Prospering with Polyglot

By Richard Zoglin

The Ewings of Dallas may have had their spats, but the hottest blood feud on American TV this season unfolded in Spanish, not English. The setting was Acapulco; the central character, a nasty stepbrother named Maximiliano. In a complicated scheme to win a family inheritance, he fooled a young woman into marrying him by posing as his half brother Antonio. Then he plotted the real Antonio's death in an "accidental" plane crash. The scheme went awry, however, when Antonio survived and returned to battle Maximiliano for both the money and the woman.

Farfetched? No doubt. But when Tu o Nadie (Nobody but You), the Mexican novela that spun this improbable yarn, was telecast on Los Angeles' KMEX last spring, it drew more viewers for its time slot than any other independent station in the area. Nor was that an anomaly for Los Angeles' thriving Channel 34. An affiliate of SIN (the Spanish International Network), KMEX tops two of the city's three major network affiliates in reaching young adults during certain important time periods. "When I came to this station in 1963, I was told it was a dead-end business because Hispanics would assimilate," says General Manager Daniel Villanueva. "But our audience has done nothing but grow."

Broadcasters across the country are discovering the same thing. Seventeen full-power TV stations now carry predominantly foreign-language programming, and more than 100 others broadcast at least some foreign-language shows. Twelve are affiliates of SIN, the prospering Spanish-language network that also beams its programming to 325 cable systems and twelve low-power TV stations. Three more are members of NetSpan, a year-old SIN competitor.

Although Hispanics constitute by far the largest audience for ethnic programming, a growing number of stations are offering polyglot schedules that amount to a microcosm of the U.S. melting pot. KSCI-TV in Los Angeles begins its day at 4 a.m. with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, followed by half an hour of Korean news, an Islamic educational program, a Farsi version of the Today show and, around lunchtime, a costume drama called Chinese World. WCIU-TV, Channel 26 in Chicago, carries some 60 hours a week of foreign-language programming, ranging from Club del Nino, a Hispanic children's series, to the Indian variety show Chitrahar.

Local cable channels, with their narrower geographic reach, can often target their ethnic audiences more precisely. The Jade Channel, a pay-TV service from Hong Kong, was launched last December by a cable system in a heavily Chinese section of the Los Angeles area. For $17.95, viewers get a schedule of Chinese-language shows, including a Sesame Street-style children's series, a comedy-variety program called Enjoy Yourself Tonight and a Chinese version of The Odd Couple.

Foreign-language stations give their audiences more than just a reminder of home. They are also an important communal link, an educational tool and a forum for the discussion of public issues. Along with its five daily newscasts, Los Angeles' KMEX provides live coverage of local events of interest to its Hispanic audience, holds a telethon each December to raise money for poor Latin immigrants, and last November raised $250,000 to help victims of a gasoline explosion in Mexico City. Miami's seven Spanish radio stations frequently thrust themselves into the center of public debate over controversial issues involving Latin America. Allegedly inflammatory reporting on several stations, for instance, was blamed for causing a riot over the deportation of a Cuban refugee in 1982.

A strong commitment to public affairs is also a hallmark of SIN's programming. The network produces a nightly newscast, Noticiero SIN, that is widely respected for its coverage of Latin American affairs, and transmits a second nightly news program from Mexico City. SIN's schedule is also filled with an array of soap operas, sports programming (such as the World Cup soccer matches), music specials and a weekly talk-entertainment show starring Pepe Navarro, one of Spain's most popular TV personalities. "People used to be ashamed of Spanish TV," says President Rene Anselmo, who launched SIN 24 years ago with a UHF station in San Antonio. "My goal is to provide television that people can be proud of."

With reporting by Peter Ainslie/New York and Cheryl Crooks/ Los Angeles