Posted on 11/07/2005 4:58:19 PM PST by VU4G10
A formerly Spanish-only radio station in Los Angeles has become the first in the area to go bilingual – and it’s shot to the top of the ratings.
KXOL-FM, better known as "Latino” 96.3, has soared from 18th in the ratings to second overall since the changeover in May, and it now ranks first among 12-to-24-year-olds.
The station’s music and ads switch back and forth from one language to the other.
"Sometimes the station’s back-and-forth by its disc jockeys comes much faster, even sentence-to-sentence or phrase-by-phrase,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
"It’s not unusual to hear callers intermix their languages as they tell a joke, ask a question or relate a personal story.”
The station – owned by Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. – decided to make the switch after its general manager David L. Haymore and programming director Pio Ferro examined demographic research.
The station’s listening area has 4.4 million Latinos ages 12 and older, comprising 40 percent of the overall population.
But what caught their attention the most were data showing that one-fourth of young Latinos reported speaking English and Spanish equally, and about 80 percent were classified as "English capable.”
As for the music, they found it in reggaeton – a mix of Spanish and American hip-hop with roots in Puerto Rico, Panama and Jamaica – which previously had received exposure almost exclusively in clubs and underground recordings.
"KXOL is an example of radio reacting to something quickly and jumping in on it,” Perry Michael Simon, news-talk-sports editor of AllAccess.com, an online radio industry journal, told the Times.
Previous attempts to experiment with the bilingual format in Florida, Texas and California met with far less success.
Then about a year ago, Clear Channel Radio, with 1,200 stations nationwide, began the changeover to bilingual at several stations, mostly in Texas.
"This is starting to happen all over the country,” said Alex Negrete, chairman of the Assn. of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.
"It speaks to the soul of the youth who want enough Spanish to make them feel warm and comfy but enough English to make them feel comfortable too.”
From Spanish (first generation) to Spanglish (one and a half to second gen) to English (third generation). Sounds familiar.
Sounds familiar (Roman Empire).
It's now "new" and big time. Es muy good news, hombre.
Speaking as someone who has lived in a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, and a Colombian neighborhood in Miami, it is common sense to me that the "one and a halfers" (those born in another country, but who come here as young children) and second generation use Spanglish as a means to pick up English or talk to their parents. More common is the phenomenom whereby my neighbors kids would talk to each other in English and talk to their parents in Spanish.
How, pray tell, is this different than the Catskill Comedians who would set up a joke in English and tell the punchline in Yiddish? Or my grandparents using Italian and Polish words in conversation.
Read the article. This "Spanglish" station is not part of some plot to get more people to speak Spanish, it is an attempt on the part of a GOOD CAPITALIST (Capitalism and balls are what makes this country great) trying to woo both first generation immigrants and their second generation children who prefer English.
Then I usually start working with the parents in Spanish, for which they seem very grateful. I know that it's hard for adults to learn a new language. However if they want to be part of the USA, they need to make that effort. There are countless programs for English as a second language, most for free. I learned Spanish for them, they should make an effort to learn English for me.
Truthfully, I would recommend for all Americans to learn a second language, it opens thousands of doors for you. And I would recommend for all new Americans to start learning English, it opens critical doors for you.
As the old Cuban guys who founded my old bank used to say, all you need to do is learn enough English to get a loan and sell your business plan, and you will go far.
2) I didn't say it was a conspiracy. It just has to happen ... which it is.
The Lombards and the Goths and the Visigoths were not in conspiracy with one another, yet ...
Yeah, not exactly new, we had "Berlineese" in Germany...but it does have a twist, I think it's sounds fun. Prolly a good way to help integrate into either English or Spanish.
In the disco days throughout Europe, it wasn't uncommon for a club dj to be versed, and go back and forth, in German, English, French and Spanish.
Dang, I miss disco :(
:O)
P
You can vote in Houston in several languages now. I have to wonder with legal language being what it is, who translates ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments where a slight shift of wording can mean voting "no" to vote for a measure or "yes" to vote against something.
JaHaJaHa!
Not a single station in TJ, San Diego, LA or any of the other places we visited played a single Reggaeton piece.
There was clearly a market there ~ like this stuff is dance music with an appeal to everybody ~ but the Spanish language stations were playing mostly Mexican style stuff ~ definitely some dull material.
It was only a matter of time until the market revolted, and it sounds like that has happened with the expansion of the language base.
We only had one of these stations for a couple of years and it merely rebroadcast New Jersey and New York stations. Then competition got in the mix, and we started having live DJs ~ bi-lingual too.
Sometimes they'll play some of that Mexican stuff and my eyes glaze over to hit 93.1 or 93.3, my two favorite Country and Western stations.
The Romans didn't speak English.
Ladino and Latin absorbed substantial amounts of Arabic and Berber to create Spanish.
Visigothic was probably spoken by the Visigoths only for the length of time necessary for their children to learn to tell the non-Visigothic peasantry what to do next.
My Grandmother spoke only Dutch when she got to the USA in 1911. My Mother spoke a mixture of Dutch and English when she was young. The only Dutch I know is Heineken.
Natural progression.
More people speak English than any other language on Earth, and more are learning it everyday. I wish I still had the study on hand from the UN (I know) but English is the fastest growing language on the planet.
Sweet BTW, Spanglish was a good movie. The Spanish girl in it learned English, daughter spoke English, no excuses. It was refreshing.
Not Spanglish. Englanol.
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