The Birth of Spanish-Language Television in Los Angeles

​At the close of the 2010s, Univision KMEX Channel 34 and Telemundo KVEA Channel 52 regularly compete for the highest ratings among all television viewers in Los Angeles according to the Nielsen ratings service. KMEX and KVEA’s high ratings – beating the long-established big three English-language networks – speaks to the demographic growth and vitality of the Spanish-speaking Latino American communities of the greater L.A. region. The ratings bonanza currently enjoyed by the local Univision and Telemundo stations is a dramatic counterpoint to the relatively humble, but significant technical origins of Spanish-language television in the U.S. and in Southern California more than half-a-century ago.

An official advertisement placed by KMEX Channel 34 in a September 1962 issue of La Opinión. Variations of this advertisement were placed in billboards around Los Angeles that fall.

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