Scan across the radio dial in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and you’ll hear a lot of Spanish-language programming. That’s a reflection of the proximity of the cities of McAllen, Brownsville and Harlingen to such sizable Mexican cities as Reynosa and Matamoros.
As such, this market of 1.02 million people — of which 910,200 are Hispanic — has roughly eight FM stations with English-language programming. One of the McAllen signals is the home of NPR for the border city, while another signal based in Harlingen is a simulcast partner.
That’s soon set to end, leaving the nation’s 56th-largest metropolitan area and a Top 10 Hispanic DMA without an in-market public radio source.
