He’s been a President at Entravision Communications, where he had a hand in launching the company’s national radio arm. He’s also spent time at the now-defunct Radio Unica and at Univision. Today, José Villafañe is both the CEO of Hispanic media rep firm MNA Sales, and national Hispanic radio network Nueva Network.
You can soon add radio station owner to the curriculum vitae.
A LMA-to-purchase agreement became effective August 1 that gives Villafañe the keys to WCCM-AM 1490 and FM translator W279DH in Haverhill, Mass.
The FM translator carries the stations’ new branding — “Latinx 103.7.”
And, the station’s target audience is the Latinx audience, meaning those of Generation X who happen to be Hispanic and consume everything from Marc Anthony to Wisin & Yandel. As such, “Latinx 103.7” is a broad-based Spanish Contemporary station with Latin Urban at its foundation. Select English-language titles can also be found in the mix.
For those wondering about the 103.7 MHz frequency, the WVEI-FM 103.7 signal based in Westerly, R.I., does not reach the areas Latinx 103.7 covers. Those areas are limited to Haverhill and Lawrence, just south of the New Hampshire state line. W279DH doesn’t cover Boston.
Neither does WCCM-AM, a 1kw Class C from 1 tower that doesn’t reach Lowell or any towns south of Reading, Mass.
Villafañe tells RBR+TVBR he plans on filing an asset purchase agreement for the stations in early 2022 and intends to buy more stations, with the intent of building a Northeast regional network of Hispanic radio properties.
“We strategically selected Boston as the first market to launch our broadcast division because of the lack of radio stations catering to the Hispanic community that offer premium content for the local market,” said Villafañe, who notes that Boston’s 13% Hispanic population hails mostly from the Caribbean. “Although this is a Top 10 market, most of Boston’s Spanish-language radio stations broadcast nationally syndicated programs or broker Spanish-language radio. We want to change that by super-serving the local community through premium local programming.”