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English Language Radio In Peurto Rico

A

anatharadiorefugee

Guest
Are there any popular stations in PR broadcasting music targeting the 18 -34 croud? I would also like to know if there are any stations in PR that use English as its primary broadcast language regardless of format or target demo. Thanks in advance for the info.
 
anatharadiorefugee said:
Are there any popular stations in PR broadcasting music targeting the 18 -34 croud? I would also like to know if there are any stations in PR that use English as its primary broadcast language regardless of format or target demo. Thanks in advance for the info.
Click to expand...

As has been stated before, the only commercial non-religious San Juan station 100% in English is AM news / talker WOSO, which gets low, if any, ratings.

The WIVV / WBMJ / WGCB (All AM) "Rock Radio" netwok ("Rock" as in "I am the Rock" and not as in "Rock n Roll") is religious.

The significant stations for 18-34 (some being multi-FM networks) are WKAQ-FM "KQ-105", WMEG-FM "Mega", WODA-FM "Reggaetón 9-4", WPRM-FM, Cadena Salsoul, and WXYX-FM "La X". Together, those 5 networks get just about 50% of the 18-34 shares.

There are about 120 stations licensed in Puerto RIco, including non-commercial ones.
 
DavidEduardo said:
anatharadiorefugee said:
Are there any popular stations in PR broadcasting music targeting the 18 -34 croud? I would also like to know if there are any stations in PR that use English as its primary broadcast language regardless of format or target demo. Thanks in advance for the info.
Click to expand...

As has been stated before, the only commercial non-religious San Juan station 100% in English is AM news / talker WOSO, which gets low, if any, ratings.

The WIVV / WBMJ / WGCB (All AM) "Rock Radio" netwok ("Rock" as in "I am the Rock" and not as in "Rock n Roll") is religious.

The significant stations for 18-34 (some being multi-FM networks) are WKAQ-FM "KQ-105", WMEG-FM "Mega", WODA-FM "Reggaetón 9-4", WPRM-FM, Cadena Salsoul, and WXYX-FM "La X". Together, those 5 networks get just about 50% of the 18-34 shares.

There are about 120 stations licensed in Puerto RIco, including non-commercial ones.
Click to expand...

WODA-FM hasn't been "Reggaetón 9-4" for over a year... it's just "La 9-4" now.
 
Perhaps I didn't ask the question I needed answered. Let me try it this way: What radio station would you buy if you needed to reach the 18-34 English language proficient demo in San Juan?
 
Identnut said:
DavidEduardo said:
anatharadiorefugee said:
Are there any popular stations in PR broadcasting music targeting the 18 -34 croud? I would also like to know if there are any stations in PR that use English as its primary broadcast language regardless of format or target demo. Thanks in advance for the info.
Click to expand...

As has been stated before, the only commercial non-religious San Juan station 100% in English is AM news / talker WOSO, which gets low, if any, ratings.

The WIVV / WBMJ / WGCB (All AM) "Rock Radio" netwok ("Rock" as in "I am the Rock" and not as in "Rock n Roll") is religious.

The significant stations for 18-34 (some being multi-FM networks) are WKAQ-FM "KQ-105", WMEG-FM "Mega", WODA-FM "Reggaetón 9-4", WPRM-FM, Cadena Salsoul, and WXYX-FM "La X". Together, those 5 networks get just about 50% of the 18-34 shares.

There are about 120 stations licensed in Puerto RIco, including non-commercial ones.
Click to expand...

WODA-FM hasn't been "Reggaetón 9-4" for over a year... it's just "La 9-4" now.
Click to expand...

My bad... in any case, that's the format... and they still have "Reggaetón 9-4" on their sales material. Probably SBS is short of cash to print new sales material...
 
anatharadiorefugee said:
Perhaps I didn't ask the question I needed answered. Let me try it this way: What radio station would you buy if you needed to reach the 18-34 English language proficient demo in San Juan?
Click to expand...

WKAQ network and WMEG network. Both are big in 18-34, both play some English language music, both do well in higher income listeners, both have huge cume.

If you are considering running English language creative, you'd have to check if they accept English spots. You also have to consider whether running English copy in a place where 99% of the population has Spanish as their first language is going to do the right selling job.
 
Identnut said:
WODA-FM hasn't been "Reggaetón 9-4" for over a year... it's just "La 9-4" now.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, SBS thinks that station is still called Reggaetón 9-4 since that is what they put as a slogan on their Arbitron SIP.

Their own self-submitted form for the current survey period says,

"Winter 2013 Station Information Profile (SIP) on File with Arbitron
Call Letter: WODA-FM
Frequency: 94.7
Station Name: REGGAETON 94 LA NUEVA
Format: Latino Urban"
 
DavidEduardo said:
Identnut said:
WODA-FM hasn't been "Reggaetón 9-4" for over a year... it's just "La 9-4" now.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, SBS thinks that station is still called Reggaetón 9-4 since that is what they put as a slogan on their Arbitron SIP.

