Memo From Middle America (Formerly Known As Memo From Mexico)

An interesting post from http://www.vdare.com/
about Mexican Radio now in the U.S! This follows this post  about two states that are having immigration battles and this post which shows that there are 30,000 openly illegal immigrants in the border town of El Paso. On a related note, you can read about Miss Kentucky Latina here, an interesting article about Jessica Alba here or another article about Salma Hayek here. For more that you can do to get involved click HERE and you can read a very interesting book HERE!

Memo From Middle America (Formerly Known As Memo From Mexico),
By Allan Wall

Now We're All On "Mexican Radio"—And It's Not A Harmless Novelty

In the days of my youth in Oklahoma, I learned that, at night, a radio would pick up more AM stations, often from quite far away. (There's a scientific reason for that). Among the distant stations I would hear were some from Mexico.

How exotic it was to hear such broadcasts in a foreign tongue from a faraway place. Not knowing Spanish, however, I couldn't understand what they were saying!

That's why, some years later, I could relate to a quirky and catchy 1983 hit called "Mexican Radio", by one-hit wonder band Wall of Voodoo. You can watch the video here (and even listen as you read this article!)

Here are some excerpts from the lyrics :

I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older
I turn the switch and check the number
I leave it on when in bed I slumber ….
I hear the talking of the DJ
Can't understand just what does he say?
I'm on a Mexican radio
I'm on a Mexican whoa-oh radio….
I understand just a little
No comprende, it's a riddle [And my favorite line…]
I wish I was in Tijuana
Eating barbequed iguana …
I'm on a Mexican radio
I'm on a Mexican whoa-oh radio
I'm on a Mexican radio
I'm on a Mexican whoa-oh radio

Very clever song, yes? It was a novelty, because, even as recently as 1983, Mexico was still a faraway land and a novelty for most Americans.

In 2011, however, it's not so exotic anymore. We're being invaded by Mexico.

It's no longer necessary to pick up the signal from a distant Mexican radio station in order to listen to Spanish. There are now over 800 Spanish-language stations in the United States.

They aren't all in the Southwest or even border regions. For example, there is KRDM in Redmond, Oregon, WBQH in Silver Spring, Maryland, KSEC in Bentonville, Arkansas, and WACM in West Springfield, Massachusetts, etc.

Maybe it's more correct to say that now the border is everywhere.

Look at my home state of Oklahoma. Traditionally, it has had almost no Mexican influence. It's famous for its Indian tribes. It has more American Indians (including VDARE.com contributor David Yeagley) than any other state. This has given Indians a certain prestige and influence, and it's part of the state's identity.

But guess what? It's recently been announced that American Indians are now outnumbered by Hispanics in the state of Oklahoma—Hispanics Now Outnumber Native Americans in Oklahoma, Associated Press, Feb. 15, 2011.

And this Hispanic growth in Oklahoma is reflected in the state's radio stations. Take for example a station I listened to as a kid—the venerable old AM station WKY. It's Oklahoma's oldest radio station and the first radio station west of the Mississippi. But WKY is now a Spanish-language station.

This change was publicly lamented by a prominent Oklahoma newsman, Anchorman Kelly Ogle of KWTV News Nine. Ogle spoke of the changeover on his "My Two Cents" commentary. Ogle said:

"I'm deeply saddened by the demise of an Oklahoma Legend that has played an important part in my family for nearly 50 years.

"WKY Radio signed on in 1922, but now the first station west of the Mississippi, has gone south of the border. The station recently dropped its talk format and is now simulcasting a Spanish Language station.

"It may make more sense on the bottom line, but it seems strange to longtime Oklahoma residents. E.K. Gaylord bought WKY in the '20s and into the '70s, it was THE station. Walter Cronkite and Curt Gowdy were on WKY early on. My dad did the news and OU football at WKY in the '60s and '70s, me and my brother both anchored there.

"But starting in the '70s you couldn't win with music on the AM dial so WKY underwent a series of facelifts... So now it's gone Spanish. Will it work? I don't know, can't blame them for trying, being nostalgic doesn't pay the bills.

"But in my mind this marks the end of a radio era in Oklahoma City, and maybe the beginning of another. I'm Kelly Ogle and that's My 2 Cents."

(Ogle made these comments in 2006 when WKY originally went Spanish. In 2007 it switched back to English until 2009 when it went Spanish again, making his comments just as appropriate. )

In 2011, the news is out about two Tulsa stations switching to Spanish:

"Radio Personalities Help Bring Half-Million to LA Rally
Radio Ink Magazine, March 2006
Don Imus, Dennis Miller, Lou Dobbs and OSU sports will be looking for new homes on Tulsa's radio dials as two AM stations change to Spanish-language formats.

Gaytan Broadcasting LLC, a Tulsa company that owns Que Buena KXTD (1530 AM), purchased KLZI (1570 AM) and KRVT (1270 AM) from Reunion Broadcasting this week.

"There's a sizable Hispanic Tulsa community, and its only going to get bigger with or without immigration reform," said Allen McLaughlin, operations manager and general sales manager for Gaytan Broadcasting…The purchase gives the Tulsa area five Spanish-language radio stations, up from three before the deal.

