Hispanic Radio Podcast: The Community Connector

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Many small towns and cities have seen major changes over the last 30 years. This includes, in some cases, a seismic shift in the number of multicultural consumers that now reside in the community.


Some 90 miles north of New York City, a municipality that lost its major employer some 25 years has been reborn. Millennials are partly to thank. As we learn in this Hispanic Radio Podcast, Latinos are the real growth driver.

In this edition, Radio + Television Business Report Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson speaks with Mariel Fiori and Antonio Flores-Lobos, hosts of “La Voz,” a two-hour weekday program airing from 10am-noon on WKNY-AM 1490 in Kingston, N.Y.

Kingston, the first capital of New York State, is Jacobson’s hometown. It’s changed a lot since his graduation from high school in 1990. Today, the city of some 23,000 has a Hispanic population that is officially 13.4%; unofficially it is close to 15%.

Thanks to topography, Spanish-language radio stations from New York City do not reach Kingston; over-the-air television barely exists, with nearly all residents using an MVPD or DBS provider. That leaves Townsquare Media’s WEOK-AM 1390 in Poughkeepsie and FM translator W239BL at 95.7 MHz, which air a pop-focused Spanish Adult Contemporary presentation as “Juan,” as the only 24/7 media outlet serving the region’s Spanish speakers.

Only, “Juan” is music-intensive. As such, Fiori and Flores-Lobos sought to fill a void in the Mid-Hudson Valley. With “La Voz,” locally focused talk on topics of interest to Kingston’s Latinos is heard on each program.

While WKNY is now a non-commerical station, underwriting support — much like advertising — is needed to keep the operation going. Has “La Voz” proven successful in the year that it has been on “Radio Kingston”? Could an AM or underperforming Class A FM in your market benefit from the addition of such a program on a daily or weekly basis?

Find out in this Hispanic Radio Podcast!


WANT TO FULLY LEARN ABOUT THE RICHES THAT REACHING HISPANICS CAN BRING FOR YOUR RADIO STATIONS?

Make your plans today to attend the Hispanic Radio ConferenceMarch 12-13, 2019 at the Intercontinental in Doral, just minutes from Miami International Airport and the offices of major media companies and advertising agencies serving the U.S. Hispanic consumer.