The study summarized the vote of Hispanics being influenced by non-partisan Spanish language radio campaigns, on the case of the elections of congress in 2006. The Hispanic voters are crucial for campaigns as they constitute 16 percent of the total population. The scholars claimed that political campaign in the past have neglected this group, when compared to other minorities (Miranda et al., 2008). However, the radio exposure among Hispanics is expected to be higher in Hispanic communities than in non-Hispanic communities. In 2006 congressional elections, there was a general low voting rate of Hispanics. Precisely this lower participation may be the explanation for less frequent impact on Hispanic group. This sounds logical provided that most Hispanics do not speak English and simply rely on Spanish speaking media (Miranda et al., 2008).
Spanish radio in the United States had its beginnings in the 1920s. This was the time when English speaking radio stations kept on selling their less profitable subsidiaries to people of Hispanic origin. The new Spanish speaking owners used radio to convey music, comments and ads that were of a serious interest and importance to their communities. Gradually programming of emissions in Spanish kept on increase and several Mexican entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs from other countries were becoming more interested in having capital participations and to control stations with this kind of programming. The expansion kept on an increase. In the late 1990s in the United States there were about 234 radio stations (55 FM and 177 AM) transmitting exclusively in Spanish. To these are added more than 300 that transmit today in Spanish. Given the very wide distribution of this means, practically entire Hispanic population of the United States can tune in at least one radio station with programming in Spanish.
In large cities with higher concentrations of Hispanics, such as Los Angeles, New York,
Miami and Chicago, there are a variety of stations and genres of music to attract diverse Hispanic populations, either by their national origins or by other demographic characteristics such as age, sex, income and education. Of the stations that broadcast exclusively in Spanish, only 77 are owned by Hispanic Americans; others belong to individuals or corporations based in the United States of America. Given the opportunities for large audiences and profit in these media, radio in Spanish the United States has continued to grow each year as there have been increased commercial benefits.
In 1990s the radio at national and local level generated invoices that exceeded 211
million USD, of which 96 million came from just ten stations. Of these ten, only four were characterized by Hispanic majority ownership. Although music and commercials are mostly listened in the provided radio spots, many stations also offer news and politics related programs, some of which are produced by news departments of their own stations, such as the Univision Radio, for example, and others come from companies such as news services. Examples of these are Spanish Information Service (SIS), or Radio News UPI or Cadena Radio Centro and Latin News. In total, more than 200 radio stations in Spanish in the United States are affiliated to these four information services, which transmit live reports from all Latin America (Miranda et al., 2008). In a similar way different stations have been adding to its content providing a high diversity of different programs that reflect the tastes and interests of listeners, such as programs on health, finance, sport, immigration, entertainment, cuisine or religion as well as social programs, all with the purpose of maintaining good and informed public of listener being able to help them in their life and daily work (Jacobs, 2008). There exist different Cuban broadcasters, as well as Colombian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Mexican, all with a variety of accents and talents and new ideas, broken into different radio frequencies, making available various proposals that the public can choose. The radio network with most Spanish speaking listeners is today the Univision Radio, followed by Hispanic Radio Network and Entravisión Radio, but there are also many other stations in Spanish: Americans for Radio Diversity, El Cucuy, Love 107.5, eRitmo.com, Stereo Sun, Latin Stereo, Frequency America, The Cubanísima, The Champion, fantastic, Act 1079, La Favorita, Act 941, La Mega, La Nueva, La Mexicana, The New Tropical, La Primerísima, La Nueva 105.9, Tremendous, Latin Mix FM, The Zeta, Latino USA, Alert Radio, Los Dudes.com, Radio Avance, Radio America, Radio Bilingue, Radio Fiesta FM Radio Interativa, Radio Esperanza, Radio Mambi The Great, Radio and Music, Radio Omega Radio One, Ritmo Guanaco, Solo Para Women, FM Romance, Super Star and Rhythm Radio or Stereo Party, just to name a few (Soley, 2012).
The future as well as the success of radio in Spanish in the United States however depends on the creativity of those managers and creators who are involved in this everyday task of creation of radio programs. Some new formulas will be implemented in order to achieve a higher transmission quality, such as using a high-fidelity sound for transmissions. High levels of radio emissions also require a professional level in the selection of staff of the radio station as well as maintaining a stable capacity to identifying the actors in their productions expertise, such as the drama and comedy, which are very necessary in Hispanic stations, as well as having respect for ethical values that favor communication in society.
- Jacobs, George (2007). National Radio: Puerto Rico (US Associated). World Radio TV Handbook 2007: The Directory of Global Broadcasting (Billboard Books).
- Miranda, M., Medina, El. (2008) La radio hispana en los Estados Unidos. Retrieved on 28.4. 2016. Available at
- Soley, L. (2012). Free radio: electronic civil disobedience. Westview Press
