radioman148
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I'm going to be in San Juan soon and was wondering if there are any English speaking talk stations in San Juan AM & FM?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
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English speaking talk radio in San Juan
- Thread starter radioman148
- Start date
C
cd637299
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WOSO 1030 (news/talk), www.woso.com
1190/1370 Christian radio as well.
I think all the rest are Spanish, but many stations play English music nevertheless. Cue David Eduardo.....
cd
1190/1370 Christian radio as well.
I think all the rest are Spanish, but many stations play English music nevertheless. Cue David Eduardo.....
cd
cd637299 said:
Yep. Them are they.
WOSO has long been the English station for Continentals following the demise of WHOA, which lasted from the early, early 60's to the 80's. WOSO went on in about 1964, and has consitently been a pretty good mix of local content and net shows.
WBMJ San Juan (From '68 to'72 an English language CHR station) is now Christian preaching and teaching, in parallel with sister WIVV on the distant island of Vieques.
WRAI was English for a while in the 70's, and WKYN 630 was English in the 60's. WOSO was repeatedd on WTIL 1300 Mayagüez for a while, but that did not work.
Broadcasting in English is far less profitable now, since the Continental population has declined because the local industries are being run by local management and have local engineers and technicians. That is why Mexico City has no fulltime English today, while it did in the 60's through the 80's.
radioman148
Walk of Fame Participant
DavidEduardo said:
I thought I remembered hearing an English talker the last time I was there in 2003 somewhere around 700 on the dial (give or take).
Anyway, thanks for the help.
radioman148 said:
In the San Juan area and the NE coastal areas, ZBVI from Roadtown, BVI, used to come in very well on 780.
Other than that, 680 has been a right wing talker for two decades, 710 in Mayagüez has always been in Spanish, 740 in San Juan likewise. 760 Mayagüez repeats all news WUNO 630, and 810 WKVM is an all-Spanish station of the Archdiocis of San Juan. 840 is local WXEW, Radio Victoria, on the SE coast, all Spanish.
radioman148
Walk of Fame Participant
DavidEduardo said:
David,
Let me see if I have this right. 680 is listed in "Radio Locator" as being in Spanish--is that correct?
What I am interested in is an English speaking talk format. Does 1030 or any other frequency fit that description? I'm not interested in any English speaking religious stations.
Thanks!
radioman148
Walk of Fame Participant
Identnut said:
Well I know when I was there in 2003 I did hear an English speaking station that had some political talk on it.
I thought it was lower on the dial. Maybe it was coming from somewhere else.
radioman148 said:
I'm saying that on the low part of the dial, there is nothing in English in PR. 1030 is talk in English, WOSO, Radio Oso. Depending on where you were, in most places no other non-religious station in English can be heard daytime. Nights are some of the most amazing distant reception opportunities if you are away from the big SJ stations.
radioman148
Walk of Fame Participant
OK, thanks David.
1030 WOSO is surprisingly good for a station with no competition. I was there a couple of years ago on vacation and WOSO had a live local morning show, a local one-hour political talk show at noon and an hour of swap shop/radio classifieds at 9am. When I was there, the local governor's race was the hot topic and the major candidates all showed up on different days taking calls in English on WOSO.
At 6pm, there was a one-hour unhosted show just airing network features like Harry Smith doing a 3 minute opinion show and similar features from both CBS and ABC. (I wonder how many mainland stations run these seldom heard features.) The rest of the day, WOSO runs non-political syndicated programs like Dr. Joy Brown, Clark Howard, Dr. Dean Edell, George Nouri, etc.
Someone above complains WOSO runs few syndicated political programs because Puerto Ricans don't care about Mainland Politics. That makes little sense. First, this an English language radio station so most of the listeners probably still have ties to the mainland. Second, Puerto Ricans can't vote for President, Senate, etc. so it doesn't make much sense to carry either conservative or liberal political syndicated shows. (They send a non-voting representitive to the House.)
On cable TV, the San Juan cable system does carry CNN, MSNBC and BBC News, all in English, although not Fox News Channel.
If you've got a decent AM radio, you can pick up by day AM 1000 WVWI, a station similar to WOSO from the U.S. Virgin Islands. And at night 850 WFTL West Palm Beach came in with syndicated conservative talk shows like Michael Savage. Not bad DXing from 1000 miles away. But that was the only English AM station I heard from the mainland.
Gregg
[email protected]
At 6pm, there was a one-hour unhosted show just airing network features like Harry Smith doing a 3 minute opinion show and similar features from both CBS and ABC. (I wonder how many mainland stations run these seldom heard features.) The rest of the day, WOSO runs non-political syndicated programs like Dr. Joy Brown, Clark Howard, Dr. Dean Edell, George Nouri, etc.
