on May 30. A story in Monday's Tribune misidentified the company.

Utahns who watch their television programming in Spanish soon will have another place to turn for their news and entertainment.

LatinAmerica Broadcasting Inc., a Spanish-language broadcaster based in Houston, plans to begin transmitting its signal in the Salt Lake City area on May 30.

"Utah's Hispanic population is large and continues to grow," said Patricia Torres-Burd, vice president of programming and branding at LatinAmerica Broadcasting. "We believe that we can win them over with our content."

She said the company's signal will be broadcast over-the-air on KCBU -DT, Channel 3, which offers a signal that only can be picked up by digital televisions. "We are in negotiations, though, with the cable companies in Salt Lake City area," Torres-Burd said, "so we're hoping that we will also be carried on cable there by the time we are ready to launch."

LatinAmerica Broadcasting, which debuted on May 19, 2006, in Phoenix and five of the largest communities in Texas, said it recently entered into an affiliate agreement with Equity Media Holdings Corp. that paves the way for it to launch is content in Salt Lake City and 21 additional cities.

"They've basically agreed to acquire airtime from us," said Stanford Smith of Equity Media, which he described as the second largest affiliate of Univision, a nationwide Spanish-language network.

Torres-Burd said LatinAmerica Broadcasting intends to transmit its signal 24 hours and seven days a week. LatinAmerica Broadcasting's goal is to offer its viewers programming that addresses the needs of the Latino community, as well as Utahns who may just want to brush up on their Spanish, she said.

"For instance, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. we provide programming for children who have gotten out of school for the day," Torres-Burd said. "Of course, we hope that once the children's programming is over that their parents will continue to watch."

Torres-Burd said the launch in Salt Lake and the 21 other communities, including Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle and Portland, will go a long way toward helping the company to become a full broadcast network - one capable of reaching 70 percent of the major television markets in the country.

Scott Rockwood, chief executive at the Salt Lake City ad agency Richter 7, said the percentage of advertising directed toward the Latino population in Utah is growing at a healthy clip.

"Clearly the market is there [for television advertising] and it is growing," Rockwood said. "The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of statistical information available yet on [Latino] viewership - although everyone is assuming that they are tuning in to the Spanish-language programming that is already available."

Comcast, the state's largest cable television provider, offers five Spanish language channels as part of its basic cable package. It digital customers for an extra $8.99 a month can get a package of 18 Spanish language channels and five music channels.

From a sheer numbers perspective, the Latino population is growing in influence and buying power.

In 2006, a study by the University of Georgia Terry College of Business estimated that Latino purchasing power in Utah was approximately $4 billion, a 471 percent increase from 15 years ago. During the same period, the buying power of whites increased by 164 percent.