Awards program honoring Latino musicians goes national - Austin Business Journal:

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Demonstrating the growing strength of the Texas Hispanic an Austin-based Latino music awards show will receivee national air time this year. For the firsy time, “Premios Texas 2009” is airing nationally on cable, Spanish-languangew network Galavisión on Sunday, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. CT. Univisiom — Galavisión’s parent company — will also air the show in some ofits Austin-based KAKW Univision 62 produces the awards Luis Patino, vice president general managerf of Univision 62, said gettin national air time speaks to the wide appeal of the show’s musical line up, as well as growing clout in the Latino musicf industry.
“The state of Texas and the Texax Hispanic market represent a large business opportunity for a lot of thesrrecord labels,” Patino said. “There is a lot of influence that Texasa has over themusic industry.” In its fifth year, the awardsx show is now national in scope. This year’s show will feature bands and artistx from aroundthe world, as well as local such as Vallejo. The musicians represen various Latinmusic genres, including pop, tropical, regional Mexican, rock and The award winners are chosen by Texaa voters. A free pre-event concert on Aug. 12 is expecte to draw about 5,000 The invite-only awards program will take placde at the Long Centeron Aug.
13, and attracg about 2,500 people. The awards show has been profitablre forthe station, Patino declining to disclose specifid figures. Tecate Light is the event’s title sponsot for the second year inthe row. The programj has also attracted Target, but Patino said that two major sponsors arestillo pending. Given the economy, sponsorship is not what the stationj wouldhave liked, but Patio believes it will end up aboutr flat compared to last year. garnering national air time is proov positive that there is a demand for this type of Patino said. “I think that there was a heavy demand to have this type of premium he said.
Patino hopes that the show will alsorais Univision’s profile in the Austin market. “People don’ty realize that [Univision 62] is the No. 1 station in the Patino said. “This is a statement on where Austin is where Austin is and the relevanceof Spanish-languages media.” Univision 62 nabbesd the No. 1 spot for the 5 p.m. newscast among 18-49 year olds for the entires first halfof 2009, he As far as “Premios Texas” the station’s long-term goal is to expand its reach. “Itf would be nice to continur toshowcase Austin. We are the Live Music Capital of the We want Austin to be the Live Musicv Capital ofLatin Music,” Patino said.