THE PAPAL VISIT : Spanish-Language TV, Radio in L.A. to Provide Heavy Pope Coverage

Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States is a feast for the nation’s electronic news media, but in Los Angeles, the local Spanish-language television and radio stations rank among the broadcasters with the biggest commitment to covering the visit.

Some Spanish-language broadcasters see the papal visit as a way to increase audience sizes and loyalties by providing public service programming at the expense of their regular commercially sponsored fare. Others, such as radio station KSKQ-AM, which obtained commercial sponsors for its hourly, 10-minute papal news briefs, view the visit as both a public service and a commercial opportunity.

Whatever the motives, industry spokesmen claim that the extensive coverage--as much as three times what English-language radio and TV may be providing--illustrates the increasing sophistication of the broadcasting capabilities of the Spanish-language electronic news media.

“Now we can compete with the biggest stations in any kind of coverage,” said Enrique Gratas, news director of TV station KVEA, Channel 52. “We have the (financial) resources. We also have the technical capacity. Also, our reporters are getting better.”

In all, the Los Angeles market’s two Spanish-language TV stations and five radio stations expect to preempt their regular schedules with hundreds of hours of programming, including live and fully translated broadcasts of the open air Masses the Pope will give at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday. And they will not quit until the Pope departs from Detroit on Sept. 17.

Among the most ambitious is KVEA, a Telemundo network member that will team up with its sister stations in Miami and New York to provide 54 hours of papal coverage, 85% of it live.

KTLA Channel 5, with the most ambitious plans among English-language news media, will simultaneously broadcast its nonstop, 48 hours of live and preproduced coverage in Spanish over a specially dedicated stereo channel during the Pope’s two days in Los Angeles.

KMEX Channel 34 plans to offer more than 30 hours of both locally and network-produced coverage. The nearly 25-year-old station will also play a logistical role by providing its eight-camera mobile unit to other local TV stations for pool coverage of John Paul’s visit.

At music-formatted KTNQ-AM and KLVE-FM, more than 40 hours of air time will be dedicated to papal coverage.

Rather than emphasize live coverage, KALI-AM has taken a more analytical approach, preferring to poll Latinos attending the papal events in an effort to raise controversial issues, said Alberto Aguilar, the station’s news director.

There’s no mystery to the enthusiasm: A majority of Spanish-language radio listeners and TV viewers are Catholic. John Paul will make most of his stops in Sun Belt cities with big Latino populations. The Pope is expected to address issues of importance to Latinos: immigration, Central American war refugees and migrant farm workers.

Pete Moraga, KMEX’s news director, said the station will not succumb to the temptation of presenting the Pope in a favorable light to please its viewers: “I don’t think our job is to promote the Pope but to cover what a world figure is doing in Los Angeles.”