Puerto Rico makes up the #13 radio market in the U.S. and is an important TV market as well. As David Eduardo tells us, the island's population is 90-something percent Spanish-speaking. Only about a third understand English above a basic level. It's 1000 miles from Miami and its population cannot vote for President, yet everyone is an American citizen. Wages aren't as good as on the mainland but are better than other Caribbean countries.
Puerto Rico counts as one market because most stations simulcast on several frequencies scattered around the island. The biggest stations are based in San Juan. All radio stations are Spanish-speaking except for two AM outlets, although many FM stations play English hits as well as Spanish international hits.
FM
One FM station, 97.3 WOYE (oye means to hear), plays all English language AC music, except for some specialty shows. Because tastes run toward rhythmic music, I heard some lesser hits rarely heard in the states, such as "Lessons in Love" by Level 42, "She-Bop" by Cyndi Lauper and "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin. Even though the music was all-English, the DJs only speak Spanish. Other AC stations play mostly Spanish international hits... Mark Anthony, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Juanes. I'd say about a third of the dial is either AC or Hot AC, although I heard no Soft AC stations. And while many U.S. AC stations play songs from the 70s and even the 60s, I heard nothing from before the mid 80s on the San Juan FM dial. Surprisingly, I heard no Gloria Estefan and only once did I hear Julio Iglesias... his duet with Willie Nelson, "To All The Girls."
There is one Rock station, 105.7 WCAD, playing about 1/3 English and 2/3 Spanish rock, although the English rock definately leans more to the pop side. I heard "There Must Be An Angel" by Annie Lennox, something few rock stations in the U.S. would play. There was no hard rock. And unlike most U.S. rock stations that rely heavily on 60s and 70s artists, there was no classic rock. Same as AC stations, virtually nothing airs that was recorded before the mid-80s.
The island's #1 station is Univision's Top 40 104.7 WKAQ-FM. You can hear why WKAQ-FM is #1. It's a well-executed Top 40 station. Big-voiced DJs, use of phone calls and contests, lots of jingles. The hits are about 60-40 Spanish to English. SBS, a big owner of Spanish stations in the U.S., owns WKAQ-FM's competitor, Mega 106.9 WMEG. It also sounds good and is rated #6. In addition, SBS owns an AC, a Hot AC, a Hurban and a Tropical station.
Tropical stations, with fast percussion, big horn sections and simple lyrics about love, are what most of us think of when we hear Hispanic stations on the East Coast of the U.S. But interestingly, there are only 3 or 4 Tropical stations on the FM dial in San Juan. The top ones are #2 and #3 in the market... but the others don't make the ratings.
The Catholic Church owns an AM, an FM and a TV station. The FM is ranked #10 and is listed as Easy Listening... but I think Traditional Spanish might be a better description of 92.5 WORO-FM. (Oro means gold.) There's no Henry Mancini or Percy Faith on this station. It's a mix of instrumentals and vocals, but all older-styled music, all in Spanish from what I heard.
And there's a good non-commercial Classical station, 91.3 WIPR-FM, co-owned with one of the island's two PBS stations. But again, the announcing is all in Spanish except for a few syndicated classical shows. They don't seem to subscribe to NPR, although they carry some programs from Radio Espana. There's no "All Things Considered" or NPR hourly news... in fact, I heard no news, just Classical music. And apparently there's a sizable audience for this since San Juan also supports a classical philharmonic orchestra.
TV
The top stations on the dial are Telemundo on Channel 2, Univision on 11 and Independent WAPA on 4. Unlike Telemundo and Univision, which dub only movies, WAPA has numerous dubbed shows from the U.S. networks in prime time. I saw an ad in one of the newspapers hawking WAPA's great ratings for "Ghost Whisperer." The ad said, among 18-49 women, WAPA beats both Telemundo's and Univision's 10 pm novelas, by better than 2 to 1 margins, on Tuesday nights. (The WAPA line-up in Puerto Rico and the feed seen on U.S. cable systems vary quite a bit, deleting those dubbed shows from the U.S. networks.)
