TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Spanish-language media in Kern County continues to grow, especially in radio.

The latest Arbitron ratings (fall 2009) shows La Caliente (the Hot One) 96.9 FM as the most listened to station in Kern County during the critical morning hours from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. For background, Arbitron is the bible of radio ratings.

In fact, three out of the top ten radio stations in Kern County are Spanish-language. Businesses, or at least broadcasters, see the writing on the wall.

Census Bureau reports show Kern County's Hispanic population is 47 percent. In Bakersfield, it stands at 43 percent. And growing. In some outlying areas, such as Arvin and Lamont, it tops 80 percent. Granted, not all tune in to Spanish-language radio, but a good portion do.

Drawing in the listeners - and revenue - to La Caliente station can be credited to its popular "El Piolin por la Manana" program. The syndicated Los Angeles-based show is hosted by Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo and was picked up locally by American General Media when it decided it had to get into Spanish-language radio if it wanted to stay in the game.

"We decided if we're going to stay in the radio business in Bakersfield, we needed a Spanish-language station," said Rogers Brandon of American General Media.

Before it became La Caliente in 2007, KEBT had a format of rhythmic adult contemporary known as the "Beat." But its ratings were poor.

Piolin uses a combination of humor and banter with his audience, which at times include English-speaking guests, such as actor Will Smith. And he seems to have the pulse on issues, such as immigration, that are important to his audience.

"Piolin caters to the first-and-second generation Mexican population," said Jose Reyna, department chair of Modern Languages and Literatures at Cal State Bakersfield.

"I'm sure that the population listens more to radio than to iPods, the Internet or satellite radio. In short, in this case it is the English-language stations who are splitting the vote," said Reyna.

Going Spanish has paid off muy bueno for AGM.

Though the Bakersfield market already has at least a dozen Spanish-speaking stations, La Caliente has had a meteoric rise and leads all Spanish-language radio stations. And it comes in as the fourth highest out of 37 radio stations rated in Kern County, according to Arbitron.

"I'm glad to see a Spanish-language program being number one in Kern County," said Mari Martinez, who has her own talk show on rival station La Campesina.

"Spanish-language radio has struggled for a long time here to get its due recognition," she said.

The number of Spanish-language stations continues to grow nationwide as well.

According to Hispanic Radio Today, a 2005 study by Arbitron, there were 750 radio stations nationwide with a Spanish-language format, an all-time high.

Places you might least expect to find one include Kansas City, Portland, Colorado Springs, Louisville, Kentucky and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The top three markets are a given-New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

And the revenue grows.

Sponsors spent slightly more than $4 billion dollars in advertising on Spanish-language radio nationwide in 2008. This was about two percent jump while general market spending fell four percent, according to Advertising Age.

But the influential Hispanic market isn't just limited to Spanish radio.

Latinos also drove another AGM station, Hot 94.1 KISV-FM, to the No. 1 overall station in Kern County. Hispanics make up a large part of its listening audience.

So AGM holds the highest rated radio stations in both languages in Kern County.

"To have both stations as No. 1, you can't ask for anything more than that," said J. Reed, program director at Hot 94.1.

And there appears to be a mix of listeners who tune in to radio in either language.

"There's a lot of bilinguals who listen to or watch programs in Spanish and also in English," said Jess Nieto, director of Heritage of America.

That means it doesn't necessarily always hold true that mom and dad listen to just Spanish-language radio and the kids listen to English only.

This creates a cultural and economic mix that from a business stand point is simply too big to ignore.

Jose Gaspar is a reporter for "29 Eyewitness News" and a contributing columnist for The Californian. These are the opinions of Gaspar, not necessarily The Californian's. E-mail him at jgaspar@bakersfield.com.