Los 40

Spanish radio station network

Los 40 (The 40, stylized as LOS40 and formerly Los 40 Principales, lang es) is a Top 40 music radio network and radio station brand in many Spanish speaking countries from PRISA Radio. The station has its origins as a music show at Radio Madrid in 1966, today Cadena SER, where the 40 Principales chart was born, then evolved into a standalone radio station in 1979. Some stations under this brand name are owned and operated or are licensed by PRISA to use the brand. A local broadcasting company operates some LOS40 stations. This local station is affiliated with the company that holds a license to use the brand from Grupo PRISA. Each LOS40 network typically broadcasts its own national feed from its respective country.

In 1965, the Ministry of Information and Tourism passed a law, enforcing medium wave radio stations to launch FM stations to develop FM in Spain. Due to the high costs of producing new shows, most of the schedules for the new stations were based on music, mainly classical music. In 1966, Cadena SER asked one of its broadcasters, Rafael Revert, to develop a new music show aimed at a younger audience. So he took the idea of the Top 40 and created a chart with the 40 top singles of the week, which would be voted on by the audience. So, on 18 July 1966, the first show of Los 40 Principales was broadcast on Radio Madrid, marking the debut of the chart list, with "Monday, Monday" by The Mamas & the Papas as the first N°1. Soon, the show would be broadcast on ten Cadena SER radio stations. At first it was a daily show, revealing candidates during the week, and the new list each Saturday. The viewers would phone each station to vote for their favorite songs. The show was recorded in Madrid, then the tape was sent to all of the affiliate stations throughout Spain and broadcast simultaneously. The duration of the show was increased during the 70s from the original 1 hour to 2, then 4 and finally 8 hours by the end of the 1970s. In 1979, Cadena SER decided to make 40 Principales a standalone radio network, which would be dedicated to the chart and its candidates 24 hours a day (what is later known, in Spanish, as radiofórmula). At first, the 40 Principales stations were still part of Cadena SER, becoming an independent network in 1987, though still owned by Grupo PRISA alongside Cadena SER. In 1985, the 40 Principales main station began broadcasting live by satellite throughout Spain. In 1990, the chart show started being broadcast also on TV through Canal+ and in 1998 also on the newly created 40 Principales TV satellite channel. The chart show got its present name, Del 40 al 1 (From 40 to 1), in 1995. During the 2000s, 40 Principales was expanded through Latin American opening some 400 stations in Spanish speaking countries with either local media companies operating stations within a country or listening area or PRISA operating a company within a country. In May 2016, Los 40 Principales re branded as simply LOS40. The main reason was that the station "is so much more than a top 40 list". In September 2017, the LOS40 TV channel was shut down after almost two decades of broadcasting.

Location Callsign Frequency Barcelona, Spain ELS40 93.9 MHz Bogotá, Colombia LOS40 100,4 MHz Buenos Aires, Argentina LS4 105.5 MHz Madrid, Spain LOS40 93.9 MHz Mexico City, Mexico XEX FM 101.7 MHz Santiago, Chile 101.7 MHz