WAPA has more local news than anyone else... a morning block from 5:30-9:30am, a two hour midday news and talk show, a 5-6pm block and 30 minutes at 11pm. WAPA also does a topical humor show, "Xclusivo," weeknights at 6 pm, where some guy, wearing the puppet head of a woman with a large wig and big lips, a dress and showing his shaved legs in high heels is interviewed by an emcee wearing a white suit and a fedora hat. They apparently were making fun of the candidates in the governor's race... and the owner of Univision. But my Spanish is limited so I didn't get most of the jokes. They punctuate their humor using clips of audiences falling over in laughter, even though there was no real audience in the studio.
WAPA also does a late morning show hosted by two women wearing heavy make-up and big hair called Entre Nosotras (Between Us Women). It's about fashion, beauty and cooking but it looks like a skit from SCTV. After 11:30pm, there's a contest show hosted by a woman using large playing cards and taking phone calls. I suppose as an independent TV station, WAPA has to produce a good deal of its own programming on the cheap. The station apparently is doing well, with plenty of commercials from Macy's, JC Penney, Sears, KFC and Burger King. (There are more Burger Kings in Puerto Rico per mile of highway than anyplace in the U.S., as well as food chains that have just about disappeared from the mainland, such as Church's Fried Chicken, Taco Maker, Ponderosa, Bonanza and Sizzler.)
WAPA's news is done quite well. WAPA appears to have the best traffic and weather coverage... live cameras of major highways and good radar equipment for showing where there are rain cells and thunderstorms around the island. Univision comes close in news coverage, with a morning block, an hour of news at 6pm and a wrap up at 11. Interestingly, Univision pre-empts its network morning show to run local news till 9am. In NYC, Miami and LA, Univision does all its local news from 5-7am, to make way for "Despierta America." But that show doesn't air in Puerto Rico. Of the three major TV stations, Telemundo does the least news, despite being NBC-owned.
The Catholic station, which goes by the name Canal 13, also does news at 6 and 9:30pm, while running Catholic and informational shows the rest of the day, and EWTN en espanol overnight. I noticed they were running an Italian series, dubbed in Spanish, about the life of St. Francis Assisi. Even though there are a few churches that have mass in English around San Juan, I didn't see any English programs on Canal 13.
WIPR-TV, Channel 6, is one of two PBS stations on Puerto Rico. Except for some daytime PBS programs in English, it's mostly a Spanish language outlet, producing many of its own shows, and calling itself "Tu TV." Meanwhile, the other PBS outlet is mostly in English with a few Spanish language shows. This is the place to find The Newshour, Nova and Nature. Overnight it runs "ARTS," a network showing videos of classical music performances. It has two UHF transmitters, one in Ponce on the south shore of the island and one in Fajardo in the Northeast, which allows it to hit both San Juan and the Virgin Islands. On the San Juan cable system, it gets to be on Channel 3.
I haven't mentioned the English language TV stations yet because they're all on UHF and/or low power. All run on a shoestring. One is an ABC affiliate, one is CBS and one is Fox. They carry all their networks' shows and some syndicated fare such as Oprah, Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil and the daytime judge shows. But they also run tons of infomercials, some in English and some in Spanish. None does its own news. As mentioned in another thread, there are no English news operations on the island. As David Eduardo says, there are so few viewers who only speak English that it wouldn't be practical. (There are also three daily newspapers, all tabloid and all in Spanish.)
The ABC station picks up some WABC-TV New York newscasts. The CBS outlet just runs network news. It calls itself "CBS Caribbean" so I assume its transmitter hits both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Fox station airs no news. And there's no over-the-air NBC outlet. The cable system picks up WNBC, with its New York commercials and news included.
SBS owns a UHF outlet, which, similar to its Top 40 station, it calls Mega 30. The station runs the FM's morning show, much as the Stern and Imus shows get seen on TV. And there are some other low budget video music shows and comedy shows, much like a Spanish MTV. In fact, unlike the U.S. where MTV and VH-1 have all but stopped running music videos, there are numerous UHF and cable channels running Spanish music videos up and down the dial. Several UHF and low-power stations run Protestant religion broadcasts in Spanish and those ever-present infomercials.
The cable system that covers San Juan, One Link, has about 80 basic channels, about a third in Spanish, including TV Espana from Madrid, CNN Espanol and Discovery Kids in Spanish. Two-thirds are English, including BBC World News, CNN and MSNBC, but not Fox News. There are no outlets picked up for the CW, Ion or My Networks.
