Independent Spanish Language Broadcasters Form National Association.

A group of independent Spanish language broadcast companies, as well as financial institutions, networks and other service providers to the Spanish media industry, came together to form the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, also known as ISBA.

The purpose of the Association is the promotion and development of ownership, business opportunities and access to capital for independent Spanish language broadcasters in the face of massive industry consolidation. ISBA will also foster employment and management opportunities for Hispanics and Latinos in the media industry and related industries.

The Association will be open to Latino-owned TV and radio broadcasting companies, as well as non-Latino broadcasters addressing the growing Hispanic market in the United States. However, the primary membership focus will be independently owned non-publicly traded Spanish language broadcasting companies.

Hispanic-Americans are the fastest growing segment of the US population. Currently there are 38.8 million Hispanics in the United States, or 13 percent of the population, making them the largest ethnic minority in the country. However, despite the rapid growth of the Hispanic market, Latinos own only 1.8 percent of all radio stations and less than one percent of television stations in the United States. Recent corporate mergers involving Telemundo, HBC and Univision have brought significant consolidation to the Spanish language media market, thereby increasing the competition threshold for independently owned Spanish language media companies.

ISBA was formed to give a voice to the independent Spanish language broadcasters in their effort to increase opportunities for capital formation, acquisitions and advertising revenue.

The founding members of ISBA included:

Amador Bustos of Bustos Media ,Corp.

Rosamaria Caballero of Caballero Television and the MasMusica TeVe Network

Michael Castello of Tocayo Broadcasting

Francisco De Jesús of Fleet Venture Partners LLC

Abel de Luna, Sr. and Abel de Luna, Jr. of Moon Broadcasting

Zee Ferrufino of Latino Communications

Aleks Figueroa of Asian Pacific American Television Network, LLC.

Ronald Gordon of ZGS Broadcasting

Tony Hernandez of Latin Entertainment Network

Ben Perez of Abacus Communications

Alfredo Plascencia of Radio Lazer

Luis Raul Sola of Broadcasting Networks of Puerto Rico

Hector Villalobos of Wolfhouse Broadcasting

Counsel for ISBA and the Association’s acting Executive Director is Francisco Montero of the law firm of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth. Mr. Montero served as Director of the FCC’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the FCC’s Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age.

Rosamaria Caballero, one of the founding members of ISBA and the President of Caballero Television and General Counsel for the MasMusica TeVe Network noted “As the operator of 11 TV stations and in my dealings with the independent station owners who are affiliates of our Spanish-language network, I see first hand the need for us to garner strength as a group for legislative and policy initiatives, for capital formation and increased advertising revenues.”

Mr. Montero observed “The formation of this Association has been long overdue. Spanish language media has expanded so rapidly in this country there should be a united voice to address those issues of importance to Independent Spanish language broadcasters, as well as those business partners, such as lenders, advertisers and ratings services. The response has been overwhelming and there isn’t a day that I don’t get a call about the Association.”