Latino Media Network Plans To Build 'Multiplatform Audio Company' Starting With 18 Stations

Latino Media Network has started discussing its plans for the stations and how they fit into its vision of a multiplatform media company aiming to reach the nation's expanding Hispanic population after closing on its controversial $60 million purchase of 18 radio stations in ten cities from TelevisaUnivision.

Stephanie Valencia, Executive Chair of the Board of LMN, stated on Wednesday that "We are building, not just a radio company, but a multiplatform audio company."
"It is really about expansion and ensuring that the content that we are creating for radio is for other platforms as well."

Apps, YouTube, streaming, and other distribution platforms are all a part of the company's strategy.

Valencia stated during a symposium on media ownership at the Federal Communications Commission that LMN's top priority is to ensure the 18 radio stations, spread across the largest U.S. cities, including eight of the top 10 Latino markets, continue to serve the audience "which is depending on them, which are Spanish-dominant and Spanish language-dominant audiences across this country.

It took six months to complete the sale of the 18 stations, which was completed in the first week of Jan. Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno, and Las Vegas each have ten AM stations and eight FM stations. According to LMN, the stations together have a nearly one-third reach among Americans of the Latino population, reports insideradio.

Valencia stated that the audience aim includes both the country's current Spanish-speaking population as well as the Spanish immigrants who are still arriving in the U.S. Valencia said during a panel discussion, "The largest share of immigrants in this country are Spanish immigrants, and when they come to this country, they are searching for a piece of home, a piece of culture, a piece of tradition, and Spanish-language radio has played a part in that for a long time." There will be a need for Spanish-language media in general and radio content in particular as long as that market and the Latino market continue to expand.

Valencia made his comments two days after Bad Bunny kicked off the 12.4 million American viewers—a 30% increase from last year—of the Sunday night broadcast of the Grammy Awards. According to her, the Latin superstar serves as a prime example of the expanding Latin content world that transcends national boundaries. The Latin superstar, who was the most streamed artist internationally in 2022, offers a textbook case of a growing Latin content universe that knows no borders, she said. "Media is global in a way that it has never been global before... The reach of customers and consumers alike in all parts of the globe is now within fingertips of any content creator."

LMN, a new player in the booming Hispanic media market, is led by Valencia, a former employee of the Obama White House, and Jess Morales Rocketto, a former employee of Hillary for America and the AFL-CIO. A group of investors, including Lakestar Finance, an investment company connected to Soros Fund Management LLC, also support the venture. Valencia and her business partners claim they had been working on the firm "for quite some time," despite the fact that the company first appeared to be an afterthought when the agreement was first revealed in June 2022. When Televisa Univision quietly put the stations on the market, it "became a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire that share of the market, so we had to move fairly quickly."