INGLES Y ESPANOL; MEDIA AIMED AT LATINOS ACQUIRE A BILINGUAL BENT.

Byline: Maria Zate (c) Hispanic Business 

While channel surfing on a Sunday night, a familiar face pops up on the TV screen. It's Giselle Fernandez, former anchor of ``NBC Nightly News'' and currently anchor of the entertainment show ``Access Hollywood.''

She greets an enthusiastic crowd with the usual pleasantries, and then slips the phrase ``muy caliente'' into her monologue. She continues to speak in English and then drops another Spanish word. She introduces her guest, actress Maria Conchita Alonso.

You check the channel. This isn't ``Access Hollywood.'' The show is ``Cafe Ole With Giselle Fernandez,'' and it's on Galavision, a Spanish-language cable network.

But she's speaking English. Wait a minute - what's going on here?

Welcome to bilingual television. English-language format and content are gaining a foothold in a market once occupied solely by Spanish media. From TV programming to magazines and radio, bilingual and English-language media continue to grow as a way to reach the Latino market.

Consider recent news items: Emilio Estefan plans to produce a Latin-themed, English-language TV program for Universal Television Group.

Latina magazine, a national bilingual women's magazine backed by the publishers of Essence, switches from quarterly to monthly distribution.

In radio, several stations in the top 10 media markets use a bilingual format with ratings success.

Why this growth in English and bilingual media?

``It's the next logical step of the evolution of the Latino population in the U.S.,'' says Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition in Los Angeles.

As immigration laws tighten, and as the second- and third-generation population increases, marketers and programmers will focus on capturing the attention of the assimilated and acculturated Latinos, he explains.

In fact, the impetus behind Galavision's decision to air bilingual programming lies in the success of another show that celebrates assimilation and acculturation. Last year, Galavision began running a weekly half-hour bilingual show called ``Que Pasa U.S.A.,'' a situation comedy that first aired on PBS in Miami back in the '70s. The show represents a microcosm of what's happening in the Latino media landscape.

When Galavision first started airing ``Que Pasa U.S.A.,'' the Nielsen ratings showed that it connected with viewers. This alerted network executives to try more bilingual programming.

``Until now, the English-dominant and bilingual crowd has largely been ignored on TV,'' says producer Jeff Valdez, who along with partner Bruce Barshop co-manages Si TV, the company that produces ``Cafe Ole.'' Based in West Hollywood, Si TV produces English-dominant and bilingual programming with Latino appeal.

According to the latest census information on language use at home, assimilated Latinos represent about 54 percent of the Latino market. Data from 1990 show that 46 percent of Latinos speak Spanish and also speak English ``very well.'' Another 8 percent speak no Spanish. There are 26 percent who speak predominantly Spanish and don't speak English well or not at all. The remaining 20 percent say they speak both Spanish and English ``well.''

But programming goes beyond language, emphasizes Barshop at Si TV.

``It's not just about language. It's also about programming produced in the U.S.,'' he says. ``Most Spanish-language programs come from South America and Mexico. Si TV is about recognizing the cultural difference.''

At least one man is confident that the tide is turning among Latino viewers.

``I've been getting (negative) comments about the viability of targeting this (bilingual) market since the beginning,'' says Valdez at Si TV.

``I say to those people, `Laugh all you want to now, but the times, they are a-changing.' ''

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Photo

Photo: On her Galavision show, Giselle Fernandez freely mixes English and Spanish for a growing bilingual audience.