A local radio station that primarily serves the Latino and other Spanish-speaking communities in Rochester is celebrating a big change.
El Poder Latino de Rochester 97.1 FM currently has a relatively small geographic area that it can reach in the city.
That station is operated by the Ibero-American Action League, an advocacy organization that serves Spanish-speaking and other populations throughout the Rochester area.
Poder Radio has been around for 8 years now, and the President & CEO of Ibero, Angelica Perez-Delgado said on Tuesday that the station will be increasing power soon, giving it the ability to provide news, interviews and entertainment to many more people in the region.
She noted that more than 30% of the local Latino community lives outside the city.
“The idea to be able to be able to reach the Latinos in Irondequoit, Greece, Chili, the surrounding suburbs and the farmworker communities, I think for us is very important,” said Perez-Delgado.
WXXI Public Media and 104 WDKX have partnered with Poder in the effort to help it expand the area that it can serve.
And even in an era when many people use internet streaming and apps to access radio station and other media content, Perez-Delgado said that traditional broadcast radio has always played a very important way of getting information for the Latino community.
“We’re still very attached to the actual radio, not the app, especially for some of our older generations, said Perez-Delgado. “So having the ability to expand, really does empower those new communities that we’re going to be able to reach to get information that they may not be able to get.”
Perez-Delgado pointed to the importance of Poder to many Latino families during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they sought to get solid information about the emerging virus, vaccines and other details of how to try and cope with COVID.
The increased power and coverage for Poder is expected to happen sometime in the coming weeks.
