Radio Tierra Gets a New Frequency
After two decades Radio Tierra will be vacating 95.1 for a new frequency.
Installing a new antenna on March 14, Ubaldo Hernandez, Scott Dollarhyde, and Arturo Leyva took on the task of installing the new antenna for Radio Tierra, the radio station that broadcasts music in Spanish and is the voice of the Latin community in the gorge. Photo: Arturo Leyva
By Arturo Leyva
Hood River, Ore., March 25, 2024 – Radio Tierra, the non-profit Spanish radio station which has been a voice for the Latino community in the Columbia River Gorge since 2004 is getting a new frequency thanks to the installation of a new antenna.
When the frequency is changed, an antenna must be built that is tuned to the correct frequency. When installing the new antenna, a big difference could be noticed in the quality of the radio signal.
The process to change Radio Tierra’s frequency from the 95.1 to 97.5 FM in Hood River, 107.7 FM in The Dalles, 96.7 FM in Carson, and 107.1 FM Parkdale has taken years to complete.
Radio Tierra original frequency 95.1 was purchased by Commercial Radio two years ago but on Tuesday, January 23, 2014 at around 1:45 p.m, the 95.1 frequency stopped transmitting Radio Tierra programming and the process required by the FCC began with its new owners.
Ubaldo Hernandez, one of the founders of Radio Tierra, says he can remember installing the original antenna when Radio Tierra first began transmitting in the Gorge twenty years ago.
But the memory is not as happy as you might think.
Ubaldo told me that one of the tragic events which prompted the creation of the radio station twenty years ago was the murder of a local man named Elfego A. Torres.
Torres was a Latino man, longtime resident of The Dalles and a foreman at an orchard in The Dalles. He was murdered by Roger Thompson, a white business owner who took issue with Torres because he was listening to Mexican music at a loud volume at the end of his work day.
Thompson, annoyed by the music, decided to take the situation into his own hands. He initiated a heated dispute with Torres, spouting hateful language and racial insults at the man. Weapons emerged on both sides, and Torres was shot.
Thompson pleaded guilty of criminally negligent homicide and served 18 months in prison.
“But he was not the first nor has he been the last Latino/Mexican who has lost his life due to racial hatred of police violence in the Columbia Gorge area,” said Ubaldo Hernandez.
Elfego's crime, of listening to Spanish music at full volume, claimed his life.
And when Latino activists tried to report on this injustice on English speaking radio stations in the Gorge, no one would support them. One station even canceled a program with Community Organizer Ubaldo Hernandez for daring to speak about the subject.
That’s when my friend Ubaldo decided that the latino community would have to make their own radio station.
Ubaldo Hernandez. Photo: Arturo Leyva
So Ubaldo Hernandez, Noberto Maahs, Aaron Glasgow,Dardo Salas, Carlos Marroquin, Martin Campos, Hugo Flores got together with the support of their families to turn the dream of Radio Tierra into a reality.
Now some years later, the impact of that decision has reached far into the Gorge community. Radio Tierra’s programming shares important community news, information, and music with Spanish speakers in the Gorge.
I myself have been involved in programming and production and the board or directors at Radio Tierra since September 2023, and seen for myself the ways in which the organization helps inform, educate, and give voice to the Latino community.
At the beginning of this year 2024, Ubaldo Hernandez became a member Radio Tierra’s Board of Directors (and we are very happy to have him as well as Norberto Maahs. To have these people who made Radio Tierra possible more than 20 years ago on our board reminds us of the importance of sustained community development and solidarity.)
When we found out that we would need a new antenna installation I told Ubaldo Hernandez that he should be involved in the process. Since who better than him, a Radio Tierra founder to be part of this change?
Photo: Arturo Leyva
Radio Tierra Today:
Radio Tierra is a radio station that transmits information and music in Spanish but also has space for programs and music in English. If you are interested in being on the radio or have program ideas that are of interest to our community, you can send an email to info@radiotierra.org where they can answer your questions. Radio Tierra is a Non-Commercial Low Power Radio Station and a non-profit organization that operates with donations from our community, if you want to support this project you can donate at www.radiotierra.org.
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