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The Daily Oklahoman

Oct. 23--Come Diciembre, metropolitian-area Hispanic residents will have their first local Spanish-language television station.

Locally owned media group Tyler Media recently bought the station on the Telemundo network and expects to begin airing programming Dec. 1 on station KTUZ-TV Channel 30, Cox Cable Channel 5.

Financial details were not disclosed.

Tyler Media also owns radio stations KKNG-FM, 1560 Radio Disney and KTLR-AM. Ty Tyler is president.

"What we liked about the Telemundo product is it is geared toward 18- to 34-year olds, who tend to be better educated and more affluent," said Skip Stow, media market manager for Tyler Media.

Stow said the demographics match those that listen to Tyler Media's local Spanish language radio station KTUZ FM La Zeta, which the company started five years ago.

"We know from our experience with our radio station, the Hispanic population is very fast-growing and tends to be very young. The top end is about 45 years old," he said.

Stow said figures gleaned from the Census Bureau and Arbitron ratings, and a poll of metropolitan-area school systems show between 150,000 to 175,000 Spanish-speaking individuals in the nine-county metropolitan area.

Stow said Telemundo is a contemporary product, with about 90 percent of programming produced in the United States, versus other networks produced primarily in Mexico.

The network is owned by NBC and General Electric, giving stations the ability to pick up major sporting events translated into Spanish, he said. The Olympics were broadcast on Telemundo, for example, Stow said.

By early 2005, the station should be carrying local news, weather and public affairs, he said.

"In some of the research we've done, one of biggest needs in central Oklahoma is severe weather coverage in Spanish," he said.

Telemundo also will provide national news at 6:30 and 10 p.m.

Luisa Gomez, marketing and economic development director for the South Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said she thinks the station will meet a need of the Hispanic community.

"It's great. The Hispanic community has been growing, and this is a need they had. It will be local and will be a way for Hispanics to communicate with other Hispanics in the area," Gomez said.

Tyler Media is adding the station onto the west end of its facilities at 5101 Shields, Stow said.

Stow said two studios will be built to accommodate the station. One will be for production news and public affairs, another larger studio could accommodate town hall meetings, he said. Stow declined to give construction costs, and building permit records are not available.

Initially, about 10 employees will be added to Tyler's staff to manage the station. Jobs will be in traffic, production, master control operations, engineers and sales people. Most of those positions have been filled, Stow said.

"The thing that's made it such a good business move for us is having the radio station. We're going to be able to use a number of those people," Stow said.

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