The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 317

CALENDAR REPORT Jom Moftr, ffenerai manager 0 KBSC CTwznnd 52, anticipates rapid growth. "fiL SPECIAL they faced a frustrating problem. Despite the efforts of their export-division manager Rene Anselmo, an Italian-American, they were unable to find U.S. buyers for their programming. Armed with statistics about the U.S.

Latino population, Anselmo hammered in vain on the doors of ABC, NBC and CBS. "In those days," Anselmo, who is president of both SICC and SIN, recalled recently, "television was always conceived as a mass medium. Nobody ever thought of specialized interests. Nothing was taken into account except a sort of Mid-dletown, U.S.A., vision of America. But the country is loaded with exceptions.

"We just knew there was a market here, but people used to say, 'Well, you know, these people aren't going to listen to Spanish. They have all these English channels they've been looking at for 15 years. Why would they want to look at a Spanish station? And they're old and those people will be dying and the second generation doesn't speak So we said, 'Oh, let's go ahead and do it So Anselmo moved back to the U.S. and in 1961 founded KMEX in Los An- KMEX rolls out a red carpet of sports, including many shown live from Mexico, movies and variety shows mixed with a few spectaculars like "300 MilHones," a one -hour musical variety show from Spain, "Slempre en Domingo" (Always on Sunday) featuring international entertainment and broadcast live from Mexico City. On Sundays, KMEX also features "Mexlto, Magi Encuentro" (Mexico, Enchantment and Discovery) a weekly salute to different Mexican states, their culture and their history.

Throughout the week mornings, evenings and late at night-KMEX broadcasts both local news and reports from around the world, much filmed on location. Many international clips discuss Latin American events usually overlooked by English-language media. KBSC is importing "Slele Dlai" a news program from Mexico City, and plans to expand its local news coverage within the next three months to challenge KMEX's lead in this area. U. entertainment producer.

Their plan to bring Spanish -language TV to a U.S. audience, then unnoticed by most North American TV network executives, has grown from a modest debut in 1961 to the largest specialty network in this country. The story of SIN actually begins in Mexico City in 1960, in the offices of Telesistema Mexicano, S.A. a corporation owned by three of Mexico's most influential leaders. They were: Miguel Aleman Valdes, former president of Mexico, who was also a former minister of tourism and heavy investor in Mexico's tourism industry.

Romulo O'Farril, a print-media magnate who also owns Novedades (one of Mexico's leading daily newspapers), The News (Mexico's only English -language daily newspaper), Caludia (one of Mexico's leading women's slick magazines) and other smaller publications. Emilio Azcarraga, electronic-media tycoon and one of Mexico's leading business investors. These three owned Telesistema, which in turn owned three of Mexico's four major TV stations-XEW Channel XHTV Channel 4 and XHGC Channel 5. In 1960, worked formula of the battle between the sexes. Three times a week at 7 p.m., KCIS offers "Hollywood al Dla" (Hollywood Update) featuring film critic George Galloway, but comedies (including one takeoff on "The Beverly fill most evening slots until the station signs off at 8:30 p.m.

KBSC winds up its daily programming with a telenoveta before switching to pay TV at 7 p.m. KMEX has the field to itself until 8:30 the following day. Both KBSC and KCIS offer limited Spanish-language programming on weekends, although each features a variety of shows until 5 p.m. on Saturdays. KSIC closes with news at 5:25 p.m.

Sundays KBSC offers "Nuentra Comunldad" (Our Community), variety shows and a movie. KSIC is off the air. So on late evenings and weekends KMEX then has a definite advantage in the battle to capture loyal viewers. And 34's "first priority was to survive." tions, six are low-power stations which repower and rebroadcast signals, and the rest are on a cable system. Sixteen stations are UHF affiliate stations.

SIN anticipates 90 affiliates by the end of this year, reaching 90 of the U.S. Spanish-language population. SIN's rapid growth has surprised even Anselmo, who says he never envisioned such a widespread territory. The network now provides 24-hour programming to its affiliates. For Anselmo, providing a conduit for Mexican programming has paid off.

He is president of SICC and owns more than 20 of that operation, which in turn owns five SIN stations: KMEX, KWEX in San Antonio, KFTV in Hanford (near Fresno), WXTV in New York and WLTV in Miami. In addition, he owns 40 interest in KDTV in San Francisco and 55 of the Seven Hills Television which owns KTVW in Phoenix. SIN was the first national network aimed at a specialized minority audience. It was well established before 1960s civil-rights slogans like "black is beautiful" and raza unida gave pride to ethnic identity. And it was an idea before its time.

Recently, however, the FCC recognized the importance of the small, specialized audience. In September, the FCC board voted 4 to 3 to allow a major increase in the number of VHF channels (channels 2 through 13). This decision is Please Turn to Page 6 Danny ViUanueva says KMEX Channel geles, KWEX in San Antonio and the Spanish International Broadcasting which eventually became the Spanish International Network, commonly known as SIN. As Anselmo, Aleman, O'Farril and Azcarraga envisioned it, SIN, owned 75 by Telesistema and 25 by Anselmo, would sell programming produced in Mexico to its affiliates. The simple plan seemed to guarantee success with virtually no competition, a regularly improved system incorporating the latest technology (including satellites and relay stations) and a growing Latino population.

"Television is a unifier. The media make the people. I have always seen television as unifying the Hispanics in this country and bringing identity to their culture. And perhaps now this is why everybody is starting to wake up to this. If you don't exist in media, you haven't existed.

You were born, but you just don't exist. And so very definitely, media are what is putting this whole country together as far as the Hispanic thing is concerned." In 1972, Telesistema became Tclevisa with the purchase of XHTIM Channel 8 in Monterrey and Mexico City, and by the start of this year SIN had grown to a network of 35 affiliates. According to Anselmo, SIN currently has 82 affiliates nine are linked by satelite, six are regular sta.