Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (SBS) is one of the largest owners and operators of

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. SBS is also invested in television and internet properties, deriving the majority of its income from advertising through its media products. SBS owns the internet portal ''LaMusica.com''. It also acquired WSBS-TV in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

WTCV WTCV (channel 18) is a Mega TV owned-and-operated television station licensed to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Owned by Spanish Broadcasting System, it is sister to radio stations WZNT (93.7 FM), WZMT (93.3 FM), WODA (94.7 FM), WNOD (94.1 FM) ...

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

, the group of owned and operated TV stations for its Mega TV network. SBS targets the U.S. Hispanic audience in eight geographic regions:

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

and

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

History

Spanish Broadcasting System was founded by Pablo Raúl Alarcón Sr., who started in Spanish-language radio broadcasting in the early 1950s when he started his first radio station in Camagüey, Cuba, and his son, Raúl Alarcón Jr."Pablo Raúl Alarcón Sr."
, Spanish Broadcasting System, accessed June 4, 2011. Alarcón Sr. had acquired 14 radio stations by the time he fled Cuba with his family to the United States in 1960.
Reference for Business, 2nd ed., accessed June 4, 2011. In the U.S. he continued his career as an on-air personality at a New York radio station after arriving in the United States before being promoted to programming director. He subsequently owned a recording studio and advertising agency before borrowing $3.5 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

to purchase the first SBS radio station, WSKQ-AM (La Super 1380) in 1983 with his son, Raúl Alarcón Jr. Alarcón Sr. would serve as SBS Chairman of the board of directors, while his son would serve as an account executive in the sales department. SBS generated sales of about $20 million in its first year, confirming the influence of the growing Spanish-speaking audience. Raúl Alarcón Jr. became President of SBS and a director in October 1985."Raúl Alarcón Jr."
Spanish Broadcasting System, accessed June 4, 2011. In 1988 SBS purchased its first

FM station FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is capa ...

, regional

Mexican KLAX 97.9 FM KLAX-FM (97.9 FM) is an American commercial radio station located in East Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KLAX-FM airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Raza". The station has studios in Lo ...

in Los Angeles. The company went public in the fall of 1991, raising $435.8 million by selling 21.8 million shares at $20 per share. SBS bought its third station, New York's

WSKQ-FM WSKQ-FM (97.9 MHz), known on-air as "La Mega 97.9", is a radio station licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS). The station has a tropical format, which consists of such musical styles as salsa ...

, in 1989. In 1993

Alfredo Alonso Alfredo Alonso is a retired Cuba-born media executive. He held senior management positions in Spanish-language media publishing, radio broadcasting, television production, corporate event management and restaurateur. He is known as an innovator of ...

was hired and reformatted it as Mega 97.9, La Mega, surpassing the market's longtime leader, the

light rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

station

WLTW-FM WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborho ...

, by 1998. A major turning point for Spanish radio occurred that year when media researchers at

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

rated La Mega's morning show number one over that of the radio personality

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, '' The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terr ...

In 2002 the company created SBS Entertainment, a concert production arm. It also diversified by purchasing 80 percent of JuJu Media, the operator of the Spanish-English Web site LaMusica.com, which offered Latin music, entertainment, news, and culture. Later that year, at the insistence of Alarcón Jr., SBS launched KZAB-FM (La Sabrosa 93.5), targeting the Central American population in Los Angeles. In 2003, WSKQ was the most listened-to Spanish-language radio station in the United States. That year Alarcón Jr. told ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' magazine, "My opinion is that radio programming continues to be an art. It is not a science. I will not argue with the fact that research gives you a good indication, a good road map." Raúl Alarcón Jr. is the current Chief Executive Officer of SBS, a position he has held since June 1994. He also succeeded his father as Chairman of the board of directors on November 2, 1999. Alarcón Sr. would continue to serve as Chairman Emeritus. Alarcón Jr. is responsible for the company's long-range strategic planning and operational matters, and according to SBS's website, is instrumental in the acquisition and related financing of each SBS station. In 2009, Raúl Alarcón Sr. was posthumously inducted into ''Billboards Latin Music Hall of Fame. On June 3, 2011, the heavily Cuban-American community of

Union City, New Jersey Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589,Celia Cruz Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during ...

Plaza. Raúl Alarcón Jr. was present to accept the honors for his father.

Radio

SBS radio stations use one of six programming formats: *Spanish tropical:

salsa music Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son mont ...

, merengue,

bachata Bachata may refer to: * Bachata (music), a genre of Latin American music **Traditional bachata, a subgenre of bachata music * Bachata (dance), a dance style from the Dominican Republic * Bachatón, a hybrid bachata/reggaeton music style * "Bachata ...

reggaetón Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American Hip hop m ...

dance music *

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mex ...

ranchera Ranchera () or canción ranchera is a genre of traditional music of Mexico. It dates to before the years of the Mexican Revolution. Rancheras today are played in virtually all regional Mexican music styles. Drawing on rural traditional folk musi ...

, norteña,

banda Banda may refer to: People * Banda (surname) * Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician * Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor * Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician *Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh ...

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

music typically originating from regions of Mexico *Spanish

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

: soft romantic

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

, Spanish pop music *Spanish

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as w ...

: Latin/English music classics from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s *American

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

: current pop music hits *

Hurban Hurban is a radio programming format from radio chain giant Clear Channel Communications and Senior VP Alfredo Alonso. Hurban radio stations target young Hispanics in the United States, primarily consisting of reggaeton, Latin trap, Latin rap, ...

