Pio Ferro

After establishing Spanish radio as power players in a bevy of markets for SBS, Pio Ferro was hired away by CBS Radio to do the same for its own Spanish-language stations in Dallas, Houston, Tampa and Washington, D.C. Despite CBS' immense stature nationwide, Ferro found many of the same challenges that Spanish radio owners face. In this exclusive interview, he elaborates on CBS' -- and especially Spanish radio's -- growing presence on the air ...and on the Net.

When you came to CBS Radio, what were the immediate goals and challenges you faced?

My immediate goal was to increase market share of CBS' Spanish properties in Dallas, Houston, Tampa and Washington, D.C. The challenges they face aren't any different than the challenges all radio operators face in terms of increasing ratings and revenue. We've made some personnel changes in Dallas, but outside of that, there's nothing facing us that would be considered an impediment that what faces every other station.

So the actions you took to meet those challenges were no different than what an Ango station operator faces....

When it comes to finding out the audience's tastes, creating the right music rotations and putting that on the air, Spanish radio is just like English radio. You have various formats in Spanish radio; you pick the format you want to be in, pick the best personalities possible, put on air and amplify it. As far as actually getting that on the radio, I don't see any difference; many of my friends in Anglo radio world are always talking about how similar Spanish radio is to English radio when "you do it right." As long as you're playing both offense and defense correctly, you'll be fine.

As far as reaching our audience from a marketing standpoint, you have to realize that the percentage of Spanish-speaking cell phone-only households is very high, which means you do have to come up with novel ways to reach them. Outside of that, your use of TV and outdoor is pretty much the same as English radio, except that you're probably targeting different zips.

Spanish and Urban radio have had a contentious relationship with Arbitron over the PPM. Do you and CBS agree with their complaints ... and what Arbitron has done in response to them?

It's all about making sure Arbitron is getting the Spanish sample right. Just recently, Arbitron decided to do certain things in how they obtain the sample that made the Spanish radio coalition much happier; it seems that they're doing everything they possibly can to truly represent Spanish market.

From where I see it -- and I can only speak from my own experience with PPM -- but my former company, SBS, has been pretty successful in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York under the PPM. Clear Channel seems to be doing very well with its Spanish station in Miami. WXNY is doing well in New York, too. That's not to say Arbitron is doing everything right. Could they be doing a better job? Sure, but so could I. There's always room for improvement, and as long as Arbitron understands this and keeps working on improvements, things should be fine.

Even before they announced their new sampling efforts, Arbitron cited specific examples of ethnic stations that adjusted their programming on their own to reclaim much of their diary numbers. Did your stations accomplish that as well?

A lot of those stations you cited were not only Urbans, but a fair amount of mainstream stations and Spanish stations as well. When you had a budget to put into TV and outdoor to really affect recall for the diary, that was one thing, but that doesn't matter as much with the PPM. Say what you want about PPM, but the bottom line is it's all about listening.

A lot of stations got hurt by having air personalities just talk and talk; that had to change. Even Delilah changed; she was a phenomenon in the diary ... now her show made some adjustments to do better in the PPM. You just got to learn how to play the PPM game.

PPM found that people hit presets quicker. Think about how you use radio; if you're in the car and something comes up that doesn't pique your interest, you're not going to listen to that for another couple minutes. It's a minute-to-minute battle, where you have to make sure the music is always correct and that each break counts

Are the keys to success in Spanish radio pretty much the same nationwide, or are there significant market-to-market differences depending on the format?

The differences are huge. If you and I were having this conversation in Mexico City and we were talking about English radio, we couldn't be talking about it as one style of programming when you have Country, Urban, Top 40 and AC formats. Spanish radio is basically the same thing; a certain format may cross all boundaries, but you'll still have market-specific tastes that you have to cater to regardless of format.

Many formats are regionally based. We're seeing Regional Mexican do well in markets from Texas to the West Coast; you've got to know how to do that format to be in the game in those areas, Popular East Coast formats include Caribbean, Topical and Bachata-based stations like WSKQ/New York City.

Is there a Spanish radio equivalent to the Talk show boom, which boasts nationalized stars such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ... only Hispanic-centric?

Spanish Talk is probably the only format I've never done or have overseen, but I'm very interested in the possibilities about what the future will bring for spoken word.

Still, there are significant differences in tastes and nuances from market to market. It would be difficult to find a big talent like a Howard Stern, who would be popular across the country ... of the regional differences in Spanish radio. Piolin, for example, is a big Univison personality who does extremely well in his current markets, but I don't know how he would do in a market like Miami and New York City because of the differences in culture. Luis Jimenez, conversely, does well on the East Coast, but he may not do well in Texas and in the West.

