The Radio Bilingüe Latino Public Radio Network proudly celebrates the 25th anniversary this week of its flagship nationally syndicated Spanish news and information talk show Línea Abierta, with specials set for Mon.-Wed. The first and still only program of its kind on the nation’s public airwaves, Línea Abierta (“Open Line”) has been bringing top Latino newsmakers into rousing conversations with Spanish-speaking audiences calling in from across the country each weekday since 1995.
Premiering Feb. 25, 1995 on the road from Albuquerque NM, Línea Abierta’s first broadcast was a forum on the drastic welfare reforms then being debated in the Clinton-Gingrich era. Línea Abierta has ever since acted as an on-air gathering place for working-class and other civically engaged Latinos for fact-based alerts and community dialogues – such as on the current new public charge rules from the White House jeopardizing immigrants’ right to live and work in the U.S. legally if they utilize safety net services.
Línea Abierta has chronicled immigration fights, the rise of the ACA, Censuses, educational movements, farmworkers’ lives and voices, 12 national elections, and Latinos’ rise in numbers and influence nationally through the decades. Presidents, authors, laureates and champions for the health and dignity of Latinos have all graced Línea Abierta’s airwaves, with hundreds of interviews – from Barack Obama to Rigoberta Menchú to Eduardo Galeano – now being archived for future generations in the Library of Congress.
Radio Bilingüe founder and executive director Hugo Morales says, “Sustaining Línea Abierta as an independent, non-commercial journalistic service by and for Latinos for 25 years – most remarkably in Spanish – is a triumph and cause for celebration. It has been an honor and the challenge of a lifetime, and newly urgent now as news media outlets are closing at a fast pace and news deserts are proliferating.”
Línea Abierta founding executive producer and veteran host Samuel Orozco reflects: “With fake news and ‘alternative facts’ now shaping immigration policies and perpetuating stereotypes about Latinos, Línea Abierta can only strive to keep countering with the truth and diverse Latino voices and analysis. We invite our Spanish speaking audience into a national forum to become fully informed and active in the work of public decision making.” To this, Orozco is convening a special roundtable on the state of Latino journalism as part of Línea Abierta’s silver anniversary programming set as follows:
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Línea Abierta At 25 – Memorable Conversations. Segments from Línea’s historical archives, including interviews with US Presidents, cultural icons, scientists and listeners-turned-citizen-journalists.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
The First Broadcasts. The original Línea Abierta journalism and production team reunite to recall the dreams driving the creation of the first nationally distributed weekday news/talk show in Spanish in the public radio system.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26
Latino Journalism in the Era of Fake News. Scholars and journalists discuss the state of Latino journalism and the power of influential media and government circles disseminating fake news that is radically impacting policies and attitudes toward Latinos in this new decade.
Línea Abierta is produced from Radio Bilingüe’s studios in Fresno and Oakland, CA, and aired by more than 90 Radio Bilingüe stations and affiliate stations across the U.S. today, earning numerous awards and recognitions. Samuel Orozco shares hosting duties with San Francisco community radio veteran Graciela “Chelis” López and Mexico City-based radio journalist Martha Elena Ramírez. Current radio and online team includes María de Jesús Gómez, Jorge Ramírez, Ruben Tapia, Marco Vinicio González and Sara Shakir. Línea Abierta leads Radio Bilingüe’s 24/7 stream of Latino-oriented music, information and cultural programming, available to all public radio stations live each weekday 12-1 pm PT or on demand any time at radiobilingue.org■
Conducting an Línea Abierta interview program, his founder Samuel Orozco and María Eraña (former Línea Abierta producer), with guests at the Radio Bilingüe studios in Fresno, California.
A decade ago Radio Bilingüe celebrated 15 years of Línea Abierta on the air, the first and only national Spanish language news and information service for the public broadcasting system, – now reaching audiences across the U.S., Mexico and other nations. The celebration took place at the Cultural Center of Asia, in Oakland, California, where also welcomed the start of the new Bilingual Radio studios. A decade later, today we present here the article that Carol Dowell wrote on that occasion, because, “What better way to mark this moment on the journey of Radio Bilingüe than to celebrate our journalists and our mariachi musicians – the messengers who have raised the voices and told the stories of Mexicanos and Latinos when no one else would?”:
RB News Dept Silver – Linea 15th anniversary program 2010
