Entercom Portland has teamed up with Bustos Media and ESPN to launch a new Spanish language AM sports radio station to serve the Portland market. The station will be a franchise of the ESPN Deportes network, whose mission is to deliver a passionate and relevant sports listening experience to the underserved Latino Sports Fan throughout the Portland metropolitan area. As a sister station of Entercom Portland’s popular ESPN Sports Radio 1080 The Fan, ESPN Deportes will be broadcast on the powerful AM 910 and AM 1390 frequencies.
910AM + 1390AM ESPN Deportes will broadcast Portland Trailblazers and Portland Timbers games in Spanish, along with a complete roster of ESPN’s international soccer games and Spanish language sports programming.
“We are very excited about teaming up with the Portland market’s leading radio group in bringing Spanish language sports programming to an audience who loves sports,” said Amador Bustos, President of Bustos Media.
“The Hispanic population in the Portland market has experienced rapid growth in recent years, representing a large, enthusiastic sports fan base that we are pleased to serve,” said Jack Hutchison, Entercom Portland Market Manager.
The station begins broadcasting May 1, 2009.

Hell, why not make the entire AM band spanish? After all, there are no other languages spoken in this market other than English and Spanish, right?

When I started reading the above, I wondered, if ESPN Deportes was a flop on 1230, how could it be expected to succeed on 910? Then, I read:

> 910AM + 1390AM ESPN Deportes will broadcast Portland Trailblazers and Portland Timbers games in Spanish

This sounds like it could get interesting.

What's on 1230?

So how does this work with the Mariners being in 910?

Guess that answers why KTRO didn't seem to care if they were carrying anybody of interest on their talk programs this month.

> What's on 1230?

I cannot hear Gresham's 1230 from my home location at night, so I will have to wait until morning to confirm whether sports is still on that frequency. 1230 has never shown up in the ratings with its sports format.

So, on the 50th anniversary of KISN, 910 is going Spanish Sports?

Why not go Latin CHR?

Very good point Semoochie.

>>So, on the 50th anniversary of KISN, 910 is going Spanish Sports?<<

Hey at least it's still on the air. Other stations haven't been as lucky: http://www.timesleader.com/news/WARM__once-hot_station__goes_cold_04-16-2009.htm l

The whirring sound of DWB spinning in his grave can be heard from here.

The idea that WARM is going off the air permanently because its owner can't justify the expense of fixing or replacing the transmitter really scares me. I hope that this fate doesn't befall any stations in the Portland area any time soon.

The station is owned by Citadel and is in market #70. It looks like Citadel owns 4 FMs in the same market, so it's not like it's a mom and pop operation.

There HAS to be a 5 kW AM transmitter just sitting at some other Citadel station. There's gotta be much more to it, like NO budget since Citadel is almost bankrupt.

Report:
"Some 266 radio stations in the United States have gone dark since the fourth quarter of 2007, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission and Radio-Locator.com."

Report:
"The majority of Americans (55%) say radio and TV have at least some responsibility for the current economic crisis. A Harris poll finds two-thirds believe advertising caused people to buy things they couldn’t afford - and that helped bring on the current downturn."

Stan Freberg made me do it.

I listened to 1230 on the way home today. I heard a Spanish language sports call-in show, although I did not hear anything in the way of an identification of the program or the network.

A few weeks ago, somebody posted a list of radio stations that had recently gone dark. I was surprised to see that the AM and FM lists were about the same length. What wasn't as surprising was that many of these stations were in smaller communities. The FM list included a few LPFMs and possibly a couple of other non-commercial stations whose funding dried up.

Do you want La Revolucione(sure wish I knew how to spell that)or should we keep things as they are?

In 2005, I drove from from Nampa, ID to Warren, PA to take a job that didn't pan out. The most interesting feature of that trip was listening to French stations coming in from Canada as I drove the Ohio Turnpike. I understand even less French than I do Spanish, but at least it was something different.

Likely, one of those stations was 860 from Toronto; they have a monster signal in that part of the country!

910 needs to go all oldies soon!!!

Just when you thought the board was free of the "we need an oldies station" posts...they're baaaaccck!

But if you're in the right frame of mind you might hear Elvis on 1290.

Sometimes I think I hear Elvis on my Rotisserie.

Oldies suck

OK, here's the problem and the reason for the last post: It used to be that a hit music station would play the current hits and 2 Oldies an hour. An Oldie was anything not current. When you heard one of these, you said, "oh wow" because it was rare to hear that particular song. You thought about what you were doing when you FIRST heard the song, not when you heard it last Thursday! As a result, we grew up hearing a multitude of songs, many that were missed the first time around. Then, in the early 70s, someone decides to make an entire format out of it and over time, only the select few that are someone's favorites are played. Now, you have an entire generation that has grown up, thinking they know all the hits from Rock's first 2 decades, when they haven't a clue what they've missed! According to current reasoning, Elvis Presley only had 2 hits! This is making me sound old and I don't like it but if they had continued to occasionally play older hits, more people would recognize them and therefore, they would test better and there would be more old hits on the radio. Incidentally, I'm not suggesting bringing back the 50s and early 60s. This is not a demographics problem. Now, I've noticed that sometimes, a song is brought back after several decades. I'm assuming it still doesn't test well but there it is anyway. Instead of having a plethora of these, there are only a handful and they are played over and over and over and... I guess my question is "If they're going to play poorly testing songs, why not play MANY of them hardly ever instead of a few, in such great repetition?".

