Media Sources
This daily newspaper is Florida’s largest, and its weekly supplements The Street and Weekend are major sources of information about local entertainment and events.
This is the main free alternative weekly, which you can pick up in many restaurants, stores, clubs, and drop bins all over town. It reviews restaurants, movies, clubs, etc.
The island’s eponymous weekly newspaper features news about upcoming events, arts, theater, attractions, music, clubs, local news, features, and opinions. And like all true Conch undertakings, it’s notoriously iconoclastic, taking on the local police and other authorities in articles.
This is Miami’s Spanish-language edition, which naturally focuses more on issues and events relating to the huge Hispanic community.
In the “tonier� hotels, you’ll often find Ocean Drive and Where . The former is not much more than a super-stylish fashion vehicle. Where is an international publication – the Miami version, which comes out monthly, has some excellent basic insights and even some captivating articles. Note, however, that all the restaurant listings are there because the owners paid to be included, rendering the reviews less than entirely genuine.
The programming of the main national networks are carried by four Miami channels: Channel 4 is CBS, Channel 6 is NBC, Channel 7 is FOX, and Channel 10 is ABC. Unless your TV is connected to cable, this will be the configuration for receiving all the regularly scheduled sit-coms, sports, and news programming. The PBS station is normally Channel 2.
Most TVs you encounter in Miami will be connected to one cable company or another. Most likely this will mean that you receive not only the major networks but also CNN and MSNBC for news, ESPN for sports, the Weather Channel, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon (for the kids). You might also be lucky enough to get all or some of the innovative HBO programming, as well as excellent Showtime offerings.
Miami may seem mostly Spanish-speaking, but when you turn on the radio, you’ll find that most of the banter is still in English. There’s the usual big-city mix of country, oldies, new rock, hard rock, jazz, and NPR (National Public Radio) programming and similar local stations, for people who want to hear the topics of the day intelligently considered by interesting thinkers.
There are, of course, several Spanish-language stations, featuring very high-energy programming and the compelling, non-stop rhythms of every sort of Latin American music, from more or less traditional to the very latest international Latino heartthrobs. It’s not a bad way to practice your Spanish, particularly because some of the time the announcers are speaking an easy mixture of Spanish and English, often called Spanglish.
Since the quality of the FM signal is so much better – and allows for true stereophonic broadcasting – the AM dial in Miami is given over almost entirely to talk radio. Listeners call in to let off steam about whatever topic of the day the commentator has selected to get everyone worked up about. There are both English and Spanish talk radio stations in Miami.