Last week, I shared a final listen of KXXO under its former Mix 96.1 format. The below is a guest commentary from Serena Kyle, with whom I host the weekly radio show Clearing the Static.
It’s been my personal experience that, with no offense intended to Spanish speaking radio listeners, most Hispanic radio, IMO, can only be described as booooooooring! This week, however, I think I found the exception.
In August, Bustos Media agreed to buy KXXO (96.1 Olympia WA) from David Rauh and Toni Holm’s 3 Cities Inc. for $1.5 million. The sale closed 2 weeks ago, and with it came a series of changes.
Bob has already chronicled the first part of this change in a previous commentary — the signoff of KXXO’s AC “Mix 96.1” format. It was replaced this week by “X96.1”, a format that, without a more accurate descriptor, can only be described as “Spanish Pop.” It joins 3 regional Mexican stations — “La Grande 99.3” KDDS, and “Z102.9/103.3” KZTM/KZNW, and a station LMA’d out to a Spanish language religious operator — “Amor 1210” KMIA. As I badly wanted to sample this new station, and as Bob was in the area, he sent me an aircheck last night, and I hurriedly grabbed it and played it as soon as I could.
Firstly, while I don’t think it’s accurate, “Spanish Pop is probably the best descriptor for the “X96.1” format. The station plays a lot of reggaeton, and soft Spanish Pop ballads, as well as a couple of English language songs an hour. But, it also seems to mix in (no pun intended) some Merengue tunes, and, from what I heard, a couple of songs that sounded as if they were in one of the genres of Regional Mexican music. If all of this is true, then, “Spanish Pop isn’t really accurate, but there’s no other descriptor for this format. This wide variety pleasantly surprised me, as it is so different from other Spanish language formats I heard in places like Boston or New York. Also, while there was speculation that Bustos was going to bring it’s Spanish language “Urbana” format to the area, the current format’s mix of music makes that almost pointless, as every second or third song or so is either a Reggaeton track, or poppy English language song.
And, yes, I said there were some English tunes… and there were also some imaging spots done in English, too. One declared: “Turn up the music, turn up your day.” Another gleefully said: “You can travel the world through our music,” while yet a third spot proudly said: “Less roadrage, more music!” Something that is also found on this new station that is not found on many US Spanish language stations I’ve heard are timechecks (spoken in Spanish, of course.) These timechecks use the 3 note NBC signature before the time check, and are standalone sans any imaging or identification.
Unlike it’s AC “Mix predicessor, which ID’s itself as “KXXO Olympia/Tacoma/Puyallup,” the new legal here is a streight forward “KXXO Olympia/Seattle,” proving that Bustos is, indeed, treating this as a Seattle rimshot signal.
The station was jockless in the hour or so captured on the aircheck, though there is one Spanish announcement that sounds like it was voiced by a person who sounded more DJ than imaging voice.
Here’s the station via the aircheck at 2:10 P.M. on October 31:
Encantedora — Yandel (Reggaeton flavored song)
- La Major Brison de Mi (Remix) – Romeo Santos (Merengue flavored song)
- *Beautiful – G. Frontera (ballad with what sounds like Regional Mexican and AC influences.)
- No Se Tu – Luis Meguel (soft ballad)
- *Hasta la Raiz – Natalia Lafourcade (slower AC sounding song with some rhythmic influences)
- Te Quiero — Maluma (Salsa flavored song)
- *La Isla Bonita – (Feat. Tianna) — Kamro (English language cover of Madonna’s 1987 smash hit.)
- Me Niego – Feat. Ozuna and Wisin) — Reik (Reggaeton flavored song.)
- Mas Muerto Que Vivo — Matisse and Intocable (Regional Mexican flavored song)
- Eternamente Bella — Alejandra Guzman (an unusually rocky tune for this station.)
- Stand By Me – Prince Royce (Merengue version of this song sung in Spanglish.)
- *Ojos Tristes – Selina Gomez, Benny Blanco, and the Marias (This pop song was mostly in English.)
- Arcoiris — Reyna Yaqui (soft pop ballad seeming to sound as if it was recorded in the 80’s or early 90’s.)
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