Is the new Arizona anti-illegal immigration law provoking Spanish radio to be more political motivated?

Again, it's a market-by-market basis. If I was the PD of a radio station in Phoenix, I would be a huge advocate of educating the audience about the law. A lot of times people aren't 100% crystal clear on the rules.

Obviously, the closer you are to Arizona determines what level of a cheerleader you are for your community. Education is key. Getting the immigration laws a bit less tight, if you will, can make it easier for people to immigrate to this country legally. We should be huge cheerleaders for that.

Here in Dallas, I was having this same conversation with the new morning man at KMVK. The law has generated so much confusion in our community; did someone in Texas propose new law or not? There's a lot of hearsay going on.

The stations I deal with are more music-oriented, so I would focus more on the education process for the audience in the more talk-oriented dayparts - obviously, the morning show. If such a law would pass in Texas, we'd educate the audience while trying to be as entertaining as possible. The key is to reflect back what on what the community feels to the government, using our radio station as a vehicle to relate how it is to our audience on what they could do.

Are the music tastes in Spanish radio as cyclical as they are in English music radio?

What you see are certain artists who tend of have a bit longer lifespan than others - such as Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel and Shakira. Those artists have been around for so long that the audience wants hear their new material, but there is always a cycle of new artists as well.

In Miami, salsa used to be #1 25-54. Now it's only being played in a bunch of clubs; it's been tough to find a great salsa song. Merengue is making slight comeback with some newer groups coming up. The Reggaeton phase of 2003 lasted several years until about 2007, but it's still part of music rotation in many contemporary stations.

Does Spanish radio rely on callout and other forms of research as much as English stations?

I can only speak for myself and the PDs who have worked with me now and in the past, but if we're going to spin a song 70-90 times a week, we need to have callout. Nothing kills radio station faster than spinning the wrong songs quickly. It's the same as it is in Anglo radio. Nowadays Spanish radio has more tools than ever; on top of callout we now have Mscore to use as a gauge. There are sales info as well as listeners texting us requests for their favorite songs. We don't have to get it through requests to DJs.

Smart radio stations collect all this info and use it along with Mscore and callout on what the top songs should be. I know a lot of programmers who still think their gut can tell them whether a song should work well with their audience. Maybe so, but we want as much information as possible before making our music choices.

How much time and resources are your Spanish stations putting into an Internet strategy?

I look at the Internet like I do with other potential investments. I put them in one box or the other -- one box contains things that will be around in 10 years, and one contains things that won't. The Internet is not going away anytime soon; it's only going to get bigger.

I'm a fan of creating fun, interactive places on the web that solidify our brands. Content is king on-air and online. Is a decent return on investment there? I don't know, but I do know it is very important to have a strong presence online and have a great website - and it's going to be even more important and time goes on.

A website creates a lasting impression on everyone in your listener base who has access to a computer - and it's instrumental in keeping brand new listeners. If they log on and the content is weeks old ... and it looks like station doesn't care about offering you something worthwhile, that's the image the person will have of that station for a very long time. Either you're going to do it right or you shouldn't do it all. If I had a limited budget to work with, the website would have less bells and whistles, but what would be on it would be very fresh, very artist-intensive and very newsworthy.

Do you see your Spanish stations as largely competing with other Spanish stations in the market, or do you set your sights on Anglo stations as well?

It's market-specific, where you have to be very smart. I once did a station in L.A. called "Latino 96.3" in 2005 that was targeted against Power 106 and KIIS because they had a significant number of bilingual listeners. So almost half of our playlist was Top 40 or hip-hop stuff you could get somewhere else. To ensure that we didn't reach a point of parity, to highlight our differences we played Spanish Urban stuff, music that hadn't been heard elsewhere before, but was very specific to that market.

On the other hand, here in Dallas, I could never play enough Top 40 songs to steal enough of Kiss' listeners to make a difference, in as much as they couldn't play enough Chayanne or Mana to steal listeners away from us. It depends on the market and what your goals are. You never want to do something to piss off your core level because you can't attract enough people replace the core that you're upsetting.

Looking ahead, is the future growth for Spanish more in growing your formats to continue to appeal to the current core as it ages, or to focus more on the larger youth demos?

Every product has a life cycle; radio is no different. Once you pass the peak in the bell curve, you have to re-invent the product (think Madonna). This is obviously station and market-specific because of the competitive dynamic. However, the trend around the country has been to lean stations a bit younger.