Spanish radio show has large, loyal audience

‘Boletín Católico’ is a staple of Sunday morning Spanish radio programming in D.C.

Dave Borowski
Arlington Catholic Herald
4/1/09

The radio station is an office cubicle on the eighth floor of the Arlington Diocese’s chancery building on Glebe Road in Arlington. It doesn’t look like much. To the untrained eye, it’s a jumble of wires connected to boards with a telephone, some microphones, headphones and several small electronic devices with blinking lights scattered around an ordinary office desk. It’s amazingly compact.

When the station is idle, which is most of the time, the equipment is covered in plastic to protect sensitive electronic equipment from dust and other damaging irritants. But on Sunday mornings from 11 a.m. until noon, the plastic comes off, guests and staff fill the cubicle and surrounding area and “Boletin Catolico” goes live, broadcasting to an audience that averages more than 400,000 listeners. They’re the No. 1 show on Sunday morning on Viva 900 AM.

Fifteen years ago Father José Hoyos, director of the Arlington diocesan Spanish Apostolate, saw an opportunity in the growing diocesan population of Hispanics.

“(There was a need) to evangelize our Hispanic community,” he said.

He went to the late Arlington Bishop John R. Keating with an idea for a radio station. The bishop saw the potential and gave seed money.

“Boletin Catolico” began as a half hour show, but its popularity and loyal audience soon had it expand to an hour.

In the beginning, Father Hoyos and staff had to fight rush hour traffic on the way to Laurel, Md., to tape the show for delayed broadcast on Sunday. They did that for about five years, eventually taping the show at the diocesan center in Arlington and then mailing a tape to the studio.

“(We realized) we needed to buy our own equipment,” Father Hoyos said.

They purchased second-hand equipment and settled in their current cubicle location about six years ago. The show is now a live remote broadcast from Arlington on Viva 900 WILC AM, part of the Telemundo Network International.

Father Hoyos said the show has always been a way to evangelize and spread the word of God and the work of the Arlington Diocese, especially the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal.

“We begin every show with the Gospel,” he said.

Listeners call in with a variety of needs — spiritual and temporal. Some want prayers for sick or out-of-work family members, others need help to pay the rent. People in jail write in with prayer requests.

“There’s a lot of suffering in our diocese,” said Father Hoyos. “But people are surviving. It’s a miracle.”

Occasionally there’s some controversy. At the height of the clergy sexual misconduct scandal, people would call in and attack the Church and its leaders.

“I would tell them that we are handling the problem,” Father Hoyos said.

But mostly the show is about helping the community, spreading the Gospel and having a little fun.

Father Hoyos knows that the audience is not all Catholic. He said that some of the questions are from people not familiar with the Faith.

“Why can’t priests marry,” is a question he hears a lot.

“Why do you baptize children? They’re too young. They’re not ready,” is another question.

But Father Hoyos sees it as an evangelizing opportunity and explains Church teaching to the caller.

A recent show’s guests were musicians. Guitarist Ricardo Vela accompanied singers Jorge Zurita and Angel Ramos. They were there to entertain and promote Encuentro, a Spanish prayer and praise festival held last Saturday at the D.C. Armory. They had an on-air contest for free tickets. The callers who correctly answered questions like, “What two countries did the pope visit in Africa recently,” got tickets.

During the broadcast a caller wanted to wish Father Hoyos a happy birthday, even though it was a few weeks late. A rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” followed — in Spanish, of course.

Father Hoyos said the radio show is a good investment. “It’s the best tool for evangelization that we have,” he said. But he is concerned about the future. The economic problems facing the country are hitting everywhere. A few weeks ago they received a check for $50 — their first ever donation.

When the checked arrived, the staff danced around the office.