November 30, 2006

Radio program broadcast from Washington offers

analysis of how news affects Hispanics
Political show all in Spanish

By EUN KYUNG KIM

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — In almost every respect, the program is typical of Washington political talk shows on radio.

A panel of journalists recapping the week's news? Check. U.S. senators and representatives spouting the party line? Check. Pundits making grand pronouncements? Got that, too.

There's just one small difference: Todo está en español.

That's right, Epicentro Político is all in Spanish.

The program offers its listeners news analysis, political debate and interviews with prominent Latino cultural figures in a one-hour package aimed at a chunk of the nation's 42.7 million Hispanics.

"It's as important to talk about Iraq to some depth in Spanish as it is in English," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who has been a guest on the program.

Political talk shows are among the highest-rated radio programs in Latin America. But in the United States, Epicentro is one of the few Spanish-language programs devoted to news analysis, and the only one based in Washington, according to its producer, Eduardo Lopez.

Two Stations in Texas

Since making its debut June 26, the program has been struggling to win acceptance. Offered free to all public stations, it airs on only nine nationwide, including two in Texas — KMBH-FM in Harlingen and KOCV-FM in Odessa.

More than 75 stations have expressed interest in the program but only about half are talking seriously about adding it to their schedules, Lopez said.

Because it is partially funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Epicentro must be made available to public radio stations before it can be offered to commercial outlets.

"We're not giving them money to broadcast on commercial stations. That would be contrary to the existence of public broadcast," said CPB spokesman Michael Levy. "We're not going to be funding commercial ventures with dollars meant for noncommercial use."

Epicentro staffers are confident that its unique content will eventually attract a large audience.

"The economy, education, the war in Iraq — there's this thought that these are not Latino issues," associate producer Nadia Reiman said. "But when you look at almost any big news issue, there is a Latino component to it because we are the largest minority. It's going to affect us in some way."

Concern About Wiretapping

Hispanics showed great concern, for example, about the government's secret wiretapping program because of its surveillance of international calls.

"Who makes the most international calls? Immigrants. And that includes many Latinos," Reiman said.

According to Arbitron, a company that measures radio audiences, Spanish-language stations get the highest ratings in some of the nation's biggest U.S. metropolitan areas.

But these stations tend to focus on music or entertainment and few have talk-show formats that would suit Epicentro, said Carlos Alcazar, president of Hispanic Communications Network, the Washington-based media company that produces the show.

Language Barrier

In any event, most Spanish-language radio stations are commercial.

John Proffitt, general manager and chief executive of the public station KUHF-FM in Houston, said his station wouldn't run a program such as Epicentro because, plain and simple, it's in Spanish.

Proffitt knows his audience includes Spanish speakers "but they tend to have excellent English usage." They listen to National Public Radio for its English-language programs, he said, and tune into other stations when they want to hear Spanish.

"They don't expect the Spanish to be mixed in with NPR," Proffitt said.