Radio Bilingüe to air presidential nomination acceptance speeches in Spanish

                          Final prep under way for live coverage of 2008 political conventions  

(August 8, 2008) -- Radio Bilingüe’s Hacia el Voto 2008 multi-media news team is preparing an extensive line-up of live coverage at the upcoming national presidential nominating conventions Aug. 25-28 and Sept. 1-4 including special two-hour live broadcasts of each nominee’s acceptance speech interpreted into Spanish on the final evening of each convention. 

Beginning with the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 25, the special gavel-to-gavel DNC coverage will air from 12 to 2 p.m. PT on Radio Bilingüe’s award-winning daily talk show, Linea Abierta, each day of the convention and then from Sept. 1-4 for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.   

The acceptance speech broadcast is set for approximately 6-8 p.m. PT on Thursday night of each week. 

The special, two-hour extended edition is part of the year-long Hacia el Voto 2008 series that began airing in January in Chicago through “Linea Abierta on the Road” -- a special itinerant series originating from the home site of partnering stations throughout the nation.  Since the start of the program, Radio Bilingüe’s news team has made stops in eight cities and aired 15 shows in collaboration with local public media outlets.  

For the two political conventions, Radio Bilingüe’s special team of reporters and producers includes news reporters from Hacia el Voto 2008 series partners WRTE-FM Radio Arte in Chicago and KDNA-FM Radio Cadena in Granger, WA.  

The 10 hours of direct news radio coverage on Radio Bilingüe’s network of 100 affiliates throughout the U.S. also will be provided through various multimedia outlets including extensive service online: news transcripts of news stories, live webcasts, audio podcasts of news stories, audio on demand archives, photo slide shows, interactive chat room and blog. 

The special team will engage in conversations with delegates, party officials, seasoned journalists, political experts and community advocates and cover convention strategy updates, activities and public reaction and demonstrations:     

 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 2008

The Pepsi Center  -- Denver, CO

Aug. 25-28 (12 to 2 p.m. PT)

(INVESCO Field Aug. 28) 

Monday, August 25 -- Program 1  

·     ·     News reports will provide insight on party caucuses, an update on the Florida and Michigan delegations’ quest for full voting rights at the DNC as well as full coverage on antiwar and pro-immigrant demonstrations in protest zones.

·     ·     A report on host state Colorado and Denver -- the capital of the Rocky Mountains region that is described as politically "purple" -- will include a look at the host committee’s emphasis on environment and what is being dubbed “the greenest convention to date."     

·     ·     The news team will talk with Latinos residing in the area for their sense of the political process unfolding before them.

·     ·     With Latino delegate representation at this DNC expected to grow, interviews with delegates and superdelegates will shed light on the role that 9.3 million Latinos who are projected to vote this year will have. Interviews are being planned with DNC co-chair Leticia Van de Putte, and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar from Colorado. 

 Tuesday, August 26 -- Program 2 

·     ·     Excerpts and analysis of the keynote speech will be featured as well as a report on utilization of Spanish at the DNC.

·     ·     Interviews with party leaders, Latino lobbyists and political observers will include analysis of the party platform as well as insights of the convention and strategies for success in the general election. Among those targeted for interviews is Patricia Madrid, former New Mexico Attorney General who is now co-chair of the platform committee.

Wednesday, August 27 -- Program 3 

·     ·     Day three will feature excerpts of and commentary on speeches on the floor from the previous night including interviews with members of the Latin American media as well as with delegates and political leaders addressing their concerns and expectations. Colorado initiatives to restrict affirmative action and immigration will be examined.

Thursday, August 28 -- Program 4 

·     ·     Excerpts and reviews of speeches from the previous night, including the vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, will open the third day of the DNC which will carry coverage of a demonstration for immigration reform outside the convention center. Additional interviews will analyze the nominees before final comments shed light on the road to November.

Thursday, August 28 - Program 5

·     ·     Daily analysis of speeches and recap of the first four days airs before the action moves to INVESCO Field Thursday night where live narration by Hacia el Voto 2008 host Samuel Orozco will be broadcast direct from a perch in this football stadium while gavel-to-gavel live audio feed is fed from the podium. The presidential nominee’s acceptance speech will be interpreted live in Spanish voice-over. 

*** 

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2008

The Xcel Center -- St. Paul, Minnesota

Sept. 1-4 (12 to 2  p.m. PT) 

Monday, Sept 1 - Program 1 

·     ·     Convention news reports will look at party caucuses as well as antiwar, pro-immigrant demonstrations and planned protest routes on Sunday.

·     ·     Reports on St.Paul/Minneapolis will set the stage for a political review of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin as political battlegrounds. Minnesota has not voted Republican in more than three decades.

·     ·     Feature stories will focus on Latinos in Minnesota as well as a look at Latino delegate representation at the RNC with interviews of delegates and superdelegates. High level Latino members of the organizing committee will be interviewed and interviews will be arranged with Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, co-vice chair of the convention.

Tuesday, Sept 2 - Program 2  

·     ·     Excerpts and analysis of the keynote speech will be featured as well as a report on the first day and the utilization of Spanish at the RNC.

·     ·     Interviews with party leaders, Latino lobbyists and political observers will include analysis of the party platform as well as insights of the convention and strategies for success in the general election.

  Wednesday, Sept. 3 - Program 3 

·     ·     Day three will feature excerpts of and commentary on speeches on the floor from the previous night including interviews with members of the Latino and Latin American media as well as with delegates and political leaders addressing their concerns and expectations.

Thursday, Sept. 4 - Program 4  

·     ·     Excerpts and reviews of speeches from the previous night, including the vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, will open the fourth day of Radio Bilingüe’s RNC coverage. Additional interviews will analyze the nominees before final comments shed light on the road to November.

Thursday, Sept 4 - Program 5 

·     ·     Daily analysis of speeches and recap of the first four days before live narration by Hacia el Voto 2008 host Samuel Orozco from a balcony in the convention floor and gavel-to-gavel live audio feed from the podium. The presidential nominee’s acceptance speech will be interpreted live in Spanish voice-over.

The Hacia el Voto 2008 convention coverage builds on Radio Bilingüe’s decades-long tradition covering elections from the Latino perspective, including its first-of-a-kind, live, bilingual broadcast of the national presidential conventions in 1984 and a subsequent, extensive coverage in Spanish in 2004.  

### 

About Línea Abierta and Radio Bilingüe 

The Spanish-language program Línea Abierta is heard on the community-based radio network’s satellite system that reaches 100 affiliates throughout the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico as well as its own six stations in California. It is also available via webcast on Radio Bilingüe Internet: www.radiobilingue.org. Radio Bilingüe’s online service also features an election spotlight webpage with links to program audio archives, podcasting multimedia files, timely news transcripts, an election interactive blog, hyperlinks to relevant organizations and more.  

Funds for Radio Bilingüe's news services are provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, Lumina Foundation for Education, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation and the ZeroDivide Foundation.