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English Radio Station
- Thread starter e-dawg
- Start date
e-dawg said:
I think that you mean 1030 WOSO in San Juan, a news talk station. WBMJ is all religion, and co-operated with WCGB 1060 in Juana Díaz (a Ponce market municipality) and WIVV on the island municipality of Vieques off the SE shore of PR.
WIPR AM and FM are owned by the Commonwealth government, and have had an NPR relationship primarily for news, but I do not think they have even that now (the website shows affiliation with NPR, The Met Opera, RTVEs, and Radio Netherland) but the program grid shows very little. WIPR FM is classical and the AM is talk, news and Puerto Rican music.
The reason why there is not any more English language programming is just like the reason why New York City does not have a country station... not enough potential listeners.
When I was in Puerto Rico a few years ago, WIPR-FM sounded much like an NPR Classical station on the mainland, like WQXR or KDFC, except the hosts do all their announcements in Spanish. In the evening, they run some NPR syndicated classical programs in English, including orchestra broadcasts. I also heard Radio Espana classical programs in Spanish as well.
You can hear some Virgin Island FM stations, all broadcasting in English, in the eastern section of the island. Some come in spotty in San Juan.
You can hear some Virgin Island FM stations, all broadcasting in English, in the eastern section of the island. Some come in spotty in San Juan.
ai4i said:
It's antenna, at about 4000 ft AMSL, used to produce some wonderful-to-view corona effects as the humid, salt-laden sea air swept by the tower at night.
They later changed to a different antenna and spacing... it does not glow in the dark any more.
J Alex Bowab
Frequent Participant
I was on a US Navy ship, floating around PR/VI in 1969-71. At that time, WBMJ 1190 was a fantastic sounding English language Top 40 station, that in its top-of-hour ID touted being owned by Bob Hope. Later in the 70s I visited PR a few times, and was impressed by WHOA 870. English language HOA was what we used to call a MoR (middle of the road) station, and was very listenable... seems like they had CBS Radio news to boot. I can't remember the time line, but I vaguely recall later on hearing WRAI 1520 taking a stab at English language Top 40. All of these attempts at English disappeared; wonder if any of them made any impact.
WBMJ, in its English language years of about late 1968-1973, did quite well at the start, but faded fast going into the 70's. By 1973, it was "Radio Rock" with rhythmic English language CHR but an entirely Spanish presentation.
WHOA did well as a "community station" for the Continentals in PR going back to when it was on 1400 in the early 60's. For a while, the MOR format had a competitor, WKYN-630, which is where Sally Jesse Rafael worked for quite a few years doing localized talk.
WRAI, run by a Continental and former WBMJ staffer, tried to reincarnate Top 40 in English in the mid-70s, but did not get traction.
The major influence on all the English language stations in that era was the changing market. From the beginning of Operation Bootstrap (1948) many mainland English speaking non-Puerto Ricans came to the Island to establish industry. As industry grew, managers, engineers and technical staff were transferred from the mainland and there were large groups of such people in the larger cities. But by the end of the 60's, that population began to dwindle as local universities had begun to provide technical and business grads to fill positions, and many Puerto Ricans who would have emigrated stayed on the Island to take the better jobs being offered.
As the population base for English language stations dropped, so did the interest in those stations... even though ones like WBMJ attracted a lot more than native mainland English speakers. With the core gone, the stations could not make money. And San Juan is not a great radio market.
I saw one estimate that there might have been 150,000 Continentals in PR in the mid-60's. Today it is likely that the number is less than 25,000.
Puerto Rico is a dual signal market, East & West simulcast frequencies, with central interior mountain ranges.
FM stations playing English content, with Spanish talent & spots are:
Magic 97.3 WOYE 99.5 WIDI Generation X
Alpha Rock 105.7 WCAD CHR-Rock
La Mega 106.9 WMEG 95.1 WEGM Party Station English/Spanish CHR
KQ105 104.7 WKAQ 98.7 WUKQ Spanish/English CHR
Radio Joe 106.1 WVIS Spanish/English CHR
FM stations playing English content, with Spanish talent & spots are:
Magic 97.3 WOYE 99.5 WIDI Generation X
Alpha Rock 105.7 WCAD CHR-Rock
La Mega 106.9 WMEG 95.1 WEGM Party Station English/Spanish CHR
KQ105 104.7 WKAQ 98.7 WUKQ Spanish/English CHR
Radio Joe 106.1 WVIS Spanish/English CHR
In many cases, it takes three stations to cover the whole Arbitron market.. one for the South for the Ponce region, one on the West for the Mayagüez/Aguadilla/Arecibo area and one for the San Juan Metro.
The three can be a combination of B's, like the Salsoul network, or B's and an A like Fidelity or even B's and a booster or translator. But without a good signal over all three sub-metros, it is hard to get top-level ratings.
With AM, it takes a minimum of 3 signals as well, and even with that there are many areas that don't have good usable signals.
I think it is a stretch to call WVIS a rimshot. It only puts a 70 dbu signal over a few square miles of the mainland of Puerto Rico (a piece of Ceiba and a bit of the Fajardo coastline) and is virtually useless due to the mountains that shield San Juan. It does not show in the Puerto Rico ratings, even at the most minimal level and despite the fact that it covers its home municipality of Vieques with a solid signal.
WVIS 106.1 Radio Joe's tower is a move-in to Isla de Culebra which is 30 miles West to Puerto Rico & its studio in Luquillo PR,
& 20 miles East to English Saint Thomas US Virgin Islands. Its licensed to Isla de Vieques, which is 13 miles south of Isla de Culebra. It needs Isla de Culebra to penetrate Fajardo PR & Charlotte Amalie USVI. To far out to put a solid listenable signal to the huge San Juan metro. Spots are in Spanish. Indie is a good name for the format, CHR/Dance/HAC/Alt/Spanish. Owner is V.I Stereo Communications.
& 20 miles East to English Saint Thomas US Virgin Islands. Its licensed to Isla de Vieques, which is 13 miles south of Isla de Culebra. It needs Isla de Culebra to penetrate Fajardo PR & Charlotte Amalie USVI. To far out to put a solid listenable signal to the huge San Juan metro. Spots are in Spanish. Indie is a good name for the format, CHR/Dance/HAC/Alt/Spanish. Owner is V.I Stereo Communications.
Whether on Vieques or Culebra, the need to provide a city grade signal to the community of license precludes this one from ever serving any but a bit of coastal mainland Puerto Rico. Even for Charlotte Amalia, there is significant terrain blockage.
This is the direct descendant of Joseph Bahr's WViS on St Croix... a station that spent more time off the air than on going back for decades.
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