RBR+TVBR INFOCUS
According to the most recent population estimates, the Hispanic population of the Minneapolis-St. Paul market as defined by Nielsen Audio is just over 5% of the total.
It’s an “emerging market” as brand managers and CMOs see it, and two regional Mexican stations can be found in the Twin Cities to serve this burgeoning group of consumers.
One of these operations was housed in the former International Order of Odd Fellows structure at the corner of 27th Avenue South and E. Lake Street, in the blue-collar Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. Some 18% of the population here is African America. Another 12% is Hispanic.
It is also one of the centers of the Twin Cities, and the U.S., for violent protests in reaction to the murder of George Floyd in this city on Memorial Day. Many structures burned to the ground.
Among them were the studios for “La Raza,” at 1400 kHz and on two FM translators across the region.
With its 1,000 watts from originating station KMNV-AM, licensed to St. Paul, and FM translator K239CJ at 95.7 MHz, “La Raza” reaches most of the metropolitan area, and the heart of a community rich in Latinos of Mexican and Central American heritage.
Outside of morning drive, when the Univision Radio-syndicated El Bueno, la Mala y el Feo airs, local programming from hosts based at the station super-serves listeners.
Spanish-language programming on KMNV dates to 2005, when previous owner Davidson Media Group purchased the station. In May 2016, it closed on its sale of KMNV to Santamaria Broadcasting for $1.2 million.
For the past four years, “La Raza” hummed along under the leadership of owner and President/CEO Maya Santamaria, and General Manager Armando Quintero. Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, “La Raza” managed to keep the lights on, and keep the Spanish-language listener in the Twin Cities appraised of all they needed to know.
Then came the death of George Floyd. The city erupted. “La Raza” air talent went into action, broadcasting from the rooftop of the “IOOF” building for two days, starting May 26. Hosts even opened the windows to the studios and sat on the ledge, offering live reports of what they were seeing.
The visuals, offered via Facebook Live, include the hosts’ harrowing on-air account of what was unfolding right before their eyes.
Things got worse. By 8pm on Wednesday, May 27, La Raza’s on-air staff and all remaining personnel evacuated the building. At 4:20am on Thursday, May 28, the entire structure was engulfed in flames.
Nothing was spared, Maya Santamaria told RBR+TVBR on Wednesday, June 4, as she sat in her home office. “We lost all of our intellectual property,” she says. “We lost our music library, our accounting programs … everything. Our servers burned.”
Incredibly, “La Raza” returned to the air this morning (6/4), thanks to Fresh Air Inc.‘s noncommercial KFAI-FM in Minneapolis. Santamaria explains that a temporary move to KFAI made sense, as its studio engineer also built KFAI’s studios, making an emergency transition a bit smoother.
Other stations in the market reached out, offering a helping hand. Go Media’s KQGO “Go 96.3,” owned by the influential Polhad family, called offering financial assistance. Longtime Top 40 KDWB-FM, owned by iHeartMedia, did too, with morning veteran Dave Ryan taking the lead in community rebuilding and pushing for peaceful protests.
While the calls were welcomed, the task facing Santamaria and her entire team was herculean. “We had nothing,” she says. “We had to start from scratch, from emails — because we had no cloud storage — to sales. It is a lesson to other broadcasters that they should have storage in the cloud, and somewhere outside of their offices in the event something happens. Our tech team hasn’t slept for an entire week.”
That’s because “La Raza,” along with competitor WREY-AM 630 and FM translator 94.9, are the lone audio voices en español in the Twin Cities. “La Raza” arguably had more live and local on-air programming and a strong tie to a big community center: It shared a building with El Nuevo Rodeo, a major event center, nightclub and restaurant that served as a Latino community hub and has played host to major Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
El Nuevo Rodeo is no more, destroyed by flames.
‘A STRONGHOLD TO THE CENTER’
When “La Raza” fell silent on May 27, the Latino community lost a crucial connection point to what was going on in their city, delivered in the language they prefer.
At the same time, nearly all Latino-owned businesses were ransacked in the two-mile corridor on which the “IOOF” Building stood.
Santamaria comments, “It was almost as if our voice had been silent, and getting our voice [back] so we could transmit important information and serve as a resource was our No. 1 priority. There as a big void, when we weren’t able to do our job.”
Fortunately, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, ad cancellations haven’t been seen. On the station’s website, multiple law firms, an automotive dealer and a Hispanic marketplace have a strong ad presence.
Now, they, and local listeners, have an on-air home to tune to once again, as “La Raza” — along with much of the Twin Cities — begin to recover, and rebuild.
