Talk radio goes Spanish: with blue chip backing, RadioVisa looks to syndicated format.

With the backing of deep-pocket investors and a pending deal to purchase Orange County-based KPLS-AM (830), Los Angeles-based startup RadioVisa Corp. is making a play for a piece of the growing Spanish-language radio market.

Led by Stephen Lehman, founder of Premiere Radio Networks, and financed in part by Quetzal JPMorgan Partners, a private equity fund backed by media heavyweights Clear Channel Communications Inc., Viacom Inc., Tribune Co. and News Corp., RadioVisa plans to create programming for syndication and acquire other stations.

In August, it struck a deal, pending Federal Communications Commission approval, to purchase KPLS from the defunct Catholic Radio Network for $37.5 million. And last week, the company announced it had a deal to act as the U.S. syndicator for news and sports briefs produced by Mexican company Notisistema.

RadioVisa officials declined to comment on the fate of KPLS, now an English-language talk station, but it is likely to be converted to Spanish-language talk as an outlet for its syndicated programs.

Based in Orange, KPLS has a 50,000-watt signal that extends northward as far Santa Barbara and as far south as San Diego.

Formed in December, RadioVisa produces two shows--a morning program, "Gerardo Por la Manana," and an evening program, "En Privado," both at its Sherman Oaks studio. The two air in a handful of markets, including Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Chief Operating Officer Ray De La Garza said the company plans to announce a complete slate of 24-hour programming later this year.

"We will do exactly what we did at Premiere, but on the Spanish side. Wherever there are Mexicans we plan to program," said De La Garza, a former senior vice president for programming at Premiere. "There is an opportunity because there is no real Spanish network that provides programming to other stations.'"

So far, RadioVisa has yet to market its line-up to industry heavyweights like Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., whose acquisition by Univision Communications Inc. is pending FCC approval, and Spanish Broadcasting System Inc., which together own more than 100 Spanish radio stations.

Among English-language stations, syndicated talk has become the rule rather than the exception with the rise of personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Those widely syndicated hosts belong to the Premiere network, which Lehman, a Calabasas resident, started in 1987 before selling a decade later to Jacor Communications for $190 million. Two years later Jacor was acquired by Clear Channel for $6.5 billion.

Obtaining wide syndication in the increasingly consolidated radio world is no easy task, said Jim Kalmenson, president of KWKW-AM (1330), one of two stations in the Los Angeles market airing Spanish-language talk. KWKW is one of 40 stations owned by Lotus Broadcasting Corp.

"It's extremely difficult to break in because owners are leery of allowing a third party to sell their "ad inventory," said Kalmenson. "The prevailing way of doing things in Spanish is to (produce) it yourself."

Still, with Lehman at the helm and major media backing, RadioVisa is hardly an outsider. De La Garza said RadioVisa intends to pursue other stations, but declined to say if the company was negotiating any deals.

The other Spanish-language talk station in the market is Miami-based Radio Unica Communication Corp.'s KBLA-AM (1580). Radio Unica also syndicates some programming.

KBLA General Manager Bill Jenkins declined to comment on RadioVisa.

"There's a lot to be gained by having another competitor," said Kalmenson, whose station had revenues in excess of $11 million in 2002, tops among Spanish-language stations in the market. "It's lonely being the only one out there proclaiming the benefits to advertisers of a (Spanish) talk format."