An important resource never before available to the greater Central New York and Mohawk Valley region—a Spanish-language radio station—has come to fruition through an initiative shaped by PBS affiliate WCNY and a number of community members, including several faculty and staff at Syracuse University.
The new station, “Pulso Central,” is “a thrilling and significant breakthrough” for the growing Spanish-speaking community in the area, says Teresita Paniagua ’82, executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic community and director of the University’s La Casita Cultural Center. “The station is poised to become a vital resource, reflecting the vibrant mix of Hispanic and Latino cultures and effectively engaging these populations like no other local or regional medium does.”
Paniagua and many others at the University were integral to the development of the station. She first got involved in the summer of 2023 when WCNY CEO and President Mitch Gelman approached her wondering if a Spanish-language radio station was available in the area. When he discovered there wasn’t one, Gelman asked Paniagua to help him assess the community’s interest in filling that void.
Gelman formed a community task force, which he co-chaired with Paniagua and WCNY-FM Station Manager Ron Lombard. Over many months, more than two dozen task force members planned the station’s structure, helped developed funding, sought collaborators and generated programming ideas.
Teresita Paniagua, left, the University’s executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic community, speaks to students at an event celebrating Hispanic culture. Paniagua was instrumental in spurring community interest in and involvement to help bring about WCNY’s Spanish-language radio station.
Several University faculty members and instructors from the College of Arts and Sciences, including Elizabeth Juarez Cummings, associate teaching professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Spanish language coordinator, and Javier Maymi-Perez, Spanish instructor, participated in the task force efforts.
Also involved in other ways were Gail Bulman, Spanish department professor and chair; M. Emma Ticio Quesada, Spanish professor; Sandy Siquier, assistant teaching professor of film in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; Ana Diaz-Diez, development director for Syracuse Stage; Gerardo Cummings Rendón, professor of Spanish at Onondaga Community College; Josefa Álvarez Valadés, Spanish professor at LeMoyne College; and Francisco Suarez ’05, G’06, a Newhouse School of Public Communications alumnus and former radio/TV producer who is an associate professor of communications at SUNY Oswego.
As part of the task force’s fact-finding, Paniagua enlisted Whitman School of Management students Nicolas Cela Marxuach ’25, Zachary Levine ’25 and Jonah Griffin ’24 to develop and distribute a community interest survey, which the students circulated to several hundred local residents at community events. She says 98% of respondents supported the idea. The survey also provided insights into audience demographics and programming ideas—including sports, community news, talk shows, music and faith-based content.
There are upwards of 1,000 Spanish-speaking radio stations in the U.S. but Pulso Central is the first of its kind in Central New York. The region is home to some 18,000 Spanish-speaking households, with Spanish-speaking people making up about 10.5% of the area’s population and comprising a segment of the community that has grown 30% over the past decade, according to research done by WCNY.
Pulso Central also provides a unique learning opportunity and “an extraordinary new pedagogical tool for experiential education” for the University’s students, says Ticio Quesada.
M. Emma Ticio Quesada, center, a professor in Syracuse University’s Spanish department, uses WCNY’s radio station studio as an experiential learning space and resource for her courses.
Five students from her immersive course, Community Outreach: Language in Action, are interning at the station. The students, Lailah Ali-Valentine, Adam Baltaxe, Kimberlyn Lopez Herrera, Nicolas Bernardino Greiner-Guzman and Jade Aulestia recently created their first podcast.
Ticio Quesada says she also expects students in SPA 300: Our Community Voices, an Engaged Humanities Network course, to benefit from the same kind of internship opportunity. The course connects native and non-native Spanish speakers, inspires them to contribute to the local community, and promotes inclusion and social justice.
Miranda Traudt, the University’s assistant provost for arts and community programming, says the task force is a good example of the positive outcomes that can result when members of the University and local communities work together to achieve specific goals. “This project continues La Casita’s meaningful engagement with Hispanic communities in Central New York and helps fulfill its mission through work in the arts, media, cultural heritage preservation and research adding to the high quality of life,” she says.
Several dozen community members helped WCNY form and air the area’s first Spanish-language radio station. They included, from left, Mitch Gelman, WCNY president and CEO; M. Emma Ticio Quesada, Syracuse University professor of Spanish; Stephanie Gonzalez Rawlings, content producer; and DJ Lorenz (Renzo Quesada), music host. (Photo by Eric Hayden, WCNY)
Paniagua believes the station “can be a game changer,” not only in providing news and information about and for the Latina/Hispanic community but also by “helping to change long-established stereotypes and present a whole new world of possibilities for the people of this community,” she says. “There are many wonderful stories about people who have established their lives in this community and I hope Pulso Central can be a showcase for those stories.”
An official launch event, “Pulso Central Fiesta,” will be held Thursday, Oct. 24, at WCNY studios and La Casita.
“WCNY is thrilled to help launch Pulso Central,” Gelman says. “Our goal is to provide a platform that will come alive with music and talk that engages listeners and fosters community connection.”
The station reaches listeners in 19 counties. Pulso Central airs on WCNY 91.3 HD-2 in Syracuse, WUNY 89.5 HD-2 in Utica and WJNY 90.9 HD-2 in Watertown. It is accessible online at pulsocentral.com and streaming on the Pulso Central app.
