Will Cleveland ever get a Spanish Language FM?

I'm surprised that Columbus and Cincy both have Spanish language formats. Yet,Cleveland who has a larger Latino population goes without one. Is it because the population here is less likely to hear programming is Spanish? Perhaps a format with a bilingual presentation might be the answer.

I live in the Cleveland MSA. There's very few Latinos outside the city proper. I heard more Arabic and Chinese walking around Kent State University than I ever heard Spanish.

They do have one station, WHWN 88.3, but it has little coverage outside of Lake County.

Arbitron shows 77,100 Latinos in the Cleveland Metropolitan area. Much more than the Arabic or Chinese population combined. I don't doubt that you hear more of those languages at KSU. But I believe that Kent is part of the Akron Metropolitan area and not Cleveland proper.

WHWN 88.3 is out of Painesville and it serves the Mexican immigrant population. I have actually heard it a few times while I was in downtown Cleveland.It's run by Nelson Cintron (a former Cleveland Councilman).

Morpheux said:

Arbitron shows 77,100 Latinos in the Cleveland Metropolitan area. Much more than the Arabic or Chinese population combined. I don't doubt that you hear more of those languages at KSU. But I believe that Kent is part of the Akron Metropolitan area and not Cleveland proper.

WHWN 88.3 is out of Painesville and it serves the Mexican immigrant population. I have actually heard it a few times while I was in downtown Cleveland.It's run by Nelson Cintron (a former Cleveland Councilman).

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But how many of them are actually Spanish dominant?

Morpheux said:

I'm surprised that Columbus and Cincy both have Spanish language formats. Yet,Cleveland who has a larger Latino population goes without one. Is it because the population here is less likely to hear programming is Spanish? Perhaps a format with a bilingual presentation might be the answer.

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Unlike Cincinnati or Columbus, Cleveland does not have a lot of "surplus" FMs or AMs. There are few suburban AMs, and those that exist, like Painesville and Willoughby, don't reach Cuyahoga County. And the FM situation is such that Cleveland is pretty much devoid of the kind of rimshots and Class A's that the other markets have.

So there is a shortage of facilities... and when Spanish language is tried as it was on the 1380 critter in Lorain, it did not cover the areas it needed to prosper.

And for 77 thousand people, probably half of which is English dominant, nobody is going to dedicate a "good" AM or FM to get a cume of 30 thousand people at best.

I'm guessing that in Cleveland, there were Spanish and Mexican immigrants during the industrial boom of the early 20th century, outnumbered by Polish, Italian and German, and they all had newspapers (and later radio programs) in their own languages. Today, however,the area has their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of them Anglophones.

Growing up in Detroit, I used to hear a lot of other languages (especially Polish) on the radio, almost all gone now (Arabic rules).

I sometimes go to Cleveland for things connected to one of my hobbies, and have looked for a "Mexicantown" around there, never found one.

I'm surprised that Univision has held on to WQHS (TV61) there (a result of buying a package of several home shopping stations), and not traded it for another station in a smaller market with a larger Spanish-speaking audience.

The Cleveland Latino population is predominantly Puerto Rican.The first wave of Puerto Ricans arrived in the 1950's and 60's and settled on the near east side of town.Later they moved to the near west side in pursuit of jobs near the steel mills. There has been an increase of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the last 10 years but it's rather small compared to what you see in other cities. Most of the the small Puerto Rican markets are now owned by Mexicans. You'll find these spread out on the near west side of town in the Ohio City neighborhood.You'll find most Mexican businesses off Lorain Ave but no Mexican Town proper.

Morpheux said:

The Cleveland Latino population is predominantly Puerto Rican.The first wave of Puerto Ricans arrived in the 1950's and 60's

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And there is the issue.

Per the Planning Board (Junta de Planificación) in San Juan, outbound migration of Puerto Ricans became less than inbound (returnees) around 1968 or 1969.

So first generation Puerto Ricans are going to be, for the most part, well over 60 by now. Not a good base to build a radio station on.

Outbound migration from PR was less than inbound through the late 1980's, when crime and social conditions on the Island gave a start to a new migration, but this time to Orlando and other non-Northeastern rust-belt locations.

Cleveland, like Philadelphia, Hartford, Chicago and other cities in Northeast and Great Lakes areas, has a very old first generation population of Boricuas. The second generation, coming from a time when bilingual education was not a "thing" and speaking English was essential, don't use Spanish language media to any great extent.

The populations in some places, like Boston, have been replenished by Dominicans... and in other places by Mexicans or Central Americans, but not to the extent that the mid-Century Puerto Rican diaspora created.

Of course, places like Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and even Lousiville have significant Hispanic populations today, but almost all are of Mexican origin and are recent in formation, going back perhaps two decades.

Morpheux said:

Arbitron shows 77,100 Latinos in the Cleveland Metropolitan area. Much more than the Arabic or Chinese population combined. I don't doubt that you hear more of those languages at KSU. But I believe that Kent is part of the Akron Metropolitan area and not Cleveland proper.

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The Cleveland Metro Survey Area as defined by Arbitron is this county set:

Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorrain, Medina.

The Akron MSA is Portage and Summit. So, since Kent is in Portage County, it's in a different MSA.

That's why a bilingual approach is the answer. The Latino community in Cleveland is under serve regardless of what language is being spoken. That is the real issue.

Morpheux said:

That's why a bilingual approach is the answer. The Latino community in Cleveland is under serve regardless of what language is being spoken. That is the real issue.

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The problem is that bilingual formats have not been particularly successful anywhere, and are definitely a second generation play in any case.

Cleveland, with 77,000 12+ Hispanics, can't provide an audience subset big enough to either get ratings or get results for significant advertisers. Those 77,000 are reduced to far fewer when the 55+ and under-18 groups are eliminated, leaving perhaps 50,000 persons.

Within the 4% of the market that is Hispanic, some don't speak Spanish any more. Some don't speak English. Some like salsa, some like ballads, some like Regional Mexican, some like English language AC or rock or CHR.

Unless there is a very marginal AM facility and enough local business to support a station with next to unmeasurable audience, Cleveland is not likely to get a station specifically targeted at Hispanics.

Not sure about an FM being available at the right price. But if the market is close to 80,000 in population I could see a Spanish language station doing decently there. The obvious is what format, but I think with that population you could generate some good revs. I have seen stations in smaller populations do really well....

radioman921 said:

Not sure about an FM being available at the right price. But if the market is close to 80,000 in population I could see a Spanish language station doing decently there. The obvious is what format, but I think with that population you could generate some good revs. I have seen stations in smaller populations do really well....

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There is no way an FM makes sense for Spanish language.

Assuming that 50% of the Hispanics are Spanish dominant, and the target is 18-54, that means there are fewer than 30 thousand potential listeners. Take the fact that no format has 100% appeal, we have a core of perhaps 15,000 for any particular format.