous sales problems because of the image of the format and the very young age of the listeners.

But the music did not die... or go into recession... it was just tried too early on the mainland US and failed. But the music was growing and expanding in much of Latin America, and by the early 2000's it was getting a foothold in most of the Caribbean Basin where Afro-Antillean music had always been popular.

So, after this very long preamble, I can say that nothing that was played on Mega in Houston in the first three years is of any significance because the station and its hybrid format were not successful. And that particular N.O.R.E. song was barely heard in Latin America, and only a minor hit in Puerto Rico. Earlier songs like El Chombo's "El Gato Volador" were more significant, and were songs that made their way in some fashion onto CHR stations in the Caribbean Basin in the late 90's.

In fact, "El Gato Volador" in several versions has over 50 million YouTube views and that is a song from the late 90's! So the argument the N.O.R.E. song being "too old" to get views is invalid. That is just a song that did not have wide appeal.

(As reference, starting in 1994 I programmed "Éxitos Express" for the joint venture of Tom Round's Radio Express and TM Century and I got station playlists and new releases from everywhere in Latin America as part of that new release service's weekly "Hitdisk" preparation. Later, TR split with TM and we continued to do the service until last year. I had a pretty good idea of what was "working" all over Latin America.)

Today, those teenagers that weren't worth selling to have all grown up. And wouldn't you know it, Reggaeton seems to be extremely popular again. Ain't that the darndest thing? And I bet you all of these grown Reggaeton listeners would know the song if you played it for them.

Reggaetón never stopped being popular. It was just tried improperly in NYC and HOU in the early 2000's and before the music was deep enough to sustain a pure format other than in PR and Panamá. But it had been growing since the 90's in Colombia, Ecuador, and even Chile and "in the underground" in Mexico. The issue in those two US markets (and with WRTO in Miami, too) was that the US media market does not buy against 12-24 Hispanics, so even with significant very young listening, there was no revenue to harvest. The music was progressing and growing... but there was no ad market for radio stations that did the format, unlike the general market rap and hip-hop audiences that were, albeit at a discount, very salable over the last roughly four decades..

Over the last thirty-some years, reggaetón and related genres like trap have grown from a niche in Puerto Rico and Panama to slowly gain acceptance from Chile to Chicago. There is essentially no other type of CHR in Latin America today, and even very successful pop and ballad artists like Luis Fonsi and Enrique Iglesias have become reggaetón stars, broadening the appeal of the music along the way.

And that particular song, never having been played in most places in Latin America (where hip hop in English is, and was, not accepted) is about as familiar to most as that earlier "Gato Volador" song I mentioned.