San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Spanish-language leader built radio, TV stations
Good article (Oct. 16) on KTSA and WOAI (radio) stations back in the 1920s. Could you do a story on the first Spanish-speaking radio station, and who were the owners and announcers?
— Celerino Jasso Jr., Laredo; longtime Express-News/Light
reader and subscriber
Our city was a “frontier for Spanish-language radio programming and is widely recognized as the home of the first full-time Spanish-language station owned by a Latino,” say
Alan B. Albarran and Brian Hutton in “A History of Spanish-language Radio in the United States,” a 2009 paper prepared by the Center for Spanish-language Media at the University of North Texas for ratings provider Arbitron Inc. (now Nielsen Audio).
That owner was Raoul (sometimes spelled Raul) Alfonso Cortez Sr., who gave the first syllable of his last name to that station’s call sign. KCOR radio first hit the airwaves Feb. 15, 1946, advertised as “San Antonio’s only EnglishSpanish radio station.”
Cortez already was a media pro, a former La Prensa newspaper reporter whose father had operated a radio station in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, before the family moved to San Antonio during the Mexican Revolution.
“Firsts” can be hard to define. San Antonio’s KONO radio already had broadcast dedicated Spanish-language hours since the 1920s, and Mexico City’s
XEW relayed its programs to California stations through the ’30s. It took a little longer to get the necessary support for a station operated by Mexican Americans for a predominantly Mexican American audience.
Before there had been a fulltime Spanish-language station here, Cortez had been a broker who bought underused time — usually in the early morning — from local radio stations and used it to book Spanish-language entertainers and advertisers, experience that made him familiar with local talent and sponsors.
He applied for and received his broadcaster’s license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, in 1943 but had to wait to use it.
“During World War II, many Americans feared that nonEnglish radio could be used to spread seditious messages, and the FCC enforced strict controls over what was allowed to go out on the airwaves,” says Jordan Grant in “Earning a Place on the Dial: Raoul Cortez, KCOR and Spanish-language Radio” on the website of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.
Granted in 1943, that original license was good for 1946 through 1948. As announced by the San Antonio Light, Cortez — “associated with Abe San Miguel, assistant district attorney,” as legal counselor — would run KCOR, 1350 AM, from a studio in the Calcasieu Building, 214 Broadway, with a transmitter in
the 5000 block of Commerce Street. The new station debuted with a sunrise-to-sunset schedule — 7:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — that would stretch out by an hour at both ends during KCOR’s first year. Starting at a modest 1,000 watts, its power, too, would increase steadily, reaching 5,000 watts by the end of the decade.
KCOR did everything other midcentury radio stations did, but much of it was in Spanish. The station took song dedications by phone; read the news, including sports and a farm report; and played a mix of music by local, Mexican and international performers, either live or recorded.
There was music from Argentina, Brazil and Cuba, as well as San Antonio conjunto and mariachi ensembles, the chorus from Kelly AFB and “Talent Search” contestants. There were church services and “sermonettes,” and a weekly program of news from
the city’s Catholic schools. A “Man on the Street” program sent an announcer out to ask provocative questions about current events of random, Spanish-speaking pedestrians.
Cortez had emphasized his plans for public service in his FCC application, and he soon made good on his promise. The station opened with recorded goodwill messages from Mexican President Avila Camacho and Texas Gov. Coke Stevenson; broadcast panel discussions, such as one on the “Palestinian question” from Our Lady of the Lake College (now university); and provided advice from the city health department during a polio epidemic as well as language lessons in both English and Spanish and a daily educational program on improving listeners’ English.
Sponsors listed on a full-page advertisement in the San Antonio Light, Feb. 12, 1946, included prominent San Antonio businesses — Centeno Grocery (covered here Nov. 18, 2017); Fawcett Furniture, H&H Coffee, Kallison Feed and Seed Co. (April 27, 2019); La Feria Department Store, Lone Star Brewing (Dec. 1, 2017); Metzger’s Dairies, the Nacional, Zaragoza and Guadalupe theaters (Dec. 19, 2015); Penner’s Men’s Store, Shaw’s Jewelry and many others. To prove to potential sponsors beyond the city that the station’s listeners were also their customers, says the museum website, “KCOR announcers asked their listeners to send in box tops, product labels and empty containers as proof that they purchased nationally-branded products” that could be counted for a survey.
As the station continued to grow in the early 1950s, a staff of writers, actors and producers made more original programs, such as novelas (drama series), political discussions, children’s programs and variety shows.
The hours after 9:30 p.m. eventually were devoted to programs for Black listeners. The station raised money for survivors of the 1954 floods in South Texas and broadcast a show on which listeners helped each other find jobs.
In 1955, Cortez launched KCOR-TV, “the first Spanishlanguage television station owned by a Hispanic in the continental United States,” according to the museum website. Like the KCOR radio, the TV station would introduce civil rights, political and religious leaders to the community, while developing news and entertainment programs of its own.
In 1955, Cortez launched KCOR-TV, “the first Spanishlanguage television station owned by a Hispanic in the continental United States,” according to the museum website. Like the KCOR radio, the TV station would introduce civil rights, political and religious leaders to the community, while developing news and entertainment programs of its own.