On the national level no. On the state level, I do not believe so as CBS previously operated "Wild 100" in Dallas and "Wild 102.7" in San Antonio, my former clients operated as "Wild 104.3" in Amarillo, and there is currently a "Wild 105.5" in Corpus Christi.
I think the last time was Alt 101.9 in Orlando. And that station has since flipped to Classic Hip-Hop.
For clarification, what Alarcón means by "Urban Regional Mexican" is strictly the newer trend of Corridos Tumbados and the Bélico movement that is popular with younger Mexican Americans on social media. This format doesn't include Bad Bunny, Karol G, or Danny Ocean (unless they're doing a crossover with a Regional Mexican act).
According to @DavidEduardo, the "Latino" nomer is not popular among Latinos (go figure...despite it still being used as part of KAMA's brand). I'm not sure I agree with the research, but I guess it was bad enough that the "Estereo Latino" brand was hurting KLTN 🤷♂️.
This is, in part, what the better reggaetón stations in core Mexican / Mexican heritage markets has found. More Fonsi/Yankee type songs and no Bad Bunny. The ones that are too Afro-Antillean just don't work. Combine with the Tumbados and Bélico stuff, and you have a very powerful blend with a lot of variety for hose markets.
And we have to remember that, some years ago and before the pandemic, we all thought that alterado would be a format on its own. What really happened is that it blended in with mainstream banda and regional. To do that, the alterado artists themselves became more mainstream and less edgy and now they are mainstream themselves!
Think about a station called "African Mix" or "Negro Mix" or one called "China Mix". It is condescending and, as my examples purposely show, can bee offensive. Heck (spelled with two L's), it sounds demeaning and condescending and like something an Anglo with no cultural knowledge or feeling might think up.
Every attempt at a bilingual presentation by a commercial station has failed. We can go back to Super Q in Miami in 1979 where they tried a mix of Spanish and English CHR / Pop songs with jocks that spoke both languages. The DJs sounded fake; I hired several of them after they tired of the stress of purposely trying to be bilingual on the air and they ended up hating doing the format.
On the other hand, what else is there in common between Juanes, Shakira, Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, J Balvin, and Romeo Santos? Other than a lack of tubas and accordions?
Bilingual in my programming book does not work.
This is not Recent Both stations have tried to sprinkle regional Mexican. Examples: 3ball monterrey was very much played out on KLOL Vicente fernandez was another one that i remember hearing on 101 and thinking what the hell. So this is not new it goes by a phase and to me Tumbado and belico is nothing more than a passing phase but has been able to do very well on social platforms and gain traction.
For this URM movement, it's very recent. Probably a post pandemic decision that as of last year intensified.
That group isn't a Regional Mexican act. If anything, they are a Mexican trance/dance group that crossed over into multiple genres, with RM/Grupero being one of them.
I'd chalk that up to error or someone not paying attention. Unless this happened during their soft Soft AC phase, which would have made some of his songs acceptable to the rotation.
A passing phase that is going on for five years now? Look, I'd love to dissect whether this is a fad or not, but this is a topic for another day.
I’m definitely not the target demographic, but it sounds like there are more Hispanic oriented format holes that could be plugged than we might realize. Are the Power 105.3 folks paying attention if they are indeed going to launch a new format on 97.5? Might iHeart consider flipping 93.7 as has been speculated upon in the past?
I disagree. 'Latino' has never been used in a condescending way like 'African', 'Negro', or 'Chynah' have.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to move POWER to 97.5 and have something new on the translator ??
We played a lot of the softer Vicente songs at KLVE, an AC in LA, in the mid 1990’s and onwards. We considered them to be Mexican ballads. Just a different kind of orchestra than Luis Miguel.
My daughter, sample of one, had a T-shirt that said….
That would be the second time for the “Power” branding on 97.5, after the first incarnation 2002-05 under the KRWP call.
Wouldn't it make more sense to prolong any KFNC format flip speculation until after actually selling the facility?
Ah, yes. The same "Power," that was supposed to be moved to "more tower" with the new 103.7 signal. Cumulus sure did screw that all kinds of up, didn't they?
Which were not the original calls that Cumulus sought to install at 97.5, but now we're just getting way too nerdy, and are going to put the collective to sleep.
Heck, we’ve been chattering for 18 months about what SBS is going to do with KROI. We’ve only had eight months of KFNC speculation.🤣
😉👍
Of course you don’t have to have a change of ownership for a format flip or LMA. And there may be some behind the scenes action going on. But I don’t expect anything to happen until after the new year.
For a long time we urged Alfred to sell the station and he finally took our advice.🫢😛😂
Any proposal to move KFNC to the 103.7 stick would face second adjacent spacing issues with KLVH 97.1. I have wondered if a directional antenna suppressing the 97.5 signal towards Shepherd would make such a plan workable from the KHJK tower.
Mike Stude sold KRTS-FM at the perfect time. Not long after the sale closed, radio licenses started to lose their value.
l'll second that. What did Mike get, like $70 million if I recall correctly? And SBS is struggling to close on it for 7.5 million. Things have certainly changed.