Gregg
[email protected]
Puerto Rico counts as one market because most stations simulcast on several frequencies scattered around the island. The biggest stations are based in San Juan. All radio stations are Spanish-speaking except for two AM outlets, although many FM stations play English hits as well as Spanish international hits.
FM
One FM station, 97.3 WOYE (oye means to hear), plays all English language AC music, except for some specialty shows. Because tastes run toward rhythmic music, I heard some lesser hits rarely heard in the states, such as "Lessons in Love" by Level 42, "She-Bop" by Cyndi Lauper and "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin. Even though the music was all-English, the DJs only speak Spanish. Other AC stations play mostly Spanish international hits... Mark Anthony, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Juanes. I'd say about a third of the dial is either AC or Hot AC, although I heard no Soft AC stations. And while many U.S. AC stations play songs from the 70s and even the 60s, I heard nothing from before the mid 80s on the San Juan FM dial. Surprisingly, I heard no Gloria Estefan and only once did I hear Julio Iglesias... his duet with Willie Nelson, "To All The Girls."
There is one Rock station, 105.7 WCAD, playing about 1/3 English and 2/3 Spanish rock, although the English rock definately leans more to the pop side. I heard "There Must Be An Angel" by Annie Lennox, something few rock stations in the U.S. would play. There was no hard rock. And unlike most U.S. rock stations that rely heavily on 60s and 70s artists, there was no classic rock. Same as AC stations, virtually nothing airs that was recorded before the mid-80s.
The island's #1 station is Univision's Top 40 104.7 WKAQ-FM. You can hear why WKAQ-FM is #1. It's a well-executed Top 40 station. Big-voiced DJs, use of phone calls and contests, lots of jingles. The hits are about 60-40 Spanish to English. SBS, a big owner of Spanish stations in the U.S., owns WKAQ-FM's competitor, Mega 106.9 WMEG. It also sounds good and is rated #6. In addition, SBS owns an AC, a Hot AC, a Hurban and a Tropical station.
Tropical stations, with fast percussion, big horn sections and simple lyrics about love, are what most of us think of when we hear Hispanic stations on the East Coast of the U.S. But interestingly, there are only 3 or 4 Tropical stations on the FM dial in San Juan. The top ones are #2 and #3 in the market... but the others don't make the ratings.
The Catholic Church owns an AM, an FM and a TV station. The FM is ranked #10 and is listed as Easy Listening... but I think Traditional Spanish might be a better description of 92.5 WORO-FM. (Oro means gold.) There's no Henry Mancini or Percy Faith on this station. It's a mix of instrumentals and vocals, but all older-styled music, all in Spanish from what I heard.
And there's a good non-commercial Classical station, 91.3 WIPR-FM, co-owned with one of the island's two PBS stations. But again, the announcing is all in Spanish except for a few syndicated classical shows. They don't seem to subscribe to NPR, although they carry some programs from Radio Espana. There's no "All Things Considered" or NPR hourly news... in fact, I heard no news, just Classical music. And apparently there's a sizable audience for this since San Juan also supports a classical philharmonic orchestra.
TV
The top stations on the dial are Telemundo on Channel 2, Univision on 11 and Independent WAPA on 4. Unlike Telemundo and Univision, which dub only movies, WAPA has numerous dubbed shows from the U.S. networks in prime time. I saw an ad in one of the newspapers hawking WAPA's great ratings for "Ghost Whisperer." The ad said, among 18-49 women, WAPA beats both Telemundo's and Univision's 10 pm novelas, by better than 2 to 1 margins, on Tuesday nights. (The WAPA line-up in Puerto Rico and the feed seen on U.S. cable systems vary quite a bit, deleting those dubbed shows from the U.S. networks.)
WAPA has more local news than anyone else... a morning block from 5:30-9:30am, a two hour midday news and talk show, a 5-6pm block and 30 minutes at 11pm. WAPA also does a topical humor show, "Xclusivo," weeknights at 6 pm, where some guy, wearing the puppet head of a woman with a large wig and big lips, a dress and showing his shaved legs in high heels is interviewed by an emcee wearing a white suit and a fedora hat. They apparently were making fun of the candidates in the governor's race... and the owner of Univision. But my Spanish is limited so I didn't get most of the jokes. They punctuate their humor using clips of audiences falling over in laughter, even though there was no real audience in the studio.
