Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895 – 23 September 1972) was a Mexican businessman, known for founding the entertainment conglomerate
Telesistema Mexicano
Telesistema Mexicano was the predecessor of Televisa. Telesistema Mexicano was a television alliance made up of the independently owned television flagship stations XEW-TV, XEW Canal 2, XHTV-TV, XHTV Canal 4, and XHGC-TV, XHGC Canal 5 in Mexico, D ...
(now
Televisa
Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April ...
).
Early life
Azcárraga was born on 2 March 1895 in
Tampico, Tamaulipas
Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. 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 fifth ...
, to
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. He started his primary education was in
Piedras Negras, Coahuila. His family moved to
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, where he attended middle school in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
and high school in
Austin
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
.
He obtained distribution rights for a shoe manufacturer in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
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, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...
. Around the same time his brother
Raúl Azcárraga Vidaurreta 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 poli ...
''
El Universal''. While working at the "Mexico Music" division of
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
) he became more interested in the radio broadcasting industry. On 19 March 1930 the radio station
XET-AM was founded in
Monterrey
Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
. And on September 18 Azcárraga created the
XEW-AM
XEW-AM (900 kHz) and XEW-FM (96.9 MHz) are commercial radio stations in Mexico City, Mexico, simulcasting a news/talk radio format branded as ''W Radio''. XEW serves as the flagship for other "W Radio" stations around Mexico that carry some or ...
with
Mexico Music Corporation as major stockholder. The station was also part of the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
division of RCA.
Television industry
Azcárraga Vidaurreta established
Estudios Churubusco 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.
Personal life
Azcárraga married Laura Milmo Hickman,
with whom he had three children, including
Emilio Milmo. 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 Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
the company focused on safer investments, like the then-recently-developing radio industry.
[Patricio Milmo O'Dowd biodata](_blank)
/ref>
He died on 23 September 1972 in Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
.
See also
*Azcárraga family
The Azcárraga family is a wealthy Mexican media dynasty. The center of their business empire, Televisa, is the main television network in Mexico and the largest producer and broadcaster of Spanish language media in the world.
Notable members
...
References
External links
Biography
at the Revista Mexicana de Comunicación of the Manuel Buendía Foundation.
Biography
at the Salón del Empresario en México ("Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in Mexico").
History
of the XEW-AM
XEW-AM (900 kHz) and XEW-FM (96.9 MHz) are commercial radio stations in Mexico City, Mexico, simulcasting a news/talk radio format branded as ''W Radio''. XEW serves as the flagship for other "W Radio" stations around Mexico that carry some or ...
.
{{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