By Aimee Deeken

One of the fastest-growing Hispanic markets in the U.S. enjoys a bevy of targeted media

Though advertisers and media giants seeking Florida’s Hispanic audience have long established themselves in Miami, they might be wise to set their sites on Orlando, one of the fastest-growing Hispanic markets in the country.

In fact, the number of Hispanic residents across its nine counties soared 255 percent in the past five years, from 133,000 to 478,000, according to market intelligence firm Geoscape International.

The Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne DMA is No. 20 in both general- and Hispanic-market rankings. Hispanics make up approximately 14.4 percent of the 3.32 million population, according to BIA Financial Network, but their representation is greater in two counties: Orlando’s Orange County is 23.5 percent Hispanic; Osceola is 38 percent, according to 2005 U.S. Census data.

In the past 20 years, Puerto Ricans have had a significant presence in Osceola County’s Kissimmee, just south of Orlando. Their numbers continue to grow (from Puerto Rico and the Northeast U.S.), along with Cubans and Colombians. Local media executives contend that Puerto Ricans make up 65 percent of the city’s Hispanic community.

The region has numerous job prospects and an attractively low unemployment rate of 2.8 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In addition to the market’s tourism and hospitality industries, towns in Brevard County (along the Space Coast near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center) offer many opportunities in manufacturing, high-tech and engineering at companies including Lockheed-Martin, Siemens and AT&T. The healthcare industry also is significant, as nearly 35 percent of Volusia (Daytona Beach) and Flagler counties’ residents are over age 55.

A healthy job market combined with a lower cost of living (compared to Miami or New York) has made “the average Hispanic household income pretty on par with the general market,” says Jeff Stein, vice president of sales for Mega Communications, owner of radio outlets in Tampa and Orlando.

Among radio, nine independently owned stations still have a sizable market share, with only one giant, Clear Channel, holding a Spanish-language station.

In February 2005, Clear Channel flipped oldies WEBG-FM Big 100 to tropical WRUM, offering daytime local programming and syndicated programs at night. Rumba’s salsa and reggaeton now leads among Spanish-language stations and ranks seventh in the general market with a 4.6 AQH share in Arbitron’s spring 2006 book.

Another strong contender — and the only other Spanish-language station to make Arbitron’s top 20 — is WNUE-FM Spanish contemporary, established in 2000. The Mega Communications outlet garnered a 3.4 rating, No. 13 in the general market. La Nueva Mega also provides news and local traffic weekdays during drive time and a public affairs program on Sunday.

Among AM outlets, J&V Communications has the region covered with its three Spanish-language stations: WOTS in Kissimmee provides religious, news and talk programming; WPRD in Winter Park (just north of Orlando) offers local news and talk; and WTJV 1490 joined the airwaves three months ago with Mexican regional from the coast’s Volusia County, says General Manager John Torrado.

Radio Luz’s 12-year-old WRLZ ranks as the third most popular Hispanic station in the general market (at No. 21) and offers Spanish-language Christian music.

Multicultural Broadcasting runs WUNA-AM Mexican regional in day-power form. Florida Broadcasters owns Spanish news/talk daypower WONQ-AM.

Finally, Rama Communications simulcasts Mexican regional Qué Buena Orlando through WLAA-AM 1680 AM in Winter Garden and WTIR 1300 AM in Cocoa Beach (in Brevard County). Rama also has three low-power TV stations in Lake County, north of greater Orlando.

As in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market, Entravision owns the Univision TV affiliate (WVEN-TV) and manages sales for the Univision Communications’ Telefutura affiliate (WOTF). The two stations are the only Spanish-language outlets with full-power strength and carriage on primary cable operator Bright House Networks and satellite companies DIRECTV and Dish Network, giving Entravision a strong lead in audience share. (Hispanic cable penetration is at about 58 percent, according to VP/GM Antonio Guernica.)

WVEN-TV has half-hour newscasts at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. and also inserts local programming capsules into the network morning show Despierta América. The station plans to add its own morning program early next year, says Guernica. Despierta Orlando will broadcast weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. Entravision’s W47DB station simulcasts the Univision feed to Melbourne and southern Brevard County.

Also mirroring the Tampa market, the area’s Telemundo outlet is owned by ZGS Broadcasting. WTMO-LP is on cable operators Bright House and Adelphia but has no satellite carriage. The station has a local 6 p.m. weekday newscast and broadcasts national network news from Puerto Rico at 11 p.m., up against Univision’s local newscast.

Central Broadcast Co.’s Azteca America affiliate broadcasts on station W21AU over the full nine-county DMA and has DIRECTV and Dish Network carriage, according to Angie Thillet, station vice president of marketing and sales. The outlet inserts locally produced promotional and informational 10-minute capsules three times daily and plans to add local news information to the capsules by the end of September, Thillet says.

Weeklies Rule

The local print arena is dominated by weeklies ranging in tenure from 25-year-old veterans to three-year-old newcomers.

La Prensa is the oldest and has the second-largest circulation. The tabloid, which has Orlando and Tampa editions, was purchased by ImpreMedia in January. (ImpreMedia owns Los Angeles’ La Opinión and New York’s El Diaro La Prensa, among others.)

The largest paper in the market (and the only broadsheet) is the Orlando Sentinel’s free Spanish-language weekly, El Sentinel. The Tribune Co. title delivers 66,000 copies to designated households each Saturday in the four-county metro. Another 15,000 are distributed to racks at retailers and restaurants. The five-year-old title is the only Central Florida Spanish-language paper with a targeted “driveway delivery” model and an Audit Bureau of Circulations verification, says Ashley Allen, vice president of corporate communications.

The family-owned Latino International distributes its 30,000-circ tabloid on newsstands across Greater Orlando’s four counties, says executive director Rodolfo Perez Sr. His two sons oversee the company’s separate Orlando and Tampa editions.

El Osceola Star publishes every article in both Spanish and English. The free weekly tabloid is 15 years old and concentrates its newsstand distribution on Polk, Osceola and Orange counties, says publisher Bill Hansen.

The youngest paper — and the closest to a daily frequency — is El Nuevo Día, founded in August 2003. Its owner, Grupo Ferré Rangel, publishes Puerto Rico’s largest Spanish-language daily, which goes by the same name. The Orlando edition publishes Monday through Friday and is available on newsstands for 50 cents.

Orlando also has its own monthly Spanish-language magazine, one of TV Net Productions’ three La Guía del Golfo local glossies. Launched in June 2005, La Guía de Orlando has a distribution of 16,000 copies to retail outlets in Osceola, Seminole and Orange counties. The company offers ad packages across its magazines (in Tampa Bay, Sarasota and Orlando). The three titles have a combined circulation of 48,000, as audited by CAC. Publisher Luis Baron says the company plans to start a fourth edition in the Ft. Myers/Naples area next year.

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