Between laughs, Luis Montoto abruptly obtained critical. He leaned in nearer, arms clasped and all enterprise, but nonetheless with a mischievous smile famous that radio station La Movida is about informing — not educating.
“Within the Latino tradition, there’s solely two locations the place you get training,” he mentioned. “You get training at house, and also you get training in school. We inform and entertain. That’s our job. We don’t educate anyone.”
La Movida on WLMV/AM 1480, Madison’s first Spanish-speaking, 24/7 radio station, now in its twenty fourth 12 months on the air, is a useful useful resource for the Latino neighborhood — offering dependable Spanish-language data and serving as their advocate. Specializing in data has allowed La Movida to remain related to its viewers for practically 25 years. The subjects it discusses, company it invitations and assets it offers have developed alongside listeners and altering political climates.
Partisan rhetoric dominates Wisconsin’s speak radio panorama, generally spreading misinformation and mistrust to sure audiences. However on La Movida, Luis and his spouse and station associate Lupita Montoto eschew partisanship by specializing in their neighborhood’s basic well-being.
Latinos in Wisconsin can really feel remoted when partisan on-air figures give attention to contentious points but omit related particulars regarding their neighborhood.
Neighborhood radio — impartial, nonprofit, short-range and infrequently volunteer-run in service to outlined native audiences — has lengthy supplied essential data to minority communities.
“Neighborhood radio performs a very necessary position in creating the vary of voices … from minority communities who wouldn’t have any voice in mass media in any respect in any other case,” mentioned Lewis Friedland, an emeritus professor of journalism and mass communication on the College of Wisconsin-Madison.
However neighborhood radio sometimes lacks the assets and monetary wherewithal related to greater, for-profit stations.
La Movida harnesses the spirit and engagement strategies of neighborhood radio in service of Madison’s Latino neighborhood whereas working as a sustainable business enterprise. It’s trying to meet the knowledge demand of a rising inhabitants in Wisconsin that’s more and more gaining political energy.
Since La Movida began, the Hispanic inhabitants in Wisconsin has doubled.
“Once we began the station 24 years in the past, there have been just a few Latino companies right here and there, just a few Latinos going to some form of occasions. Now it’s hundreds of Latinos, all over the place, and there’s companies rising like loopy. I imply, we’re a really sturdy financial energy in Wisconsin,” Lupita mentioned.
Prioritizing neighborhood over politics
Whereas Luis, who’s initially from Texas, has prior expertise working for a radio station in McAllen, Lupita was new to the whirlwind that’s speak radio. She beforehand labored for Mexico’s Division of Commerce, the place the couple met in 1998. Shortly after, they moved to the Madison space and began leasing airtime on a rural station.
La Movida launched on April 30, 2000, although its 24/7 programming didn’t come to fruition till Oct. 14, 2002, after the Montotos joined MidWest Household Broadcasting.
The couple then started working a wide range of Spanish-language reveals starting from totally different music genres to the favored “El Debate” — a chat present the place Lupita interviews neighborhood members, native politicians and leaders of organizations geared toward serving to Wisconsin’s Latino neighborhood prosper.
Luis and Lupita really feel chargeable for disseminating credible data to their neighborhood with out elevating any specific political narrative.
“The primary factor is to offer correct data and data that’s coming from dependable sources,” Lupita mentioned.
Permitting a wide range of organizations and folks to specific themselves via “El Debate” on La Movida opens up the Madison-area Hispanic neighborhood to many various assets, views and opinions, Montotos mentioned.
“Data is energy, and that’s what we attempt to do each single day — to empower our radio listeners,” Luis mentioned.
A lot of that data comes from program company, whom the Montotos mentioned they choose for his or her dedication to Wisconsin’s Latino neighborhood — and for a dedication to accuracy.
Visitors on “El Debate” have included representatives from Madison Fuel and Electrical, Centro Hispano of Dane County and Unidos WI, which helps home abuse victims, all of whom introduced consciousness to assets geared toward serving to Latinos round Wisconsin.
Visitors generally embody native politicians, however the packages be sure to symbolize a wide range of views that replicate range inside Wisconsin’s Latino neighborhood — formed by various roots and nationwide heritage. Extra Democratic company have a tendency to succeed in out than Republicans, however the station strives to replicate conservative viewpoints as nicely.
“We’re bipartisan, we’re not in favor of 1 occasion or one other. We simply need individuals to learn and make the suitable determination,” Lupita mentioned.
Practically half of Wisconsin’s Hispanic inhabitants is eligible to vote, and such voters made up about 5% of the state’s eligible voters in 2022. Their votes matter in a state carefully divided alongside partisan strains, the place Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by simply 21,000 votes within the earlier presidential election.
“There’s lots of people which can be U.S. residents, however they don’t seem to be U.S. residents so they can’t vote,” Luis mentioned. “We stress the significance of changing into a U.S. citizen to allow them to have the suitable to vote.”
The Montotos additionally see a job for La Movida in encouraging younger Latinos who’re residents to make use of their voting rights.
La Movida operates in Spanish, nevertheless it doesn’t permit language obstacles to restrict who shares views on air. Lupita’s position on “El Debate” contains translating data from English-speaking company into Spanish.
“If any person needs to speak or needs to advertise one thing for the Latino inhabitants, not talking Spanish will not be an issue … I feel that makes us distinctive as nicely,” she mentioned.
Episodes of “El Debate” sound like a dialogue between neighborhood members. When Lupita facilitates a dialog, she makes use of her curiosity to discover totally different viewpoints, reasonably than injecting her personal. She and different hosts not often interject when company are talking however steer the dialog via follow-up questions and by reiterating key factors.
Hosts additionally join with callers, permitting them to share their private experiences on air. In these cases, the desks Lupita and her company sit at — framed by a magenta and royal blue emblem within the background — appear extra like a eating room desk.
Packages like “El Debate” assist take a look at the authenticity of politicians, mentioned Melissa Baldauff, a Democratic communications strategist and a former deputy chief of workers to Gov. Tony Evers. Those that regularly have interaction with the neighborhood will fare higher than those that seem to indicate up just for political acquire forward of an election.
“How efficient somebody will be speaking on Black radio and Hispanic radio goes to be, ‘Am I simply exhibiting up after I need one thing and wish one thing, or am I exhibiting up on a regular basis? Am I having respect for the neighborhood?’” she mentioned.
Fortifying Latino neighborhood in Wisconsin
The Montotos’ radio footprint now covers extra than simply the Madison neighborhood. Additionally they personal a sister station in Rockford, Illinois: WNTA-La Movida, 1330 AM.
Different Spanish-language radio stations even have emerged in Wisconsin, together with WDDW 104.7 in Milwaukee and Racine, which switched to Spanish-language programming centered on conventional Mexican music in October 2005. And WEZY 92.7 FM in Inexperienced Bay in 2013 launched “La Más Grande,” which additionally offers Spanish-language music.
The Montotos see their program as enjoying an important position in connecting individuals as native Latino communities proceed to develop.
La Movida is “greater than only a common radio station,” Luis mentioned. “It’s a lifestyle for the Spanish-speaking neighborhood right here in south central Wisconsin.”
Cowl Picture: Lupita Montoto, left, and Luis Montoto of their La Movida recording studio July 23, 2024, in Madison, Wis. They co-founded La Movida, Madison’s first Spanish-speaking, 24/7 radio station. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Writer’s Notes: This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and was republished with permission.
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