The Infinite Dial

Recently, Entravision's Spanish-language Top 40 KSSE (Super Estrella) Los Angeles became the latest in a handful of stations to try playing English-language pop music in the framework of a Spanish-language station. That format has worked everywhere in the Latin world, but was thought to be superfluous in the mainland U.S. (Most recently, the Bob Perry-consulted Radio Digital stations played some English-language music but have backed off in the last few years.) But with the Hispanic success of KIIS Los Angeles and the growth of the bilingual Rhythmic format, it was inevitable that Latin/English hybrids would re-emerge.

KSSE isn't streaming yet. But you can hear another fascinating Entravision experiment on the Web. KNVO (Super Estrella 101.1) McAllen/Brownsville, Texas, is doing a very different take on the format that can be best described as a cross between English-language Top 40, Latin pop, and Radio Disney. Like XHTO El Paso, Texas, or rival KBFM when it was Top 40 B104, KNVO is playing a significant amount of music that isn't on the radar of many of its Top 40 counterparts--which is as it should be. (In the last half hour, for instance, I've heard a new Jennifer Lopez that isn't the same single that was serviced last week.)

Here's a monitor of KNVO at 11:50 this morning:

Pink, "Just Like A Pill"
Maroon 5, "Makes Me Wonder"
Everlife, "Go Figure"
Ricky Martin, "Pegate"
Jennifer Lopez, "Hold It, Don't Drop It"
No Doubt, "It's My Life"
Raven Symone, "This Is My Time"
Fergie, "Big Girls Don't Cry"
Enrique Iglesias, "Dimelo (Do You Know)"
Pink, "Who Knew"
Rihanna, "S.O.S."
Gwen Stefani, "The Great Escape"
RBD, "Besame Sin Miedo"
Quietdrive, "Time After Time"
Mariah Carey, "Shake It Off"

Meanwhile, if you're interested in hearing Digital, here's its Mexico City flagship, which streams.