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Radio Disney Joins Latino Programming Boom

Viva Disney, an all family, Spanish-language radio program, has launched in weekly syndication to several top markets via a recent Entravision agreement, including Denver, El Paso, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and West Palm Beach, with further expansion planned throughout the year, Radio Disney has announced. Stations can choose between two formats, depending on regional preferences: Latin Pop or Modern Mexican.

According to the company, the Latino community makes up almost a quarter of the total U.S. population and as a group listens to radio twice as much as other groups. Research also shows that ethnic radio DJs and personalities have a strong connection with their audience.

Latino programming has boomed across the country in recent years, including middle-America. In the Grand Rapids area of Michigan, for example, there are three full-time AM stations devoted to the format to serve a growing Hispanic population: Kent County’s Hispanic population has tripled since 1990, to about 41,000, and Ottawa County’s Hispanic population has doubled, to about 17,000, reports the Grand Rapids Press.

Other areas of the country are only recently climbing aboard. Milwaukee, the nation’s 22nd largest Hispanic market, is just getting its first Spanish-language FM radio station. Hispanics or Latinos make up approximately 12 percent of Milwaukee’s total population, according to the 2000 census, and it is reported that Milwaukee’s Hispanic community has grown by more than 100 percent over the past 10 years.

Clear Channel’s announcement earlier today that the company’s Spanish-language stations are increasing their average quarter hour share by leaps and bounds is another sign that it is a format whose time has come. A main driver of this growth is the purchasing power of the Hispanic market, estimated at $700 billion and projected to top $1 trillion by 2010, according to new estimates by HispanTelligence, the research division of Hispanic Business magazine.

The San Antonio Express-News (via Hispanic Business) reports that advertisers in 2004 spent $473.2 million for local radio ads and $191.2 million for national ads targeting the Hispanic audience, up 6 percent from a year ago, according to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.