: (''Hispanic Urban'') reggaetón dance music

Los Angeles

KLAX-FM KLAX-FM (97.9 FM) is an American commercial radio station located in East Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KLAX-FM airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Raza". The station has studios in Los ...

97.9 La Raza HD1 (regional Mexican)/Raza Clásicos 97.9 HD2 (regional Mexican oldies) *

KXOL-FM KXOL-FM (96.3 MHz "Mega 96.3") is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System and airs a Spanish CHR radio format. KXOL-FM's studios and offices are on West Pico Boulevard. The trans ...

Mega 96.3 HD1 (pop)/Mega 96.3 HD2 (Spanish Tropical)

New York

Mega 97.9 HD1 (Spanish Tropical) *

WPAT-FM WPAT-FM (93.1 FM) – branded "93.1 Amor" – is a radio station that programs a Spanish CHR radio format. Licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, the station is owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System and serves the New York metropolitan area. ...

93.1 Amor HD1 (Spanish Tropical & Spanish Adult Contemporary)/La Nueva 93.1 HD2 (Spanish Christian music)

Puerto Rico

WMEG WMEG (106.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40/CHR format. Licensed to Guayama, Puerto Rico, it serves the greater San Juan area. The station is currently owned by WMEG Licensing, Inc. Until 2004, La Mega 106.9 FM had an American Alt ...

La Mega 106.9 (CHR - Latin/American top 40) *

WEGM WEGM (95.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a rhythmic contemporary hit radio format. Licensed to San Germán, Puerto Rico, the station serves the western Puerto Rico area. The station is currently owned by Spanish Broadcasting System Holdin ...

La Mega 95.1 (CHR - Latin/American top 40) *

WRXD WRXD (96.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, it serves the Puerto Rico area. The station is currently owned by WRXD Licensing, Inc. History In 1969, the station was known as Radi ...

Estereotempo 96.5 (Spanish adult contemporary) *

WNVI WNVI (1040 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christmas music format. Licensed to Moca, Puerto Rico, United States, the station serves the western Puerto Rico area. The station is currently owned by Aurio A. Matos Barreto (President and Gener ...

Estereotempo 1040 (Spanish adult contemporary) *

WZNT WZNT (93.7 FM, "Zeta 93") is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish Tropical format. Licensed to San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puer ...

Zeta 93.7 (Spanish tropical) * WZMT Zeta 93.3 (Spanish tropical) *

WIOB WIOB (97.5 FM) is a radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio wave ...

Zeta 97.5 (Spanish tropical) * WODA La Nueva 94.7 (urban) * WNOD La Nueva 94.1 (urban)

Chicago

WLEY-FM WLEY-FM (107.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Aurora, Illinois, serving Aurora, Chicago, Naperville, Joliet and much of surrounding Northeast Illinois. Owned by Spanish Broadcasting System, it broadcasts a regional Mexican format brand ...

La Ley 107.9 (regional Mexican)

Miami

* WXDJ El Zol 106.7 (Spanish tropical) * WCMQ-FM Zeta 92.3 (Romantic Salsa & Spanish Love AC songs) * WRMA Ritmo 95.7 ( Cubatón) * WRAZ Salsa 106.3 (Spanish tropical) *

WMFM WMFM (107.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish Tropical format. Licensed to Key West, Florida, United States, the station serves the Florida Keys area. The station simulcasts WXDJ In Miami. The station is currently owned by South Bro ...

El Zol 107.9 (Spanish tropical)

San Francisco

KRZZ KRZZ (93.3 FM) is a commercial radio station located in San Francisco, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KRZZ airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Raza". The station's studios are located in San Jose just n ...

93.3 La Raza (Regional Mexican)

Orlando

* WPYO El Nuevo Zol 95.3 (Spanish tropical)

Tampa

* WSUN (FM) El Nuevo Zol 97.1 (Spanish tropical) SBS launched AIRE Radio Networks in 2014.

Internet

In addition to individual radio station websites, SBS operates
www.lamusica.com
' and
www.mega.tv
', all providing bilingual Spanish-English content about Latin music, entertainment and news.

Television

MEGA TV was launched on March 1, 2006 and operates as a Spanish-language entertainment station in South Florida, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas. The station's programming targets a young, U.S. Hispanic audience through televised radio-branded shows and general entertainment programs (music, celebrity, debate, interviews, personality based shows). Seventy percent of MEGA TV's programming is in-house created. MEGA TV is also available nationwide on

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

and

AT&T U-Verse U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states.city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American b ...

Current

Arbitron lawsuit

sued SBS in order to force it to reinstall encoders used for the

Portable People Meter The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, was a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable tel ...

system of

audience measurement Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometim ...

. SBS and other members of the

PPM Coalition PPM may refer to: Business in general * Planned preventive maintenance * Project portfolio management * Public performance measure, UK measure of rail punctuality Organizations * Mauritanian People's Party * Parry People Movers, UK flywheel ve ...

contended that the PPM system has had a major negative impact on their ratings and therefore revenue, and asked the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) in investigate. Arbitron sued SBS for

breach Breach, Breached, or The Breach may refer to: Places * Breach, Kent, United Kingdom * Breach, West Sussex, United Kingdom * ''The Breach'', Great South Bay in the State of New York People * Breach (DJ), an Electronic/House music act * Miroslav ...

of a 2007 contract, including $2.5 million in payments owed since 2009. In February 2010, a court ordered SBS to reinstate, at least temporarily, the coding of its radio broadcasts for measurement by Arbitron.Eggerton, John
"Court Orders Spanish Broadcasting System to Restore Arbitron Encoding"
Broadcasting & Cable, February 15, 2010

Notes

References

*Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. 2006 Annual Report