When we interviewed Bustos Media CEO Amador Bustos for the August issue of SmartMedia magazine, one thing we wondered about was the long-term viability of Spanish radio and TV in markets where the Hispanic population, while growing, will always be a small percentage. We asked, how many generations do people tend to stick with Spanish as their primary language if they are in an area where Spanish is not widely spoken?
"They will stick with it I would say, in the second generation, then it’s practically lost in the third generation, but there are often times when there is a return to ‘roots’ somewhere in between the third and fourth generation. The immigrant parents and their children who speak Spanish are fairly dominant in Spanish, even though they may be bi-lingual and by the third generation they gravitate and travel much more to the English language. But then in the fourth generation, the grandchildren or great grandchildren, they tend to have a desire for a return to their roots and knowledge of their ancestors’ language and they will gravitate back. But even though they may speak Spanish, they are very dominant in English, so they will continue to listen to Spanish radio for the music, not so much for the language," Bustos said.
Those growing Hispanic markets, such as Milwaukee and Seattle, are the markets Bustos is targeting with his second radio company, this time adding TV as well. You can read more about his strategy in the August SmartMedia.
