El País to enter U.S. radio market

El País, Spain´s leading daily, announced that its parent company Grupo PRISA has acquired the rights to programming on XETRA-AM, which broadcasts in Spanish to listeners in southern California. The Federal Communications Commission has approved Grupo PRISA´s petition to take over the station´s programming, which had been under control since 1980 by Clear Channel Communications through its affiliate Citicasters.

Grupo PRISA paid $28 million or €22.8 million for the programming rights, according to El País and XETRA´s website. "This operation represents for Grupo PRISA, publisher of El País, a major step in its proposal to develop a radio network with a presence in the U.S. hispanic market," the newspaper reported Friday.

XETRA, which broadcasts on 690 kHz, is located in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico but serves Spanish-speaking listeners in San Diego, Calif. Last year, the FCC determined that broadcast stations that operated in Mexico´s border front and transmitted programming to the United States are to be considered part of the U.S. market. Under the rules, no U.S. company or its affiliate can control more than eight stations in the same market and no more than five broadcasting on either the AM or FM band. At the beginning of 2005, Clear Channel controlled eight stations in the United States and five in Mexico that were serving the San Diego/Tijuana market.