Mexican Regiona Hits New York

One of the nation's top-rated Spanish-language morning radio programs has hit the NYC media market. “Piolín por la Mañana” (“Tweetybird in the Morning”) has hit the Univision-owned WZAA, which according to Saturday's edition of The New York Times, became "the first FM station in New York offering a format known as Mexican Regiona, which includes genres like ranchera, banda and norteña music."

Times reporter Seth Kugel reports that, "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."

Each semester I devote an entire class session to ethnic radio in my Master's course in Ethnic Marketing. It's great that the Times continues to shine light on the power of radio programming that reaches deep into ethnic communities better than other media forms.

Click [here] for the full article.