Someone above complains WOSO runs few syndicated political programs because Puerto Ricans don't care about Mainland Politics. That makes little sense. First, this an English language radio station so most of the listeners probably still have ties to the mainland. Second, Puerto Ricans can't vote for President, Senate, etc. so it doesn't make much sense to carry either conservative or liberal political syndicated shows. (They send a non-voting representitive to the House.)
On cable TV, the San Juan cable system does carry CNN, MSNBC and BBC News, all in English, although not Fox News Channel.
If you've got a decent AM radio, you can pick up by day AM 1000 WVWI, a station similar to WOSO from the U.S. Virgin Islands. And at night 850 WFTL West Palm Beach came in with syndicated conservative talk shows like Michael Savage. Not bad DXing from 1000 miles away. But that was the only English AM station I heard from the mainland.
Gregg
[email protected]
Gregg said:
That's a really good analysis of WOSO and the talk radio environment in Puerto Rico. WOSO has always been a good station, going back to around 1975 when it went on the air. It was first owned by Augie Cavallaro who sold his station in Amherst, MA, to go to PR. It was owned in part by the Comas family, the sugar growing branch of the Bacardí clan.
A number of years ago, Sherman Wildman, who had been sent to the Island to run a near bankrupt TV channel, bought it because he did not want to leave PR. He has run it ever since, and quite skillfully.
There is a very, very small group of continentals on the Island, and they would be the core for the station. But many upscale Puerto Ricans can find something of interest there, too. So the station does show up occasionally in the ratings and I believe it makes a comfortable living for the owner, too.
If that's the case... I wonder how a KISS-FM type station would work in Puerto Rico...
I don't mean KQ-105, which would be our equivalent. I mean one that only plays English-language CHR, with Elvis Duran and Ryan Seacrest. I mean, these days you can program this type of station without having to hire local talent.
I don't mean KQ-105, which would be our equivalent. I mean one that only plays English-language CHR, with Elvis Duran and Ryan Seacrest. I mean, these days you can program this type of station without having to hire local talent.
the golden boy
Star Participant
Gregg said:
They can vote in presidential elections.
the golden boy said:
No resident of Puerto Rico can vote in the US presidential elections (although there may be an exception, as there is for military personnel abroad, for US Federal Government employees not from the Island who are assigned there).
A US citizen, born in PR but resident on the manland or AK or HI, can vote in all local elections once the residency requirements are met.
Identnut said:
There was one, WBMJ, from about 1968 until around 1972 when it became "Radio Rock" with the same calls. The station had mainland English speaking jocks (exceept a few part timers like Peter Porrata) and all English language Top 40. As the Continental population was declining then, they switched to Spanish.
Identnut said:
I can see it as an option for the San Juan metro,but I don't think it works on a big signal or network. It's just not going to work as well in Lares and Adjuntas and Coamo as in Guaynabo.
Note that stations that used to be predominantly English music based, like WFID, are no almost all Spanish, and the percentage of English is lower than in other eras. Even Mega moved away from a more English mix.
While I was in Puerto Rico a couple of years ago, when listening to FM, I mostly tuned in 97.3 WOYE which plays English AC and Hot AC, even though the DJs and commercials were all in Spanish. 105.7 WCAD also played a good mix of English and Spanish Rock, again with Spanish speaking DJs. At the time, the Top 40 stations also played about a quarter English hits, although David says that percentage has dropped recently.
And I really liked the Public station, WIPR-FM 91.3 which played very familiar classical music, with Spanish speaking DJs. At night, there were a few syndicated NPR classical shows in English and Radio Espana programs in Spanish. They have the best signal on Puerto Rico. We never drove out of their range, from Fajado in the east to Aracibo to the west. It's nice to know Puerto Rico supports a fulltime classical outlet (and a symphony orchestera).
By the way, it was one of my favorite vacations ever! We rented an Isla Verde condo with a balcony from a NYC couple via Craig's List. There was a large pool in the back, gated parking, and right through the back gate was a very clean beach on the ocean. Only $100 each way via Jet Blue.
Gregg
[email protected]
And I really liked the Public station, WIPR-FM 91.3 which played very familiar classical music, with Spanish speaking DJs. At night, there were a few syndicated NPR classical shows in English and Radio Espana programs in Spanish. They have the best signal on Puerto Rico. We never drove out of their range, from Fajado in the east to Aracibo to the west. It's nice to know Puerto Rico supports a fulltime classical outlet (and a symphony orchestera).
By the way, it was one of my favorite vacations ever! We rented an Isla Verde condo with a balcony from a NYC couple via Craig's List. There was a large pool in the back, gated parking, and right through the back gate was a very clean beach on the ocean. Only $100 each way via Jet Blue.
Gregg
[email protected]
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