The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 52

Hons In the Spotlight Radio fan building a Hispanic network naul Alarcon JOB: Chairman of Spanish Broadcasting System PERSONAL: Age 59 Married for 35 years to Alma Aleman one son RaOl Jr 30 A native of Camaguey Cuba who moved to the United States in 1960 now lives on Allison Island Miami Beach LAST BOOK READ: read one for a BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: what Castro did with the Cuban revolution which we believed was nationalist Christian and democratic and which turned out out to be just the opposite" PROUDEST MOMENT: other evening at when we officially presented our radio network to the Miami SPOTLIGHT from 9 his family left the country in December J960 was our way of telling people we disagreed with all he said Settling in New York he worked as a radio deejay and programming director until the early 1970s when he formed his own Spanish advertising company and recording studio "We had the studio in the basement of our home in says Los Angeles-based Alarc6n Jr president of SBS who casually refers to his silver-haired deep-voiced father as El Viejo Old Viejo would come and ask me: help me record this he says was going to be a doctor but I became involved in my business Before I knew it I was vice president for The recording studio eventually expanded and moved to Manhattan where it began to service not only commercial accounts but also Latin singers and musicians turned out to be a better deal than the advertising says Alarcdn Sr who still owns a recording studio in New York But returning to radio was his dream and in 1978 he attempted to buy an FM station that was being shut down by the Federal Communications Commission After four years in litigation Alarcdn bowed out of the sale "We lost a lot of money but we learned about the laws that regulate broadcasting in this country" he said As a result of that sobering and expensive lesson his next move was much better planned Five years later he bought WSKQ without trouble and proceeded to change the sound of Latin New York radio from ethnic salsa and merengue to the slicker ballad-style music interpreted by singers such as Julio Iglesias or Josd Luis Rodriguez He was starting in the Latin market from scratch since his station had previously offered nothing but big band music months later we were No 1" he says the point where other Latin stations started copying us and now they play any Barely six months after purchasing WSKQ Alarcdn Jr went to a convention in Las Vegas took a side trip to Los Angeles and came back with a second station KSKQ At $5 million it was a whopping example of impulse buying have the financing or the track says the younger Alarcdn when I saw the facilities I became That was the beginning of SBS which the Alarcdns run with two other Latin businessmen from the Northeast Alarcdn Jr 30 controls sales from his San Fernando Valley base while his father chairs the board and oversees programming Over a year ago the Alarcdns began to eye the Miami market and last fall they bought WCMQ after a full year of negotiations with owner Herbert Dolgoff Alarcdn Sr then moved to Allison Island and bought a 50-foot yacht which he named for his wife Alma On weekends he takes groups of friends fishing on the Princess Alma where he and the captain prepare meals for them make a mean snapper and potatoes but my specialty is steak" he says laugh one has to know how to buy it and make He appears elated with the move is the most influential medium in this city" he says a smaller town than New York or LA It has more Spanish radio stations Here eight stations control the He believes that the impact of Spanish radio is amplified locally by the phenomenon known as Radio Bemba or the Latin grapevine whereby news heard on the radio is repeated in Little Havana back yards restaurants and street corners is a lot more competitive than LA and New York it needs more says Alarcdn Sr explaining why he relocated to this city all the Hispanic record companies and the great Latin recording artists are relocating The MIAMI HERALD Monday February 23 1987 i Lively Arts highlights local entertainment for you Theater movies art and music are reviewed weekly.