Spanish radio station hits air

It’s the first of it’s kind to hit the local air waves. The growth of the Hispanic population in our area has given way to a new radio station. Tuning into 98.7 sounds much different than it did a few days ago.

La Gran D, or, “The Big One” hit the air waves as the first Spanish station in our area. WLGD La Gran D aims to serve the more than 100,000 Hispanics living in our region. Operations Manager Jeff Sanchez said, “There is a huge population of Hispanics here, and it is primarily Mexican, but it’s not 100 percent Mexican. You have people from South America and Central America as well.”

The station will not only broadcast Latin music 24 hours a day but also offer news and community service programming to people who some say have been otherwise tuned out.

Amigos International President Lucy Vasquez said, “There is a need to unite the Latino community get them informed in a better way, and I think this is what was needed to move this community forward.” Sanchez said, “You can hear music that you are familiar with, you can hear language being spoken that you can understand — not that a lot of people don’t speak English but it’s in their native language, which I’m sure is a big relief to a lot of people.”

La Gran D eventually plans to offer some bilingual programming and play more than Mexican music to encompass various Latin genres. La Gran D hopes to channel the Latin community and unite listeners. “The Hispanic community wants to be apart of this community here and the American community here wants to cater to this community, so I mean, it’s like a bridge that’s just been built and we’re at the forefront of it, which is super exciting.”