Jose Valle
President
Univision Radio
POWER MOVE: Pushing the Univision network to premier Latin acts on a national level.
THE RUNDOWN: Since being named to his post in March 2011, Valle has changed managers and programmers, and, most recently, partnered with labels for artist promotion and development. With 70 owned and operated stations in 17 markets, reaching more than 16 million listeners per week, Univision Radio’s average audience share in operating markets stands at a stable 9.9%. It’s the kind of important reach that Valle is leveraging in his innovative partnerships, and with Univision Communications as a whole.
For the first time in years, for instance, the network is premiering artist singles at a national level, starting with tracks by Alejandro Sanz, Carlos Vives, Pitbull and Prince Royce. In an example of cross-departmental promotion, Vives’ debut was boosted by a private Univision Radio show and a performance on Univision Network’s “Premios lo Nuestro.”
“Internally, we were an outlier at Univision in the past,” Valle says. “That has changed tremendously, partially because our abilities have improved and [Univision president/CEO] Randy Falco sees the ability of radio.”
During the past year, Valle launched Univision America, the AM unit of Univision Radio, which airs in 10 major cities and can be heard online. He also spearheaded the Univision Radio app, which has been downloaded 1.2 million times. The challenge for 2013, he says, is divided between old-fashioned and new-school broadcasting or, as he puts it, “winning over the air, while growing our digital audience.”
