18 months after angry emails and calls, Napa County’s local radio station KVON sees success with format change

Will and Julissa Marcencia were celebrating their 100th day of owning Napa Valley’s local radio station in October 2017 when the young couple’s car began to violently drift on their drive back to Napa after dinner in Sonoma.

Recent transplants from Los Angeles, they feared for a moment that Southern California’s notorious “devil winds” had trailed them north.

“I mean, I was losing control of the steering wheel at some points driving through Carneros,” Will, 38, recalled. “And I was like, oh, this is weird.”

In reality, the couple were heading into the teeth of deadly firestorms igniting across Napa and Sonoma counties, their paths of destruction fueled by hurricane-force gales.

In the ensuing days of evacuations and heroic firefighting efforts, the couple learned valuable lessons. One was how to operate the controls of the radio station they purchased from Wine Country Broadcasting for $425,000 in May 2017.

Another was how desperate the valley’s Spanish-speaking residents were for emergency information.

Many called the Foster Road headquarters of the newly christened Wine Down Media seeking help. With cellphone and internet service knocked out by the flames, terrestrial radio was one of the only sources of public information.

“They were asking us, ‘What’s happening?’” said Will, who, like his 40-year-old wife, is bilingual. “‘We see that our neighbors are evacuating, but we have no idea what’s really happening. Like, we see the smoke, but are we in imminent danger?’”

Similar confusion greeted public safety power shut-offs and the pandemic in the years following the 2017 firestorms.

Despite comprising about 1 in 3 Napa County residents, Latinos were largely left in the dark during these crises.

The Marcencias decided to do something about it. In January 2022, after years of preparation, the couple rebranded KVON 1440 AM/96.9 FM with an all-Spanish format.

The bold decision garnered national headlines, as well as a few angry emails and phone calls from listeners who objected to losing KVON’s traditional news and sports format.

But 18 months into the change, the Marcencias have no plans to alter course. They say the new “MegaMix” format is a hit with the valley’s Latino community, so much so that the couple are considering adding a fourth part-time radio personality to the lineup and seeking more opportunities to expand the brand.

One example: Sabor + Ritmo, Julissa’s idea for Napa Valley’s first all-Latin music festival, drew thousands to Silverado Resort & Spa on Sept. 9 to sing and dance along with several of the biggest stars in Latin music today.

At Wine Down Media headquarters a few days after the festival, with coffees in hand, the couple reflected on their whirlwind time at the helm.

The enterprise also includes 99.3 FM “The Vine.” Both stations now broadcast out of modern facilities in South Napa Marketplace, across from Napa’s only movie theater.

For Julissa, whose 16-year media career includes working for some of the biggest names in the media and entertainment industry, offering more content to Napa Valley’s Latino population is good business.

“Any brand, from a local company to a national branch, should be speaking to Hispanics, and I truly feel that,” she said.

Sonoma County has long had a robust Spanish radio culture. But Julissa remarked on how little of that programming was offered elsewhere in the North Bay when she and her husband took control of local radio.

“Like, people just didn’t care about the audience, and that blows my mind,” she said. “They (Latinos) are your profit potential and growth engine for consumers.”

The couple declined to provide specific financial information for Wine Down Media. Will said revenues in general were up 20% in 2022 over 2018 — their first full year in business. He said as of Sept. 1 of this year, revenues had already exceeded 2022 numbers.

Ole Health, which provides free and low-cost health care in Napa and Solano counties, was the first to advertise on MegaMix.

“We have seen the power of local radio in our community. Unfortunately, it took the wildfires in 2017 to smack us in the face with that,” said Sonia Tolbert, Ole Health’s chief development officer. “It’s a really important medium for our Spanish-language residents, and it’s part of our overall community outreach and patient communication plan.”

With a 5,000-watt daytime signal, the AM station covers most of Napa County, eastern Sonoma County, and Vallejo and Fairfield in Solano County. A second transmitter at 96.9 FM boosts KVON’s reach into south Napa and American Canyon.

The Marcencias steadily ramped up Spanish-language content after they took over ownership of the station. As the 2017 firestorms raged, the couple put bilingual officials on air to keep listeners informed, a trend they continued through subsequent crises.

The couple settled on “MegaMix” as the name for the new venture because the word is an interlingual homograph, or cognate, meaning it exists in multiple languages. The station’s website is almost exclusively written in Spanish.

Outside of emergencies, the vibe is that of a party, or connection with a familiar time and place. Daily highlights include “Mini Festivals en MegaMix,” which are a trio of songs by one artist, and “Sorpresitas,” or one-hit wonders.

Seated behind the microphone during her 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. MegaMix show, Alma Garcia recalled immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico in her early 20s, and how long it took for her to feel at home in her adopted country. She now has two grown children.

Garcia spoke of how radio can address the loneliness many immigrants feel.

“When they hear a voice and music that resembles their city, or country, it’s like, ‘I feel close to my family. I feel close to my country,’” she said.

The Marcencias feel there’s a lot more potential for growth with MegaMix. They have FCC approval to simulcast the programming on 96.9 FM but have yet to flip the switch.

“It’s happening,” Will said. “We don’t have an exact date yet.”

The couple said it takes effort to convince potential advertisers that Spanish-language radio isn’t targeted strictly to low-income wage earners, but rather to an economically diverse population with disposable income to spend.

They say some advertisers also fail to see the marketing potential of advertising on both the English- and Spanish-language stations.

Julissa cited a brewery in upscale St. Helena whose Latino managers are MegaMix fans as an example of the demographically diverse advertiser the station is aiming for.

Currently, local businesses and groups comprise about 80% of MegaMix ad revenue.

For the Marcencias, who celebrated the birth of their first child seven months ago, Napa Valley is where they feel rooted now — and where they take pride in bringing people together over the airwaves.

“It’s about community, and it’s about local information,” Julissa said.