"People who speak Spanish at home make up about 7.5 percent of Tulsa County's population, or 40,393 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey…"

(Gaytan Broadcasting Adds Two Radio Stations to Spanish-Language Fold, by Kyle Arnold, Tulsa World, January 27, 2011)

A few big companies own a lot of these Spanish stations. The Spanish Broadcasting System owns 10, Clear Channel owns 18, Liberman Broadcasting owns 21 and Entravision has 48. The largest group: the 70 stations belonging to Univision. In fact, Univision's radio division is the eighth biggest radio company in the U.S.

So what? Are a few Spanish-language stations a big deal?

My answer: yes. Sure, if we didn't have a rapidly-growing and increasingly assertive Mexican immigrant population, and a government that subverts our sovereignty, a few Spanish-language radio stations would be no cause for alarm.

Which means that, under the present situation, there is indeed cause for alarm.

The Spanish-language stations are helping to impede assimilation. And they operate in a different world—socially, linguistically and culturally—than English-language broadcasting.

In previous articles, I have written about anti-American music that is played on Spanish language stations—Somos Mas Americanos by Tigres del Norte and Frijolero by Molotov. Your neighbors may be listening to such music.

The growth of Spanish language stations also encourages companies to advertise on them and gives them a vested interest in promoting "bilingualism" i.e. Spanish language retention. Spanish-language advertising has become a campaign staple for both political parties, urged on by self-promoting Spanish-speaking political consultants. As I pointed out during the 2002 Texas gubernatorial campaign, what a candidate says on a Spanish station can be very different than what he tells the gringos on an English station.

In short, we are allowing the growth of a Fifth Column culture on the airwaves which, in the end may well displace our own. And it's happening right under our noses.

A case in point: Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo. Mexican-born Sotelo entered this country as an illegal alien and now hosts a popular radio show on LA's KSCA and over 100 (!) other Spanish radio stations.

Piolin, who isn't even a U.S. citizen, did much to promote the LA illegal alien amnesty rally in 2006, which drew half a million protestors to demand that we reward foreign lawbreakers, or else.

Here's how it was summarized by Radio Ink:

"As reported by the Los Angeles Times, last weekend's pro-immigrant rally in downtown Los
Angeles was expected to draw fewer than 20,000, but that number was dwarfed as police estimated the number of participants at 500,000, making it one of the largest demonstrations in Los Angeles' history. Why the huge increase in attendance? Deejays made the difference.

"Los Angeles radio personality Eddie "El Piolin" Sotelo called for a summit with fellow Spanish language broadcasters including KHJ's Humberto Luna, KBUE's Ricardo "El Mandril" Sanchez and Renan "El Cucuy" Almendarez Coello. Together, they got the word out.

"Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union, said, 'If you listened to Spanish-language media, they were just pumping, pumping, pumping this up.'

"Soleto got interested after rally organizers told him about the ramifications of the legislation passed by Congress last year. The bill would make undocumented immigrants and those who assist them felons and erect a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

"'I told God that if he gave me an opportunity as a radio announcer, I was going to help my people [AW comment:
n.b. my people—not the American people],' said Sotelo, who himself illegally crossed the border in 1986. Soleto added, 'I think we have to make sure the message went through to Washington, to let them know we're not criminals.' "

See also the original story— How DJs Put 500,000 Marchers in Motion, By Teresa Watanabe and Hector Becerra, LA Times, March 28, 2006.

If we lived in a country that protected its sovereignty—say, for example, Mexico—Piolin would have been deported forthwith. But in today's America, Piolin can openly agitate against our law. The guy even had the honor of interviewing the president of the United States (in English), who told Piolin that Hispanics need to vote in order to "punish our enemies".

Interestingly, A History of Spanish Language Radio in the United States
(pages 6 and 7) relates the story of Pedro Gonzalez, the host of a Spanish-language program on KELW in Burbank, California, from 1927 to 1934. When the Depression began, the U.S. government began a series of massive deportations, which drove Gonzalez to start practicing some "community organizing" on the radio.

 Gonzalez was arrested for rape in 1934, jailed until 1940 when he was  released and deported to Mexico, after his accuser recanted. His supporters of course claimed that he had been framed for political reasons—which at least might suggest that, back in the 1930s, American authorities took subversion seriously. He was eventually allowed to return, and died in the United States in 1995, aged 99, and his descendents are still here.[ Pedro J. Gonzalez, 99, Folk Hero And Advocate for Social Justice, New York Times, March 24, 1995]

Nowadays, though, the Hispanic population in the U.S. dwarfs that of the Gonzalez era. And the open agitation of Piolin and others dwarfs the political activities of Pedro Gonzalez. Just imagine what these broadcasters could do with more coordination, on a national scale. They could warn about upcoming raids by immigration authorities. They could organize and publicize mass rallies and strikes. They could even direct listeners to harass en masse legislators and opinion-makers.

And all of it could be done right under the noses of unsuspecting English-speaking Americans. You can be right next door—or in the same building—and have no idea what is afoot.

Of course, the tools to stop this are at hand. The Federal Communications Commission would shut down white supremacist radio overnight. Why not Mexican revanchist radio?

It's not 1983 anymore. Now we're all on "Mexican Radio". And it's more than a harmless novelty.

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.