Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895,

Tampico, Tamaulipas Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fift ...

– 23 September 1972,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

) was a Mexican businessman who built an entertainment conglomerate. The son of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

immigrants Mariano Azcárraga and Emilia Vidaurreta, his primary education was in

Piedras Negras, Coahuila Piedras Negras () is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. It stands at the northeastern edge of Coahuila on the Mexico–United States border, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass in ...

, middle school in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, and high school in Austin.

Early career

Aged 17, he was employed at a shoe store while he studied trade and economics by night. He obtained distribution rights for a shoe manufacturer in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and, at age 23, he created the car distribution company, ''Azcárraga & Copland''.

Radio broadcasting industry

In 1923, Azcárraga obtained a license to distribute radios from the

Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

. Around the same time his brother

Raúl Azcárraga Vidaurreta Raúl Azcárraga Vidaurreta was a Mexican businessman and broadcasting pioneer. In February 1923, he started transmitting trial radio signals from his business office located in Avenida Juárez, in Mexico City, using a 50-watt transmitter. After ...

had created a radio station with Mexico City's

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

'' El Universal''. While working at the "Mexico Music" division of

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

) he became more interested in the radio broadcasting industry. On 19 March 1930 the radio station

XET-AM XET-AM, nicknamed La T Grande, is a commercial AM radio station on 990 kHz at Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It is part of Multimedios Radio's Monterrey station cluster. The transmitter is located in San Nicolás de los Garza, near Monter ...

was founded in Monterrey. And on September 18 Azcárraga created the

XEW-AM XEW-AM is a radio station in Mexico City, Mexico, broadcasting on the AM frequency of 900 kHz; it is branded as ''W Radio''. XEW-AM serves as the originating station for other "W Radio" stations around Mexico that carry some of its program ...

with Mexico Music Corporation as major stockholder. The station was also part of the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

division of RCA.

Television industry

Azcárraga Vidaurreta established

Estudios Churubusco Estudios Churubusco is one of the oldest and largest movie studios in Mexico. It is located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City. History It was inaugurated in 1945 after a 1943 agreement between RKO and Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta ( ...

in the 1940s and created the first TV station in Mexico, Channel 2, in 1951. He became the first president of Telesistemas Mexicanos in 1955. His entertainment conglomerate was composed of 92 different business units by 1969. He died on 23 September 1972, before establishment of Televisa, S.A., a television production company on 1 January 1973.

Family

Emilio married Laura Milmo Hickman, daughter of Patricio Milmo Vidaurri, an American citizen, and Laura Hickman Morales. She was the granddaughter of Patricio Milmo O'Dowd (né Patrick Milmo (1826–1899), son of Darby and Sarah (née O'Dowd) Milmo of Lisaneena, Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland), a major stockholder in th
Milmo National Bank of Laredo
and his wife, María Prudenciana Vidaurri Vidaurri (a descendant of the Vásquez Borregos, who helped to found

Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Laredo has the distinction of flying seven flags (the flag of th ...

). Emilio Azcárraga and Laura Milmo had three children:

Emilio Emilio may refer to: * Emilio Navaira, a Mexican-American singer often called "Emilio" * Emilio Piazza Memorial School, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State * Emilio (given name) * ''Emilio'' (film), a 2008 film by Kim Jorgensen See also * Emílio (dis ...

, Laura, and Carmela. In 1899 ''Patricio Milmo and Sons'' was established as a bank to invest in such interests as railroads and mines. After the Mexican Revolution the company focused on safer investments, like the then-recently-developing radio industry.Patricio Milmo O'Dowd biodata
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References

External links

Biography
at the Revista Mexicana de Comunicación of the

Manuel Buendía Manuel Buendía Tellezgirón (24 May 1926 – 30 May 1984) was a Mexican journalist and political columnist who last worked for the daily ''Excélsior'', one of the most-read newspapers in Mexico City. His direct reporting style in his colum ...

Foundation.
Biography
at the Salón del Empresario en México ("Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in Mexico").
History
of the

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Azcarraga Vidaurreta, Emilio 1895 births 1972 deaths Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners Mexican chief executives Mexican people of Basque descent People from Tampico, Tamaulipas Mexican radio company founders Mexican television company founders Emilio Azcarrafa Vidaurreta Mexican television executives Chairmen of Televisa