LOCAL LATINO COMMUNITY RADIO SILENCE

Since moving back home to the Buffalo area in October 2022, I have been curious to see how local media outlets targeted and focused attention on our stories and community, particularly the Puerto Rican community in Buffalo and the Western New York region, as Puerto Ricans make up over 90% of the local Latino community.

As a media professional, having worked for almost nine years during the early 2000s at two of our affiliate stations, WKBW-TV and WNED-TV respectively, I was very familiar with the lack of coverage our community received and after leaving WNED-TV for Florida in December 2010, I wondered if the coverage would ever improve.

Fast forward twelve years and sadly, things remain the same. A few months back, on social media, I saw that the local NPR station (WBFO) would be offering Spanish Language content for those in our area through a partnership with “Sin Fronteras WNY” and “Radio Bilingüe.”

Upon hearing this news, I was excited as I thought this would provide an amazing opportunity for Spanish-speaking residents of Western New York, mostly those of us with Puerto Rican roots, a chance to be more informed about the many ongoings within our community.

One afternoon, I happened to log into the WBFO website and find the Sin Fronteras page and was disappointed in what I saw, the lack of any content related to Western New York Latinos or our interests. As I perused through the website, I was greeted with articles that mentioned DACA, Mexican American issues, Immigration Reform, California Politics, and Southern Border happenings. 

These are all important issues, yes, however, none of the stories discussed within the radio programs nor the website listed as clickable articles spoke to our community needs as Western New York Latinos.

Continually Ignored and Misrepresented: After experiencing my “Sin Fronteras” disappointment, I’ve just come to accept that local media outlets are just happy to throw our community a bone without really investing true attention to our needs within the Western New York Puerto Rican or Latino community.

As I write this column, it just so happens it comes on the heels of yet another “Grease Pole Festival” celebration, a festival I’ve always felt uncomfortable acknowledging as part of our “cultural heritage.”

As a young Boricua working in local media, I was always conscious of the way our people were presented onscreen within news stories. To be honest, working at Channel 7, particularly the evening news, I hated whenever “Grease Pole” season was around, as I was always reminded that the only time, at that time, my people were shown on local television was either in handcuffs or climbing a greased-out pole for a salchichon or a case of beer.

Living in New York City during the late 90s, I loved seeing our Puerto Rican culture celebrated at the 116th Street Festival and the Puerto Rican Day Parade. I always imagined what our NYC Puerto Rican brethren would think if someone proposed putting teams together to climb a greasy pole during these celebrations. I don’t think that proposal would go very well. Yet why is this accepted here in Buffalo?

THE WAY WE REPRESENT AND ARE PRESENTED MATTERS

During my time at WKBW, I remember confronting station Channel 7 General Manager Bill Ransom himself when the news department did a story about the “Wild West Side” calling it the heroin highway back in 2004. I grew up on the Lower West Side and was horrified that a reporter, one who shall remain nameless, who was hired from out of town and who had no connection to my home dared to call my part of town “wild and lawless”, especially when this reporter was not a person of color, yet was painting a negative picture over our community, one full of mostly Puerto Ricans.

A few months ago, I wrote about how we must take our representation into our own hands here within our community. I just hope and wish anyone reading this will challenge those who claim to do work on our behalf to demand more.

Yes, it’s great that WBFO threw us a bone and is offering Spanish Language content on their air, I just wish they threw us a piece of the steak too, and covered our local community which has been ignored far too long.