Эмилио Аскаррага Видауррета: Мексикалық кәсіпкер және медиа магнаты

Mexican businessman

Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895, Tampico, Tamaulipas – 23 September 1972, Houston) was a Mexican businessman who built an entertainment conglomerate. The son of Basque immigrants Mariano Azcárraga and Emilia Vidaurreta, his primary education was in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, middle school in San Antonio, Texas, and high school in Austin.

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

In 1923, Azcárraga obtained a license to distribute radios from the Victor Talking Machine Company. Around the same time his brother Raúl Azcárraga Vidaurreta had created a radio station with Mexico City's newspaper El Universal. While working at the "Mexico Music" division of RCA) he became more interested in the radio broadcasting industry. On 19 March 1930 the radio station XET AM was founded in Monterrey. And on September 18 Azcárraga created the XEW AM with Mexico Music Corporation as major stockholder. The station was also part of the NBC division of RCA.

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.

Emilio married Laura Milmo Hickman.