The Rise of U.S. Spanish-Language Radio: From ‘Dead Airtime’ to Consolidated Ownership (1920s-1970s)

• Autores: Andrew Paxman
• Localización: Journalism history, ISSN 0094-7679, Vol. 44, Nº. 3, 2018, págs. 174-186
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In defiance of general trends in ethnic-minority broadcasting, U.S. Spanish-language radio enjoyed remarkably consistent growth from its beginnings in the 1920s to its commercial maturation in the 1960s and 1970s. To explain how this happened, this study situates broadcasting in Spanish within the context of foreign-language (or “ethnic”) radio. It then elucidates the factors behind its sustained increase in popularity and commercial viability over its first fifty years, along with the reasons why programming in other tongues diminished. Spanish-language radio’s early success owed not only to demography but also to Latin America’s proximity to the United States, circular flows of entertainers, mutual attitudes between Anglos and Hispanics, and the creative initiatives of Hispanic radio executives, brokers, and advertisers. This article expands the very thin historiography of Spanish-language radio by drawing on memoirs and, in particular, the now-defunct trade publication Sponsor from the late 1940s to its disappearance in 1968.