For every fan of Howard Stern, there’s someone who’d rather tune in to Morning Edition on National Public Radio. The same is true for Latinos, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez says: For every fan of Poder 1110AM’s El Can de la Mañana, there’s someone tuning in to his show on 88.1FM.
Both stations feature Latin music and candid, often lively talk. But whether it’s Su Salud, the doctor’s health affairs show; Hablemos (“Let’s Talk”); or just a musical segment, the programming on 88.1FM is more formal, never raunchy, suitable for the entire family.
It’s like NPR in Spanish, but with danceable tunes.
And now, the station founded in 1995 as Romance 88.1FM, and known since 2000 as Exitos, wants to go all-out and get certified by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to become the East Coast’s own Latino Public Radio.
The West Coast already has such a Latino network, Radio Bilingüe, based in Los Angeles. But we had nothing here on the East Coast.” said Reynaldo Almonte, founder of the Providence station.
So for about two years, Almonte, who leases airtime on 88.1FM from The Wheeler School, owner of the frequency, has been looking at turning Exitos into a public radio station. This month, with a big boost from Rodriguez and two other partners, Almonte made the leap.
The group filed incorporation papers for Latino Public Radio, and began broadcasting under that name in Rhode Island and in Miami, where a national version of Hablemos airs weekly. They also launched a Web site – www.lprri.org – with all the shows posted as MP3s.
And that, said Almonte, is just the beginning.
“It’s going to go on in New York in a few weeks,” he said, “and we’re looking for stations in Massachusetts and Chicago. … Latino Public Radio is not only for Providence; it’s going to be a network and produce programs for stations all over the country.”
To get started, Rodriguez said, they’re developing a detailed business plan and a fund-raising strategy. In the meantime, they’re operating with Almonte’s resources – his studio and a small army of interns and Latino immigrant volunteers – and money and labor from the doctor; his friend Manuel Fabian, a New York lawyer; and Dr. Alvaro Olivares, a psychiatrist at Butler Hospital who hosts Salud Mental, a mental-health show.
Well-known in Latino circles and throughout Providence, Almonte brings broadcasting savvy and a “magic” touch with younger audiences, Rodriguez said. “He’s a one-man dynamo. He’s extremely talented at knowing what kind of music to put on” and hook in listeners.
Rodriguez, for his part, brings prestige and credibility not just within the Latino community, but statewide. As former medical director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, chair of the state’s Latino Political Action Committee, and board member of the Rhode Island Foundation and Bank Rhode Island, among others, he’s well-known and widely respected.
When, last summer, Rodriguez was in a car crash in Texas and spent two months hospitalized, including three weeks in a coma, the outpouring of concern and support was overwhelming.
The crash, in fact, is part of why Rodriguez – who’s hosted Hablemos on Almonte’s station for nine years – got so heavily involved in radio. He’s still not fully recovered and hasn’t returned to medicine, but to keep active, last August, he started hosting Su Salud.
In October, Rodriguez hooked up with Fabian to start a national version of Hablemos, covering not just issues affecting the Latino community, but terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, any hot topic. Going non-commercial after that, he said, was a natural – a way to make the shows they all wanted without worrying about luring advertisers.
This is not to say that Latino Public Radio won’t have a bit more zest than your typical NPR station. Almonte, after all, is a music lover, and he’s got young interns producing music shows in virtually every Spanish genre.
But at the end of the day, the new station’s focus is more serious.
“Our goal,” said Almonte, “is to bring good quality programming to Latinos in the United States.”
