COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Remembering a Pioneer in Latino TV

Rita Lepicier raises an apt point (“KMEX: L.A.’s Forgotten Star,” Counterpunch, Dec. 25). Spanish-language broadcasters--and publishers--have had to wrestle with the problem of under-recognition for many years.

I am reminded of the pioneering efforts of Angel Lerma-Mahler, who first brought Hispanic television to Los Angeles with his long-running Channel 13 show, “Panorama Latino,” years before there was commercial UHF programming here--even before XEWT lit up on Channel 12 down in Tijuana.

When KMEX came along, Lerma built his own UHF station and called it KLXA, an anagram of the radio station on which he’d started his U.S. career, KXLA (now KRLA).

Running a whole television station, especially a UHF in those days, proved to be an overwhelming challenge for a lone, independent entrepreneur (KMEX, KVEA and even KWHY have enormous resources by comparison) and KLXA is gone now, but the late Argentine immigrant should be remembered as the father of Spanish-language television in Los Angeles.

THOMAS D. BRATTER

Los Angeles

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If KMEX-TV Channel 34 is getting the audience shares Rita Lepicier reports, then it is time for The Times to give it the coverage it deserves.

But if English-language television were more like KMEX, then the Hollywood talent pool would collapse. Although KMEX has been on the air for more than 30 years and has affiliates in cities as large as New York, Miami and Phoenix, most of its entertainment programming has been produced in Latin America. It’s as if ABC, CBS and NBC were to get most of their programs from Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Univision and its predecessor, Spanish International Network, never really utilized the Spanish talent in the United States, except for news.

But what KMEX would really benefit from is a VHF TV channel. On Thursday, KABC-TV Channel 7 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 in effect became jointly owned and will continue that way for 18 months until possible future legislation permits the Walt Disney Co. to own both stations indefinitely or one has to be sold. With Hispanics making up 40% of the Los Angeles market, maybe the “visibility” KMEX-TV desires could be achieved by moving from Channel 34 to the VHF band.

RICK ROFMAN

Van Nuys