WAPA also does a late morning show hosted by two women wearing heavy make-up and big hair called Entre Nosotras (Between Us Women). It's about fashion, beauty and cooking but it looks like a skit from SCTV. After 11:30pm, there's a contest show hosted by a woman using large playing cards and taking phone calls. I suppose as an independent TV station, WAPA has to produce a good deal of its own programming on the cheap. The station apparently is doing well, with plenty of commercials from Macy's, JC Penney, Sears, KFC and Burger King. (There are more Burger Kings in Puerto Rico per mile of highway than anyplace in the U.S., as well as food chains that have just about disappeared from the mainland, such as Church's Fried Chicken, Taco Maker, Ponderosa, Bonanza and Sizzler.)
WAPA's news is done quite well. WAPA appears to have the best traffic and weather coverage... live cameras of major highways and good radar equipment for showing where there are rain cells and thunderstorms around the island. Univision comes close in news coverage, with a morning block, an hour of news at 6pm and a wrap up at 11. Interestingly, Univision pre-empts its network morning show to run local news till 9am. In NYC, Miami and LA, Univision does all its local news from 5-7am, to make way for "Despierta America." But that show doesn't air in Puerto Rico. Of the three major TV stations, Telemundo does the least news, despite being NBC-owned.
The Catholic station, which goes by the name Canal 13, also does news at 6 and 9:30pm, while running Catholic and informational shows the rest of the day, and EWTN en espanol overnight. I noticed they were running an Italian series, dubbed in Spanish, about the life of St. Francis Assisi. Even though there are a few churches that have mass in English around San Juan, I didn't see any English programs on Canal 13.
WIPR-TV, Channel 6, is one of two PBS stations on Puerto Rico. Except for some daytime PBS programs in English, it's mostly a Spanish language outlet, producing many of its own shows, and calling itself "Tu TV." Meanwhile, the other PBS outlet is mostly in English with a few Spanish language shows. This is the place to find The Newshour, Nova and Nature. Overnight it runs "ARTS," a network showing videos of classical music performances. It has two UHF transmitters, one in Ponce on the south shore of the island and one in Fajardo in the Northeast, which allows it to hit both San Juan and the Virgin Islands. On the San Juan cable system, it gets to be on Channel 3.
I haven't mentioned the English language TV stations yet because they're all on UHF and/or low power. All run on a shoestring. One is an ABC affiliate, one is CBS and one is Fox. They carry all their networks' shows and some syndicated fare such as Oprah, Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil and the daytime judge shows. But they also run tons of infomercials, some in English and some in Spanish. None does its own news. As mentioned in another thread, there are no English news operations on the island. As David Eduardo says, there are so few viewers who only speak English that it wouldn't be practical. (There are also three daily newspapers, all tabloid and all in Spanish.)
The ABC station picks up some WABC-TV New York newscasts. The CBS outlet just runs network news. It calls itself "CBS Caribbean" so I assume its transmitter hits both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Fox station airs no news. And there's no over-the-air NBC outlet. The cable system picks up WNBC, with its New York commercials and news included.
SBS owns a UHF outlet, which, similar to its Top 40 station, it calls Mega 30. The station runs the FM's morning show, much as the Stern and Imus shows get seen on TV. And there are some other low budget video music shows and comedy shows, much like a Spanish MTV. In fact, unlike the U.S. where MTV and VH-1 have all but stopped running music videos, there are numerous UHF and cable channels running Spanish music videos up and down the dial. Several UHF and low-power stations run Protestant religion broadcasts in Spanish and those ever-present infomercials.
The cable system that covers San Juan, One Link, has about 80 basic channels, about a third in Spanish, including TV Espana from Madrid, CNN Espanol and Discovery Kids in Spanish. Two-thirds are English, including BBC World News, CNN and MSNBC, but not Fox News. There are no outlets picked up for the CW, Ion or My Networks.
Gregg
[email protected]
