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Augusto Delkader
November 01, 2006
A journalist and lawyer at heart, the Cádiz, Spain-born native was one of the founding editors of El País, the country’s prestigious newspaper belonging to media conglomerate Grupo Prisa. During a recent visit to the United States, the now-CEO of Unión Radio spoke with Marketing y Medios Editor Laura Martínez about his latest passion: radio and how to maximize its power.
Q: Grupo Prisa this year announced the formation of Unión Radio. What exactly is this?
A: Formed in June, Unión Radio is a collaboration between Grupo Prisa and another Spanish media group, Grupo Godó. Unión Radio has 1,095 stations in 350 markets across 17 countries, making it the world's largest Spanish-language radio company with a daily audience of 28 million people.
Q: What holdings do you have in the U.S. Hispanic market?
A: We own and operate Radio Caracol in Miami as well as W Radio (690 AM) in Los Angeles, a Spanish-language news, talk, sports and entertainment station that was acquired this year from Clear Channel Communications. We also have GLR [Grupo Latino de Radio] Networks, which distributes Spanish-language content to other operators.
Q: How do you plan to grow in the U.S. Hispanic market?
A: First we need to consolidate and develop our current operations. Then, we'll be looking at acquiring stations in the largest Hispanic markets. We are very interested in New Mexico and particularly in the U.S.-Mexico border area where we see a huge opportunity in broadcasting information relevant to Mexicans.
Q: Advertising revenues in the radio business have not grown in pace with the number of stations. What's your take on this?
A: The key to the radio business is delivering good content and relevant information. A good audience is always appreciated by advertisers. So we believe and are convinced that ad revenues are possible in this market, as has been proven with our operations in Miami.
Q: So radio can still be a good business proposition?
A: Radio is a media that — thanks to the convergence and expansion of digital platforms — has a wonderful future. Unlike what many people think, new technologies are actually helping and making it possible for radio to have a better and wider distribution. Up until now, radio had been limited to analog signals, and the main concern was distribution. Now, thanks to the Internet, distribution of content will cease to be a problem. The challenge now will be in sensing what the public wants and delivering relevant content.
Q: How are Prisa's radio properties taking advantage of the digital convergence?
A: We are currently testing the potential of Visual Radio through a joint venture with Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Telefónica Móviles. This means radio is coupled with visual content and sent out to mobile devices where people can see the ads and the DJ. This creates an interactive relationship with the listeners. It's packaged differently. The content is linked to the radio station, but it's treated differently to deliver via mobile devices. Our wish is to apply this to every single country where we have radio operations. Tests started in June in Spain, and we're currently in the first phase of commercializing it.
Q: With the eternal discussion around English versus Spanish and how new generations will consume their media, would Grupo Prisa ever consider doing media in English?
A: I think the United States will eventually become a fully bilingual community. The Spanish language is always going to be around [among Hispanics] as an element of cohesion. Our specialty is Spanish-language programming, and we think there's room for everybody. Others can do the English-language operations.
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