I thought this was America, not Mexico!


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/arts/ ... nted=print


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January 13, 2007
The Sounds of Mexico Hit New York Airwaves
By SETH KUGEL
On Thursday morning, commuters in New York tuning in to the Spanish-language station WZAA-FM 92.7 might have heard an unusual traffic report, describing conditions not on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but on the Santa Monica and Hollywood Freeways, clear across the continent.

With very little fanfare, WZAA had become the first FM station in New York offering a format known as Mexican Regiona, which includes genres like ranchera, banda and norteña music. It had previously shared programming with a sister station, WCAA 105.9 FM, which is largely devoted to reggaetón. (Both stations are owned by Univision Radio.)

On Thursday WZAA played the popular Los Angeles morning show “Piolín por la Mañana” (“Tweetybird in the Morning”), which featured five hours of risqué stunts, calls from listeners with thick accents and jokes about chili peppers. Mexican music followed; there were no D.J.’s, but promos played throughout the day billed the station as “La Qué Buena” (literally, “the what a great radio station!”) and described its content as “Pure Mexico.”

With the addition of New York and 7 other outlets, the Piolín show is now broadcast in 24 markets across the country.

In most Hispanic hubs of the United States, the arrival of another Mexican regional station would have been nothing unusual. According to the Arbitron ratings service, the format attracts a 19.4 percent share of the Hispanic market, making it the most popular Spanish-language format by far. A recent Arbitron report shows that it is also the fastest-growing and that there had not been a single station playing a Mexican regional format from Maine to Pennsylvania in 2005.

“The program was nice,” said Judy Diaz, a Mexican immigrant from Puebla who lives in Corona, Queens, and listened on Thursday. “And the music is something we were missing.”

The Northeast has traditionally been the destination of Caribbean Latinos, principally Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, and thus Latin radio stations typically play a tropical format, usually including salsa, merengue, bachata and reggaetón. But the Mexican population has exploded recently in New York. In the 1990 census, it numbered about 62,000; the Department of City Planning says the number is now about 300,000. (And many more Mexicans live in the metropolitan area, not to mention Central Americans and others who also listen to Mexican music.)

There is some question about the future of reggaetón stations, which began to crop up a few years ago as the music became more popular. Some critics found the genre too narrow — with few artists, and songs that sounded the same — to fill an entire format. Yet songs like Daddy Yankee’s “Rompe” and Ivy Queen’s “Pa’ la Cama Voy” seem to play constantly (via remixes and in the original) years after they are released.

In New York, ratings have dipped; WCAA-FM’s percentage of market share fell sharply in the last three quarters of 2006, from 2.5 to 2.1 to 1.7. In the same ratings period, WZAA-FM, which broadcasts from Garden City, Long Island, and covers much, but not all, of New York City, ranked last in the New York area market.

The switch also corresponds to a major shake-up of the New York and national Spanish-language morning shows. Luis Jimenez, the Puerto Rican host of “El Vacilón de la Mañana” (“The Morning Goof-Off”) on WSKQ 97.9 FM, known as La Mega, which for years competed with the Howard Stern show for the No. 1 slot in New York, has left and will begin a morning show with Univision Radio, broadcasting over its reggaetón/urban music stations.

Mr. Jimenez will reach audiences in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, putting him in direct competition with Piolín, whose real name is Eddie Sotelo, in some cities. “He’s done great things,” said Mr. Jimenez of his future competitor. “He has his audience, and I have mine. And of course, we’re going to steal each other’s listeners.” He said his show would come to New York in 2008.

Univision Radio officials in New York and Miami did not respond to requests for comment.

In New York, the going may not be so easy for WZAA. Two other stations featuring Mexican music have failed in New York in the last decade, both on AM. “I think it might be a little bit too much, too soon,” said Frank Flores, general manager of WSKQ and WPAT-FM 93.1, which has a popular weekend show directed at Mexicans.

And bawdier radio shows, like Piolin’s, also don’t necessarily appeal to all of New York’s Mexicans, almost half of whom come from the state of Puebla, a socially conservative area of Mexico. Such was the case when the second Mexican station, WNNY-AM 1380, began broadcasting Piolin’s Los Angeles-based rival, “El Cucuy de la Mañana” (“The Morning Bogeyman”), in 2002; it was taken off the air after about a month.

But Mexicans like Blanca Gomez and Sandra Pavias, who work in La Espiga restaurant in Corona, are excited about the new option. Ms. Pavias listened to the Piolin show when she lived in Phoenix. The only problem: they don’t have a way to listen to the station in the restaurant. “We’ll ask Piolín for a radio,” Ms. Gomez said.