TV—New TV Station Targets Central American Immigrants

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Seeking to capitalize on a Central American immigrant population in Los Angeles that by some accounts has exceeded 1 million, a new television station targeting that audience has been launched.

World Television’s KSFV Channel 26, a low-powered TV station that broadcasts from a 10-kilowatt tower atop Mt. Wilson, debuted April 30 with 24-hour programming aimed at the large group of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans living in Los Angeles County.

The station is the latest addition to World Television’s fledgling network, which also includes three low-power TV stations broadcasting programming aimed at the Asian and Latino communities in Southern California. The network is a subsidiary of Venture Technologies Group, a Los Angeles-based privately held company that invests in undervalued media properties.

Los Angeles already has two strong Spanish-language stations. Univision Communications Inc.’s KMEX-TV Channel 34 dominates the market, and KVEA-TV Channel 52, operated by Miami-based Telemundo Communications Group Inc., is also a player. But most of their programming is aimed at the large Mexican and Mexican-American market.

“We think this is an underserved niche,” said Paul Kolton, president of Venture Technologies. “The reports are that there are anywhere from 750,000 to 1.7 million Central Americans here. We have TV stations in other markets like Peoria (Ill.), Lansing (Mich.) and Rochester (N.Y.) that don’t even have (total) populations that reach 1.5 million people.”

World Television is positioning the new station as unique through a one-hour live news program every evening that broadcasts video feeds from Central America, as well as local news reports about Central Americans in Los Angeles.

The 7 p.m. newscast, broadcast Mondays through Fridays, is anchored by Ruben Olague, who for 10 years was a correspondent for Cable News Network.

Two local camera crews will be roving Southern California looking for stories. Elmer Polanco, who was working for a news station in El Salvador, will be the station’s sports anchor. He will also host a program that will cover the more than 70 local soccer teams that play in the L.A. area.

In addition to airing news, the station has signed a deal to broadcast MTV in Spanish and VH-Uno, the Spanish-language equivalent of VH-1.

Channel 26 operates out of broadcast studios in Hollywood, which it shares with World Television’s three other TV stations. But in two months it plans to move to a Wilshire Boulevard address in the Miracle Mile district, to be closer to Venture Technologies.

The station’s signal is not transmitted on cable and has a limited range that goes from about Van Nuys to northern Orange County.

TACA Airlines, which flies to Central America and Panama, has signed up as a major advertiser during the hour-long news program. Also Western Union will be coming on board soon as another advertiser, according to World Television officials.

“I think the station has a very promising niche. There are enough consumers here to make it successful,” said Hector Orci, president of La Agencia de Orci & Asociados, a local Latino advertising agency. “In my estimation, the entire Latino nation is underserved by the media.”

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