I am curious to see what y'all are gonna say! This is my first ever thread.
And also I am part of one of the biggest markets which is DFW.
And also I am part of one of the biggest markets which is DFW.
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What format would get more listeners? Bilingual or an all 80's/90's radio station?
- Thread starter juansplatedup
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Depends on the market and the established formats already in place. In DFW, bilingual might work.
Bilingual announcing has always resulted in low ratings.
In all of Latin America, some of the highest billing stations play all or mostly English language music, but with everything else from the DJs to the ads in Spanish.
The first station I owned in Ecuador 70 years ago played about 30% Top 40 hits in English and the rest in Spanish.
Here in the U.S. it is likely that Hispanics who like English language music will seek a station that just plays that. If they are Spanish dominant, they may like the rest to be in Spanish.
In all of Latin America, some of the highest billing stations play all or mostly English language music, but with everything else from the DJs to the ads in Spanish.
The first station I owned in Ecuador 70 years ago played about 30% Top 40 hits in English and the rest in Spanish.
Here in the U.S. it is likely that Hispanics who like English language music will seek a station that just plays that. If they are Spanish dominant, they may like the rest to be in Spanish.
If bilingual means some music in English and some in Spanish, not it will not work. Listeners to Spanish language radio will have the same habits they had in their native nation. If they listened to English language back home, they will seek it here... but that is a group of immigrants who are urban and educated. There are few places in the US where the bulk of the Hispanic population fits that definition... which is why a station with English music and Spanish presentation works in Miami but will not work in Dallas or LA...
I mean Magic in Miami has a really great format and other markets should definitely give it a try..just not every market because it would fail.
An English/Spanish combo that focuses on music from Mid 80s to early 00s. You’re in DFW; for that market more English phrasing and liners would work. Just throw in some Spanish lingo that’s in step with the culture there.
As an example Power 96 in Miami is using liners that say “Oye, Oye” and “Papo” which is Cuban slang.
The Freestyle Dance App on SXM has liners that say “ The beats that rule the streets in the 80s ” or about “ Cruising in your Cutlass Supreme” which is more targeted at the NY Tristate area Puerto Rican/Latino audience who grew up in that era.
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I'd love to make a variety station just like what you said, except it would also play 70's music in the mix with today's music. Kinda like a rhythmic bilingual station, kinda leaning towards CHR? And what those stations are doing is pretty interesting, I love it.
KXTJ out of San Antonio has a very similar format but they’re not bilingual.
Wepa.fm - Your Official Bilingual Internet Radio Station Home definitely has a bilingual approach in their presentation
I love what KXTJ does and I will love to do that similar format tbh, just have more variety-esk without songs repeating on every station.
Wouldn't playing 50-year-old songs attract unwanted 55+ listeners to the station, or is that not a concern in formats with strong Hispanic appeal?
Only works in markets where the huge majority of Hispanics are middle and upper class refugees from Socialist governments such as Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, and now Ecuador and Peru as well as Nicaragua. Also works where there are first generation migrants from Puerto Rico, such as Orlando and Tampa where mostly middle class and professionals from the Island have fled the breakdown in infrastructure over the last 30 or so years (I was one of those).
Remember, #1 station in PR is Fidelity, which is mostly English language AC.
Immigrants from Mexico and northern Central America in the Southwest listen to regional Mexican, not AC in English. And never will.
We're talking to a great extent about people who grew up elsewhere. In Latin America the equivalent of AC stations that play all or much English music have kept some 70's songs alive.
Given the recent election result in Mexico, could a middle/upper class exodus be coming next?
I don't imagine we're thinking of a bilungual air personality, such as Marc Denis in Canada, who effortlessly switched between English and French on various radio stations until the Canadian government said there will be no more of that. Or XEROK, which I understood had bilingual English/Spanish DJs for their border-blasting 800. Is anybody doing a Spanglish these days?
No. This is a slow, tedious change and it will be done with the cooperation of the monied classes or it will not work. And this is just a second term of the same party, not a radical change. In fact, she is more moderate than AMLO.
And even if there were a migration of upper classes from Mexico, they would go in small numbers to hundreds of different cities.
I never heard X-Rock 80 do any jock work other than in English. Its target was the whole Midwest of the US and the Rocky Mountain states. At that time, few spoke Spanish and the Spanish speakers did not listen to Top 49.
There are some airchecks of a bilingual DJ on XEROK. May have just been one guy
I mean there are sometimes that play both English and Spanish but I know it wouldn’t work as well as a place in Dallas.
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