A change may be on the horizon for Miami’s well-known Spanish-language radio market.
A group of Latino investors have offered $60 million to purchase one of Miami’s best-known so-called “Cuban radio” stations, among others across the country. The potential sale was announced on June 3.
Radio Mambi is one of the 18 AM and FM stations being sold by the TelevisaUnivision network and the media group, purchasing the stations in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, is the newly formed Latino Media Network.
It’s commendable that the investors say they want to keep the stations in Latino hands, but but there’s something different this time.
The long list of investors is mostly made up of Democrats, a challenge for them in Miami and also a challenge to conservative-leaning Cuban circles in this town.
While most of the nation’s Hispanics are Democrats, older Cubans, the station’s primary audience, and many younger Cuban Americans are staunchly Republican and they like their radio on the “right” side.
Blame their Republican bent on President John F. Kennedy’s betrayal of Cuban exiles during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and on their strong anti-communist stance due to the suffering caused by Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Regardless, give a listen and you’ll learn Miami’s faithful radio audience loves political chatter. For decades, “Cuban radio” stations have succeeded where English-language often failed. That’s because listeners are loyal the entire broadcasting day and they consider radio personalities local celebrities. Names like Ninoska Perez, Oscar Haza and Tomas Regalado are well-known.
Also true is that the monster ratings and the heyday of Spanish-language radio in Miami, the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, are long over. Their battles over the airwaves with Castro and the Cuban government were legendary back then. And like other media outlets, no matter the language, Spanish-language radio has seen a decline in audience - especially as Miami’s legacy Cuban-exile community, once their primary audience, has dwindled..
In this current political atmosphere, many Spanish-language stations are being called out for their lack of accountability, accused of spreading disinformation that plays right into conservative ideology, largely by Democrats..
Last year, a report by Prospero Latino, a communications company, and Florida Rising, a progressive organization, called out three shows on Radio Mambi as being the most “egregious.” Democrats, and their perceived leftist leaning ways, are often called out in Miami’s conservative Spanish-language airwaves, much to the liking of their audience.
And therein lies the challenge to the new owners, finding their audience. That, and keeping their side of the story fact-based and credible themselves.
