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WNAK RUNNING SPANISH.......

Y

yonkstur

Guest
on Saturday afternoons. Think they are simulcasting all the AMs. It sounded very energetic. Having had fake Spanish classes in high school, I couldn't tell what they were saying but it sounded like fun.

Yonkstur
 
I noticed that, too. It's the same time block they run their informercial during M-F. So now we have WRKC, WNAK (or their chain) and anyone else not on the Route 81 roster?
 
Someone is finally waking up a starting to go after a growing market. Not too long ago I had a discussion with someone in management (you know who you are and you gotta be fuming right now) at one of the big three local radio stations, that person had been pushing for this the last year, but upper, upper management didn't have the guts to do it.......Political climate aside, this will be extremely profitable for the first to develop it. I recall when we had our first country station, can't remember :-[ the call letters(WDLS?) or the engineer (Ron?) who started it, but correct me if I'm wrong, they dominated the market and were quite profitable. Country music was popular all over, record stores had large selections, but no one in local radio had the guts to break conventional formats. We have a large spanish speaking population, sometimes being a visionary is just having, dare I say it, common sense.....Back in the day when Pittston was full of Italian speaking folks there was an Italian language newspaper (Il Progresso --- I remember this being delivered to the house with the Sunday Dispatch and the Sunday Independent) and I believe radio station(WPTS) I'm sure Yonk knows....Who will be the next visionary????
 
this is nice to see...I'm sure the spanish speaking population in nepa will definitely welcome a station that will play their music with a clear signal....the only other option was spanish talk on wado 1280. I know that there is a large and rapidly growing segment of the population in the area, and one that deserves a station to cater to them. I wish wnak lots of luck with this, and I'm sure they'll be very successful.
 
Yeah...it's really good to have a format that caters to a population that is full of illegal immigrants. Why do you think Hazleton tried to get that law enacted...where the city would fine landlords and employers if they rented housing or gave jobs to illegal immigrants? It's a joke that radio is now catering to these illegals. Now, it seems it's perfectly OK to live in a city full of illegals, and thus bringing up the crime rate.
 
A few issues here.
I had forgotten that WRKC FM had a Spanish program until I tuned it in this afternoon. So give them credit for starting it.
There is a market and whether they are legal or illegal, to radio people they should represent a set of ears, nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure the illegals and thugs who cause the crime are not gathered around the old boom box waiting with baited breath to hear where the next taco place is going to open. These criminals likely have their own networks where they buy their goods and services and you can bet it isn't in the old hometown.
Shall we ban soul, black and rap music because a woman in the downtown (who used to work with me at the call center incidentilly) ran a drug operation out of her wig shop? Should we stop people from reading the obits because someone reading them might get the idea to loot a house when the family is at the wake? C'mon. There is no meter that tells you who is a legal listener and who is not.
The format will live or die of its own weight. If it makes money, the owners will leave it alone and let it stay. If it doesn't, they'll pull the plug faster than Terry Schiavo's husband did.
As for WPTS Radio, at the age of 15 I got my start playing the records on the Italian Hour. The Fiorani's, who owned WPTS did the show via phone hook up from their home on Clay Avenue in Scranton. Mrs. was on the downstairs phone, Mr. was on the upstairs phone. God, if I had only ran tape on what they said off the air! I know people listened, I know they sold spots on the show but couldn't tell you if the listeners were legal or not. All the Fiorani's care about and my good buddy Pat Thomas (Sales Manager at Rt 81) and his boss Jay Davis care about is this: "how many sets of ears and how much are they buyin'?" Let Mayor Lou handle the rest.

Yonkstur
 
Hey, Punchy...

If you don't already know, WRKC's Spanish-speaking service is part of the King's College outreach to the area's Hispanics. The college also does ESL classes (mostly in their homes), citizenship classes, and the Holy Cross priests provide someone who speaks Spanish to minister to the local Hispanics.

Back to the radio station: As far as catering to people who are without papers (illegals), that's not our problem; we aren't the INS. I'm sure there are drug dealers out there who like our late-night programming; we, likewise, aren't the DEA. I bet there are even sighted people who listen to our radio reading service, the Radio Home Visitor.
 
There's nothing wrong with flying Spanish for a few hours a week. Can a station go 24/7? Right now, probably not. The numbers aren't there, the advertisers aren't there, and the political wind isn't blowing your way. Rest assured, things will change.
 
WAZL had a spanish program beginning almost the same time that Route 81 bought the stations. It was originally hosted by Amilcar Arroyo and ran for 3 hours on Sunday nights. Later the show changed to Saturday afternoons from 3-7pm. Now the group who has the program, Robert Arias and Sixto Vasquez, are on all 3 Route 81 AM's from 1p-5p, and then WAZL goes on with 3 more hours of spanish programming, and is apparently planning to continue spanish programming til midnight on Saturdays. I guess it must be making them some money.
 
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