Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta or Emilio Azcárraga Sr. (March 2, 1895, Tampico Tamaulipas – 1973, Mexico City) was a Mexican businessman son of Basque immigrants Mariano Azcárraga and Emilia Vidaurreta.
He studied primary education in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, middle school in San Antonio, Texas, and high school in Austin. At the age of 17 he was employed at a shoe store while he studied trade and economics by night. He obtained distribution rights for a shoe store in Boston and at the age of 23 he created the car distribution company "Azcárraga & Copland".
Emilio married Laura Milmo Hickman (daughter of an Englishman, Patricio Milmo Vidaurri, and granddaughter of Patricio Milmo O'Dowd, major stockholder of Milmo National Bank of Laredo) and they had three children: Emilio, Laura, and Carmela. In 1899 the company "Patricio Milmo and Sons" was created to operate as a bank and to invest in actitivites such as railroad and mines. After the Mexican Revolution the company focused on safer investments such as the new radio industry.
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In 1923 Azcárraga obtained a license to distribute radios from Victor Talking Machine. While working at the "Mexico Music" division of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) he became more interested in the radio broadcasting industry. His brother Raúl received technical instruction to operate radio broadcasting stations under the tutelage of the American colonel Sandal S. Hodges.
On March 19, 1930 the radio station XET-AM was founded in Monterrey. And on September 18 Azcárraga created the XEW-AM with Mexico Music Corporation as major stockholder. The station was also part of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) division of RCA.
Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta married Laura Milmo Hickman, daughter of Patricio Milmo Vidaurri and Laura Hickman Morales. Patricio Milmo Vidaurri was the son of Irish Banker Patricio Milmo O'Dowd and Pudenciana Vidaurri Vidaurri- she was the daughter of Don Santiago Vidaurri and Dona Juana Maria Vidaurri Borrego. All this can be found in www.somosprimos.com in their May issue of 2006 and in a recent issue in July 2006.
He built Churubusco Studios in the 1940s and created the first TV station in Mexico, Channel 2, in 1951. Emilio became the first president of Telesistemas Mexicanos in 1955. His entertainment conglomerate was composed of 92 different business units by 1969. He established Televisa, a production company for his TV stations; Televisa, S.A., in 1973. He died the same year.