> Now, you have an entire generation that has grown up, thinking they know all the hits from Rock's
> first 2 decades

You could easily extend this concept forward into the 1970s, the 1980s, and very soon, the 1990s. Here is a somewhat self-deprecating case in point: This weekend, I picked up some used 45s. One of these was Sister Sledge. One of the songs on that record was "We are Family," which virtually everybody knows because it has been played by radio stations after its original run on the charts to the point that is has been firmly cemented into pop culture. When I listened to the flip side of that record, I heard a song that opened with a very familiar melody; Will Smith had sampled this melody into his 1996 hit, "Gettin' Jiggy With It." The Sister Sledge song was titled "He's The Greatest Dancer." I was later very surprised to learn that this song peaked at #9 on the US Hot 100 charts and at #1 on the R&B charts.

When I was playing top 40 in the early '70's, we ran 5 or 6 oldies an hour. This was in 1973, where we had a choice of at least 1000 oldies to pick from. Loved playing the hits from the early 60's. I was listening to an old aircheck and heard the 1962 hit "What's a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)" by Timi Yuro. What a great song! There is so much great music that is never played. If you talk to an oldies pd , you'll find they limit their library to about 500 songs. Maybe that's why that format is having problems attracting listeners. It's a lot more boring than when we played top 40 and mixed it up with a wide variety of great oldies. How about taking those top 500 songs and rotating 6 other oldies an hour with them? Just a thought.

At this point, I'm sure it's too late. I just feel that if we hadn't been conditioned to loving every single song on our favorite station, many of these songs would have survived and the tune-out wouldn't be that great BECAUSE it's our favorite station. For me, just recognizing the song is enough to want to hear it, just not over and over and over. This is mostly for borderline testing songs. I realize there are some songs that people want to hear constantly, one of the biggest of which, was pulled from obscurity 21 years ago and placed in the movie, "Good Morning, Vietnam"! I don't think there's anyone on the planet who doesn't know that song but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who did before 1988.

I checked 1230 a few minutes ago, and now it is a simulcast of La Grande (1520). ESPN Deportes is nowhere on the dial (for now).

I'm surprised that 1230 didn't simulcast 1520 along time ago as it fills in where 1520 is weak in east county. Is 1010 still on the air?

I have heard 1230 simulcast 1520 in the past. 1010 is still on, with different programming that is not ESPN Deportes.

My spanish is a little rusty(not unlike a 100 year old car)but I heard what sounded like 910's new format, just after midnight.

I'm not sure but is that "The Preacher" Pat Pattee speaking Spanish?

It is and if you look at much larger markets that carry the format it still doesn't do well. It will follow the lead of other major markets where its at and not perform as well and without the benefit of a large market to get revenues from.

Or, is that the sound of Don Burden spinning in his grave?

I keep hearing Wall of Voodoo!

I hear the talking of the DJ.
Can't understand--just what does he say?
I'm on a Mexican Radio!
I'm on a Mexica-aan Radio!

I was in Salem on Friday and switch over to 1390 to have a listen. The audio was way over modulating and was distorted.

And that surprises you??
Ever hear Mexican Radio?
Ever hear the great Deejays?
We had quite a bit of fun with the changeover at our place. One more station bites the dust and more money comes our way.
Oh well. Cha ching.

Ciudad de Rip! Viva ESPN Deportes!

Don't know if I had any influence or not, but after several e-mail exchanges with management, 1390 began carrying the english language Mariners broadcasts which is less than I can say for 1240 AM in Corvallis or anyone here in Salem. Hope it lasts. Nothing better than sitting in Volcanoes stadium watching the local team and listening to Mariner's radio.

> Ever hear Mexican Radio?

In the mid 1990s, I used to listen to XEG 1050, while living in Austin, TX and Alabama. They had a very nice sounding AM Stereo signal that was not over processed or distorted. The central Texas Spanish and Tejano stations, by comparison, seemed to love to turn up the compression and clipping as high as possible to get the volume as high as possible. I remember listening to XEG and thinking, "Wow! These Mexican guys take radio quite seriously."

Local Salem Newspaper Account http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090504/SPORTS/905040349/Area+radio+sta tions+alter+programming&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

For a while there, 1010-AM had some Vietnamese programming, and one of their top songs was "Happy Birthday to You" sung in English by a singer with an obvious Vietnamese accent. I think I'm missing something here.

Then, and I don't know if I've been sleeping through it, there is the Dutch hour every other Sunday morning on KBOO.

Living here in Salem I did some local station math and there is now more Spanish stations that originate their signals here in Salem-Keizer-Dallas-Woodburn-Stayton metro than English.
Sad my 2 years of high school spanish didn't stick.

is the FM spanish station still on? Have not heard about it in eons

95.1 KSND or 93.1 KRYP? Yes!

95.1 any website yet?

The Vietnamese programming on 1010 is Little Saigon Radio. They used to be on KKSL, which went dark a few years ago.

Here's the official announcement from All Access:

------------------ESPN Deportes Comes To Portland------------------

ENTERCOM's KTRO-A/PORTLAND has flipped from a simulcast of sister Country KWJJ-A (99.5 THE WOLF) to Spanish Sports using ESPN DEPORTES. The station had been simulcasting KWJJ since JANUARY 5th after dropping the Talk format programmed under an LMA with SALEM COMMUNICATIONS.

The Spanish Sports format is being simulcast on sister KVXX-A/SALEM, OR as well.