Marcos Rodriguez, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marcos Rodriguez, Sr. ; the father of Marcos Rodriguez and Tony Rodriguez. Marcos Rodriguez, Sr. is well-known as the pioneer of Spanish Radio in Dallas-Fort Worth. Rodriguez founded what is known today as KESS-FM,KRVA and KLNO.
[edit] Biography
Marcos Rodriguez, Sr. started in radio in Holguin, Cuba as a teenager. By 1959, when Fidel Castro took control of the country, Rodriguez was managing the station CMKF. Soon, Castro nationalized the media and the Marxist-Socialist propaganda offended Rodriguez. He began making plans to get his family out of the country and in August 1962 the Rodriguez Family landed in Miami, Florida as refugees.
Rodriguez was adopted by the congregation of a church in Shreveport, LA. They helped him get his family out of Cuba. He helped them build a Spanish Language ministy in the area.
Rodriguez moved to the Fort Worth, Texas area where he began to work with the AM station on 1540 (KCUL after 1966 KBUY). The station was primarily known as a Country and Western station, but with Rodruguez' help aired an hour of Spanish programs before dawn each morning. In 1964 KCUL built KCUL-FM on 93.9 Mhz. It was a shadow of KCUL (AM), and expanded on the Spanish lineup. As time went by the FM became an almost all Spanish station, though as recently as the mid seventies, there was country on overnights simulcast from the AM (buy then KBUY(AM).
In 1975 Marcos Rodriguez and the department heads of the FM operation borrowed enough money to buy the FM station from its then owner John B. walton. Jr. The new compny Latin American Broadcasting Company changed the call letters to KESS(FM) and added studios in Dallas (in adition to the ones in the Seminary South Shopping Center).
The enterprise grew in 1979 when most of the same owners set up shop in Houston. KODA (AM) and KODA-FM were being sold by Paul Taft and Associates. Westinghouse bought the FM, and the Rodriguez interests bought KODA (AM). They renamed it KLAT for "La tremenda". They also filed for, and recieved a permit to modify the transmitting plant in oder to add night operation.
KESS(FM) made improvements in its facilities in the early 80's to improve coverage. They changed frequencies from 93.9 to 94.1 and moved from a tower in Kennedale, Texas to one in Cedar Hill, Texas.
Mr. Rodriguez' sons Mark and Tony went into broadcasting, and Mark earned credentials in business school. The new expertise helped them grow the family business. Mark bought 1270 KSSA (AM) from Founders Broadcasting, and KESS (FM) from the non family shareholders his father had partnered with. With a good AM and FM under Mark (Jr) control, Marcos purchased 1600 AM in Plano, Texas and 95.3 FM in McKinney and began to develop another Spanish operation.
Eventually this second pair of station would be sold to son Tony, and Marcos would file for another new station on 93.3 in the Metroplex. He died while this was pending, so the application was prosecuted by the trustees of Marcos Sr. estate namely Mark (Owner of KESS and its FM) and Tony (Owner of KRVA + FM.) Mark Jr settled out the case, and the station went on as Susquehanna's KKZN "The Zone". In the meantime Mark merged his stations into a division of Heftel Broadcasting Corp. (later merged with Tichenor Media into Hispanic Broadcasting Corp....now Univision Radio).
Arriving in the United States literally without a dime, Mr. Rodriguez went from washing dishes at 90 cents an hour to eventually purchasing multiple Spanish language radio stations in Texas. Marcos Rodriguez passed away on February 15, 1992.
