Latino Public Radio Stations
1
KDNA 91.9 FM
Granger, WA 98932
KSVR 91.7 FM
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
radio campesina network
KRCW 96.5 FM—Pasco, WA 99301
2
kpcn 95.9 fm-lp
Woodburn, OR 97071
KZAS 95.1 FM-LP
Hood River, OR 97031
3
kbbf 89.1 fm
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
keru 88.5 fm
Blythe, CA 92226
radio bilingüe network
KHDC 90.9 FM — Salinas, CA 93901
KMPO 88.7 FM — Modesto, CA
KSJV 91.5 FM — Fresno, CA
KTQX 90.1 FM — Bakersfield, CA
KUBO 88.7 FM — El Centro, CA
KVUH 88.5 FM — Laytonville, CA
radio campesina network
KMYX 92.5 FM/KBDS 103.9 FM — Bakersfield, CA 93313
KSEA 107.9 FM — Salinas, CA 93901
KUFW 90.5 FM — Visalia, CA 93227
4
radio campesina network
KCEC 104.5 FM —Yuma, AZ 85365
KNAI 88.3 FM — Phoenix, AZ 85019
5
KOCA 93.5 FM-LP
Laramie, WY 82070
6
KRZA 88.7 FM
Alamosa, CO 81101
kuvo 89.3 fm
Denver CO 80205
7
kanw 89.1 fm
Albuquerque, NM 87106
8
kmbh 88.9 fm
Harlingen, TX 78550
9
wrte 90.5 fm
Chicago, IL 60608
10
WSBL-LP 98.1 FM-LP
South Bend, IN 46619
11
wlch 91.3 fm
Lancaster, PA 17602
12
wRNI 1290 AM
Cranston, RI 02920
13
wciw 107.9 fm-lp
Immokalee, FL 34143
wdna 88.9 fm
Miami, FL 33145
14
Cadena Radio UNIVERSIDAD De Puerto Rico
WRTU 89.7 FM — San Juan, PR
WRUO 88.3 FM — Mayaguez, PR
corporación de puerto rico para la diffusion publica
WIPR 940 AM — San Juan, PR
Allegro 91.3 FM — San Juan, PR
Radio Campesina, the nine-station educational Spanish-language radio network with 500,000 daily listeners in four states, walked away with “Network of the Year” award for regional Mexican format at the monitorLATINO Awards Gala attended by 1,000 industry professionals on Aug. 21 in Los Angeles. MonitorLATINO, founded in 2003, is the top authority in music chart monitoring for Latin music in both the United States and Mexico.
MonitorLATINO presents its awards show for excellence in radio and music every year, recognizing achievement among the most influential radio professionals both nationally and internationally. The Campesina radio network, operated by the Cesar Chavez Foundation under Network Programming Director Maria Barquin, was nominated for “Network of the Year, Regional Mexican format” on July 1, and competed for the award against some of the communication giants such an Entravision and Cumulus Media.
It emerged with the honor during the monitorLATINO gala at the Pacific Palms Resort in the City of Industry. Radio Campesina’s Maria Barquin, one of the few women programming directors of a national Spanish-language radio network, closed her acceptance speech by repeating “Si Se Puede!” (“Yes, We Can!”)—the slogan made famous by Radio Campesina’s founder, civil rights and farm labor leader Cesar Chavez.
The third largest Latino Spanish-format radio network in the nation, Radio Campesina is part of a larger movement realizing Cesar Chavez's vision of Spanish-language radio that operates as a community center over the airwaves by entertaining, educating and actively involving its listeners in their communities, according to Paul F. Chavez, Cesar Chavez’s middle son and president of the Chavez foundation. “The network's mission is enhancing the social and economic well being of the Latino community through a unique mix of popular regional Mexican music, news and quality, interactive educational programming,” Chavez says.
“Radio Campesina is more than a network of radio stations,” says Michael Nowakowski, executive vice president of network. “It is part of a movement that empowers and engages people on a daily basis.”
In the last decade, the network has grown from one small rural station in California's Central Valley to nine stations and broadcast licenses with syndicated programming reaching audiences every day in Arizona, California, Washington State, Oregon and across the border into northern Mexico. Radio Campesina ranks among the top stations in each of its markets.
By entertaining, educating and spurring its largely immigrant and first-generation listeners to actively participate in their communities, Radio Campesina is owned by Latinos and run by Latinos for the benefit of Latinos. It also serves as both a way to reach the Latino community and as a bridge between Latinos and the larger community in which they live. It presently operates on the air in the Central Valley through Bakersfield and Visalia; the Central Coast's Salinas and Pajaro valleys; the Valley of the Sun out of Phoenix, Arizona; Yuma, Arizona as well as the neighboring Imperial Valley in California and northern parts of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California; and the Tri-Cities area of Washington state and northeastern Oregon.
