Low Turnout for People en Español. Is Spanish broadcasting on the way out?

[daypart]

This article in the Express-News states that the Festival People en Español, held in San Antonio over the last two Labor Day weekends, is failing to draw big crowds.

There were an estimated 6,000 people at the Convention Center during the day Saturday and 5,000 concertgoers Saturday night at the Alamodome. Similar numbers were reported for the events Sunday.

That's a dreadful turnout for a big event on a holiday weekend. Is the high-profile failure of this nationally-sponsored event a real-world symptom of waning interest in Spanish-language pop culture? And if so, is it a harbinger of an impending decline in the amount of Spanish-language media in the SA market?

 

[BRH]

My guess is that as time goes on, you'll see fewer Spanish language stations. Most research in recent years has shown that second and third generation Hispanic listeners prefer English language formats (CHR, Rhythmic, Country), & in many cases, aren't even fluent in Spanish. I think the Hispanic audience will certainly continue to be a huge influence, but not through Spanish language stations.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The Hispanic population of SA has been there for many generations, and is heavily English-speaking. Spanish language events might not resonate in SA as they might in other markets where Hispanics are more likely to be relatively recent immigrants.

 

[CTHank]

IMHO, Mediafrog is correct. I went to high school in SA in the 60s and most of my friends and classmates were 'Hispanic' and the common theme among them was that their parents insisted that they speak English as their primary language. As we've all aged, I've noticed that their children and grand children are much,much more likely to be interested in the exact same things as their Anglo friends and almost sadly a significant portion of them don't even speak Spanglish much less Spanish.

 

[davideduardo]

That's a dreadful turnout for a big event on a holiday weekend. Is the high-profile failure of this nationally-sponsored event a real-world symptom of waning interest in Spanish-language pop culture? And if so, is it a harbinger of an impending decline in the amount of Spanish-language media in the SA market?

One of the issues here is the popularity of People en Español. The fact is that the magazine does not have a very big national circulation, and the first analysis should be what the readership in San Antonio really is.

Then again, the article does not specify what the event consisted of, so it may have had limited appeal.

In any event, the article was about riding a free bus, not the total attendance at the event.

San Antonio is roughly 50% Hispanic, with a significant multi-generational heritage going back for six to eight generations.

Making any conclusion about Spanish language radio based on the riders of a free bus is like walking on quicksand.

 

[daypart]

One of the issues here is the popularity of People en Español. The fact is that the magazine does not have a very big national circulation, and the first analysis should be what the readership in San Antonio really is.

Then again, the article does not specify what the event consisted of, so it may have had limited appeal.

In any event, the article was about riding a free bus, not the total attendance at the event.

San Antonio is roughly 50% Hispanic, with a significant multi-generational heritage going back for six to eight generations.

Making any conclusion about Spanish language radio based on the riders of a free bus is like walking on quicksand.

As the article points out, the sponsors of this privately-funded event were declaring the paid attendance to be 5-6 times higher than it actually appeared to be. (Talk about quicksand!)

The bus numbers (illustrating that only a few hundred riders used the park and ride service to the event) were the only "official" and quantifiable numbers related to attendance that are available in the public record.

I'd love to discuss real numbers and draw firmer conclusions based on solid evidence, but the folks running the event didn't share them. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of the larger implications of the apparent coverup.

 

[davideduardo]

I'd love to discuss real numbers and draw firmer conclusions based on solid evidence, but the folks running the event didn't share them. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of the larger implications of the apparent coverup.

Look at this in perspective: People has a circulation (based on old 2011 numbers I found) of less than 600,000 copies. Without buying into all publishers' hype about each copy being read by half of humanity, that number pales when compared to the 50 million Hispanics in the US. In fact, it is about 1%.

The question should not be about Spanish language radio, which continues to perform very well in San Antonio. Spanish language radio reaches, on average, around 15% of the total adult population of San Antonio's radio metro at any time during the day. And that is a good reflection on usage by the Spanish dominant and bilingual segments of the Hispanic community.

The question should be about whether the "voice" of People en Español has a passionate enough and big enough following as a brand to successfully pull off an event of the type that happened in SA. Or, perhaps the event did not have the predicted appeal and thus did not draw as well as expected... look first at the event, the venue, the appeal of the concept, the marketing in other media. This is, to me, not language related but, rather, related to the specifics of the event itself.