Their own self-submitted form for the current survey period says,

"Winter 2013 Station Information Profile (SIP) on File with Arbitron
Call Letter: WODA-FM
Frequency: 94.7
Station Name: REGGAETON 94 LA NUEVA
Format: Latino Urban"
Click to expand...

Funny thing since they were shying away from the word reggaetón since they were widening their urban format for other genres... You're just as likely to hear Flo Rida or Gangnam Style as you are to hear Daddy Yankee or Don Omar there nowadays.

Still Latin Urban, but not as heavy on the reggaetón as they used to be.
 
According to Wiki, WOSO closed in October. Does this mean there is now no English radio at all in PR?
 
BMR said:
According to Wiki, WOSO closed in October. Does this mean there is now no English radio at all in PR?
Click to expand...

Other than some English on religious broadcasters WBMJ 1190 and WIVV 1370, there is no English language radio on the Island. This is a reflection of the infinitely smaller number of Continentals living in PR as well as the disastrous economic conditions which have reduced radio ad expenditures by at least 60% over the last 5 to 6 years.

Of course, English language music continues to be played on the CHR and AC stations.

A few more details at the Caribbean Business website http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/woso-silenced-by-unpaid-power-bill-101633.html
 
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I'm sorry to hear WOSO closed. When I was on vacation there maybe about 7-8 years ago, I thought they did a good job as an English-language Talk station. They had a local morning show from 6am - 9am with two hosts, sort of what one would hear on the mainland. At 9am, a woman hosted a swap shop type show, where local people could call in to sell items such as washers or used cars. Then from 10am - noon I believe they ran Clark Howard. At noon was another hour of local news-talk. I remember there was a governor's election and one of the candidates spent the hour taking phone calls. (I suppose anyone who wants to be governor of Puerto Rico has to be bilingual.)

Dr. Joy Browne ran from 1pm to 4pm. I'm not sure what aired 4pm to 6pm. At 6 was an hour of network features. It was whatever news, business and commentary the two networks, CBS and ABC, had fed during the day, including Charles Osgood. I believe at 7pm was Dave Ramsey and Jim Bohannan at 10pm. Obviously, the station was trying to only run non-political syndicated talk shows. It didn't make any sense to run Rush Limbaugh, or Stephanie Miller for that matter, since Puerto Ricans can't vote for the President or the Senate. And their one House member also can't vote. He can only speak. Overnight the station did run Lars Larson, who is a conservative Talk host from Portland OR. I always wondered why they didn't just run Coast to Coast, since that show is also heard on Canadian Talk stations.

When I wanted music, there were several FM stations playing mostly English-language music, even though the DJs only spoke Spanish. 105.7 WCAD played Classic Rock, 97.3 WOYE played AC. And 91.3 WIPA-FM was a very good non-commercial Classical station, with some features in English from NPR, although again, the announcers only spoke Spanish. WIPA-FM has the best signal on the island. We were never too far from San Juan to lose it, even if the other FM stations faded. And in San Juan and to the east, you could also pick up English-language Virgin Islands FM stations, although not perfectly in the capital.

You could tell from the commercials on WOSO that they had a large audience of bilingual business people. There were ads for office space and office supplies, shipping companies, real estate companies and new office and condo developments. A few of the ads were in Spanish, I suppose produced by an ad agency to run on numerous Puerto Rican stations. I suppose that's only fair since mainland Spanish language stations run some ads in English, if they're produced by an agency that doesn't want to record spots in both languages. I never got the hint that WOSO had trouble selling spots or had to run a lot of PSAs to make up for poor ad sales.

Let's hope someone buys 1030 WOSO's 10 kw signal and considers restoring its English language news-talk programming.
 
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Gregg. said:
I'm sorry to hear WOSO closed.

Let's hope someone buys 1030 WOSO's 10 kw signal and considers restoring its English language news-talk programming.
Click to expand...

It's been over a year since WOSO went silent. In October they were granted an STA to operate at 300 watts into a unipole located on what appears to be the side of a condo in the commercial area of Santurce, in one of the older business districts of San Juan.

They were given a short period of time to get this STA on the air, and the excuse given for doing it was that the 10 kw site had been vandalized while the station was silent.

The FCC site has no further information. I can't find any data on the station via its now defunct website and family in PR says they can't get any signal on 1030 but they may live too far from the 300 watt location to hear it.

While quite directional, this is a fulltime 10 kw station in one of the larger metros in the US. It just shows the state of AM radio and the horrible condition of the local economy.
 
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