Miami station Mega TV receives star-studded launch

MIAMI (Billboard) - The recent launch of Miami TV station Mega TV included the presence of Latin stars

In other words, it was the sort of lineup one would most likely run across at an internationally televised award show rather than the launch of a TV channel.

But such is the power wielded by station owner Spanish Broadcasting System, the largest Hispanic-owned radio network in the country. Stars who have been supported by SBS' outlets (including top Los Angeles radio station KXOL) -- or who hope to earn their support -- flocked to chairman/CEO Raul Alarcon's private event at his home.

But Mega TV (channel 22 in Miami) aspires to be more than a local station.

"This is part of a bigger plan and strategy," says Cynthia Hudson Fernandez, SBS' newly named chief creative officer and executive VP.

"It's not that we're taking over another company. We're developing from the bottom up."

The bottom-up development involves the creation of original programing (approximately 75 percent of Mega's shows are self-produced) that focuses on music and entertainment.

Much of the content stems from SBS' existing talent, including its popular on-air personalities.

"It was content that could have life in other media," Hudson Fernandez says.

Mega TV plans to offer its programing for syndication in the United States as early as this summer. By fall, the hope is to launch international syndication.

RICK CON SABOR

In other SBS news, Los Angeles listeners may by now have heard an unusual voice over the KXOL airwaves on Sunday morning. Sounds like Rick Dees? It should.

Dees has launched "The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Con Sabor (With Flavor)," a countdown of hits played by KXOL, which spins hip-hop, reggaeton, urban and top 40 Latin and mainstream music.

"Con Sabor," which airs Sundays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., is exclusively produced for KXOL. Although the station has reveled in its bilingual format, this is its first all-English show, SBS programing vice president Pio Ferro says.

Dees, formerly with KISS Los Angeles, is best known for that other countdown show -- the nationally syndicated "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40."

"In all the years I've been programing, I've never done anything like this," Ferro says, referring to an English show on a Latin station. "We think it fits."

Reuters/Billboard

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