Station Seeks Unusual Niche in Spanish-Language Market

A small television network that found success by finely parsing foreign-language television markets--like a channel in Seattle that splits its programming between German- and Chinese-language shows--is sending out a new signal from the top of Mt. Wilson.

On Monday, Venture Technologies Group launched KSFV-TV (Channel 26 and only available in Southern California), a 24-hour, Spanish-language television station that may be the first geared toward the estimated 1.5 million Central Americans living in the Los Angeles area. The channel’s cornerstone is a live, nightly news hour that will open with the biggest story out of El Salvador. Countless Central Americans fled their homelands during the civil wars of the 1980s and during the economic devastation that followed in the 1990s. In the past few years, natural disasters, like Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the back-to-back earthquakes that hit El Salvador early this year provided another incentive for families to come north.

Today, L.A. is home to more Central Americans than any other U.S. city.

They get their news in bits and pieces from two weekly Salvadoran newspapers, independent Spanish-language KWHY-TV (Channel 22), and local affiliates of Univision and Telemundo, the two largest, national Spanish-language television networks.

“There are more Central Americans here than there are people in Lansing, Mich., or Peoria [Ill.],” said Paul Koplin, president and chief executive of Ventures Technologies Group, which owns KSFV. “How can you compete against Univision or Telemundo or KWHY? We thought, ‘We’re going to do Central American news.’ ”

The 7 p.m. newscast will be led by Ruben Olague, who anchored the news for the El Paso, Texas, affiliate of Univision before cable news channel CNN en Espanol brought him to Los Angeles several years ago.

“In the case of Central Americans, there aren’t as many third- or fourth-generation Salvadorans, like there are older Mexican families here,” Olague said. “Our audience’s heart is still back in Central America, and their families are still back home.”

The rest of the news hour will include stories from Guatemala and El Salvador and stories relevant to Central Americans living in L.A. Other programs scheduled to air on KSFV include “Home Shopping Espanol,” a cooking show and a show on Guatemalan culture.

As a low-power station, KSFV is available to those families who can’t afford monthly cable subscriptions. But, not everyone is convinced the TV station’s strategy of reaching to recently arrived Central Americans is sophisticated enough to keep the channel afloat.

“The opportunity is there, but nationalism has limited business values. Putting flags on business cards or having news from a homeland has short-lived economic value,” said Roberto Lovato, who runs the Central American studies program at Cal State Northridge that was founded last May.

“Like other media consumers, Central Americans want quality programming, and that’s what’s going to determine the channel’s success,” he continued. “Central Americans are not some refugee enclave, they’re integrated, which means they [KSFV] have to compete with the likes of bigger media outlets, beginning with Univision.”