Spanish-language broadcaster built an empire in U.S.
Raul Alarcon Sr., a Cuban exile who built a Spanish- language communications and entertainment empire in the U.S., died Wednesday in Miami. He was 82.
Associates close to his family said Alarcon had been in declining health for several years.
A communications pioneer in Cuba, he founded his first radio station on the island in the early 1950s. When he came to the U.S. in 1960, he left behind a network of 14 stations that had been seized by Fidel Castro’s government.
Alarcon started out as a disc jockey on a Spanish- language station in New York and purchased his first FM radio station in New York in 1983, marking the beginning of his Spanish Broadcasting Systems.
It is the largest publicly traded Hispanic-controlled media and entertainment company in the country, the company said on its website.
Eduardo Caballero, a former Spanish-language media executive who was a close friend of Alarcon, called him a “visionary and definitely one of the craftsmen of Spanish- language radio in the United States,” the Miami Herald reported Friday.
Eugenio “Gene” Bryan, who once managed a New York station for the company and founded the trade journal HispanicAd.com, credited Alarcon’s vision with helping to motivate other Hispanics.
“He had the vision of creating a radio company owned by Hispanics for Hispanics. . . . He made us all realize, ‘Hey, there are opportunities out there. You can compete, building a great company and be respected.’ He gave us all hope,” Bryan said.
The company operates at least 20 radio stations, including KLAX-FM (97.9) and KXOL-FM (96.3) in Los Angeles, the music website LaMusica.com and the South Florida television station Mega TV. Other radio stations are in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Puerto Rico.
Alarcon served as chairman of the board of Spanish Broadcasting Systems until turning the company over to his son, Raul Alarcon Jr., in 1999.
Pablo Raul Alarcon was born Jan. 15, 1926, in Cuba. At 25, he started his first short-wave station, which was in Camaguey, Cuba.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Alma.
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