The Chavez foundation, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, builds or renovates and operates thousands of units of high-quality affordable housing in four states, operates a network of nine Spanish-language educational radio stations in four states reaching 500,000 daily listeners and runs educational tutoring programs for under-served children to boost their academic achievement and promote Cesar Chavez’s legacy through service-learning in California and Arizona. The foundation also created and manages the Visitors Center and Memorial Garden around Chavez’s gravesite, and Villa La Paz, the new 17,000 square foot educational and conferencing center, all within the 187-acre National Chavez Center at La Paz in Keene, Calif.
Contact: Monica Nowakowski, Radio Campesina
602-269-3121, monican@chavezfoundation.org
In assigning call letters to broadcast entities, the Federal Communications Commission designates K to stations west of the Mississippi and W to those east of the Mississippi. This river, for the most part, also served to demarcate the Latino populations – east of the Mississippi, with the exception of Chicago, lived Puerto Ricans, Cubans and those with Latin American heritage while Chicago and land west of the Mississippi were predominantly inhabited by Latinos of Mexican heritage. This geographic demarcation also defines the ethnic heritage of the audiences primarily served by the Latino-controlled public radio stations in those regions and clearly demonstrates that Latinos are not a homogenous community served by one format or even one language and dialect.
The Latino public radio stations east of the Mississippi includes one of the oldest and only Latino-controlled joint licensees. Operating from San Juan since 1949 the Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation controls two radio stations, Allegro 91.3 FM and 940 AM, as well as two television stations, WIPR, Channels 6 & 43 and WIPM, Channels 3 & 36.
Cadena Radio Universidad consists of WRTU 89.7 FM (1980) San Juan and WRUO 88.3 FM Mayaguez is in Puerto Rico, WDNA 88.9 FM (1977) operates in Miami, Florida, WLCH 91.3 FM (1987) is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and WRTE 90.5 FM 1992) is home
in Chicago, Illinois. A low power station, WCIW 107.9 FM (2003) Radio Conciencia in Immokalee, Florida, was organized by farm
workers.
In 1951 west of the Mississippi in Albuquerque, New Mexico the educational station licensed to the public school system incorporated Spanish-language programming into its schedule. KANW 89.1 FM now specializes in New Mexico music. In California the first Latino public radio stations served primarily Spanish-speaking Mexicans and Mexican Americans in rural areas. Control of the media was initially viewed as an organizing and service tool in the struggle for labor rights for Latino farm workers. Today, Latino stations in the Southwest represent a diversity of formats, languages and audiences.
In 1973, KBBF 89.1 FM went on the air in Santa Rosa, California followed by KDNA 91.9 FM (1979) in Yakima, Washington.
KSVJ 91.5 FM (1980) Fresno, CA is the flagship station in the Radio Bilingue Network that incorporates KMPO 88.7 FM (1984) in Modesto, CA, KUBO FREQUENCY (1981) in Salinas, CA, KHDC 90.9 FM (1987) serving Bakersfield-Calexico, CA, and KVUH 88.5
FM (2005) in Laytonville, CA. Radio Bilingue will have a station in Hurley, New Mexico and anticipates acquiring frequencies in Douglas, Arizona, and in South Texas at Eagle Pass, Crystal City and Zapata.
In 1983 the United Farmers Union founded KUFW 90.5 FM in Visalia, California and began the Radio Campesina Network (KCEC
104.5 FM, Yuma, Arizona; KMYX 92.5 FM & KBDS 103.9 FM, Bakersfield,l California; KNAI 88.3 FM, Phoenix, Arizona; KRCW
96.5 FM, Pasco, Washington; KSEA 107.9 FM, Salinas, California) with a mix of commercial and non-commercial frequencies throughout the southwest.
Also in the Southwest United States are KRZA 88.7 FM (1985), Alamosa, Colorado, KUVO 89.3 FM (1985), Denver, Colorado,
KERU 88.5 FM (1992) Blythe, California and low-power KPCN 95.9 FM (2006) Radio Movimiento in Woodburn, Oregon. Rio Grande City, Texas will also have a Latino-controlled station in the near future.
These twenty-eight Latino stations plus the five stations anticipated to begin broadcasting in the next few years, offer a diversity of formats, languages, musical genres and news and fully engaged with the segment of the Latino community to which they are directing their
broadcasts. They have been serving Latino audiences since before the legislative inception of public radio. and represent the single greatest resource in the movement to develop larger Latino audiences for all formats in public radio.
