In pursuit of even more business, the port's expansion into containerized cargo continued last month when its new gantry crane, taller than the Statue of Liberty, became fully operational. This year, container cargo is expected to account for the largest single share of Port Everglades' revenue, about 25% of the $60 million total.
But long term, port officials are concerned about looming foreign competition - especially major port construction projects along the Panama Canal and in Freeport, the Bahamas. Says O'Brien: "We and everyone else on the east coast of Florida have been watching that development in Freeport."
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Entertainment
International Sound Machine
Gloria Estefan may be one of Florida's biggest exports. The Miami Beach-based singing star just finished a lengthy world tour, with performances in 56 cities in Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia. Since 1985, her five albums under the Epic label have sold about 50 million copies worldwide. While Latin America is a major foreign market for her, Estefan actually sells more music in the U.K., where she was a hit before she became popular in the U.S. Other Latin recording artists in Miami are making big money in the international music business. Crooner Julio Iglesias has sold millions of albums around the world. Grammy Award-winning singer Jon Secada also calls Miami home.
But individual stars aren't the only big players in Miami's borderless music industry. In recent years, some of the biggest corporate names in the recording business - including BMG, Polygram and Sony - have opened Miami outposts that distribute records, acquire labels and develop new artists in Latin America. "They see Miami as the capital of Latin American music," says Max Borges, head of the Florida branch of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), the trade group that created and stages the annual Grammy Awards.
There are plenty of places in south Florida to cut a record: According to Jam magazine, a statewide music industry publication, 69 of Florida's 207 recording studios are concentrated in Dade and Broward counties. Among them is Crescent Moon Studio, run by Gloria Estefan's husband, Emilio, who is also her business manager and co-producer.
Regulatory reform has made the music business in Latin America somewhat easier to manage from Miami. Holland & Knight attorney Jorge Hernandez-Torano, who does legal work for the Estefans, says copyright laws and their enforcement have improved in countries like Argentina and Venezuela, encouraging U.S. record companies to become more active there. "They're getting a better grip on bootlegging and piracy," Borges says. "That's still a big problem in Latin America, much bigger than here."
Besides distributing cassettes and compact discs to retailers abroad, record companies in Miami also do business with two locally based Spanish-language TV networks, Univision and Telemundo, that license Latin music for the programming they produce. South Florida-based producers of TV programs, commercials, videos and films are buyers of Latin music, too. "It's nice for Latin music publishers here," says Lin M. Cherry, an entertainment lawyer in Miami. "There are a lot of distribution channels for them."
There are important promotional channels as well. Two Miami-based cable channels, MTV Latino and HTV, beam Spanish-language music videos to millions of cable television viewers abroad. Robert Behar, who oversees HTV's programming, says his cable channel reaches eight million viewers and aims for 12 million by the year 2000. When HTV played an overlooked Ruben Blades song produced by a Panamanian company, "all of a sudden, the record house in Panama started shipping to Argentina and Venezuela and everyplace else," Behar says.
Miami also is a popular location for international networking. One of the biggest events of the year will be the Midem Latin America & Caribbean Music Market, a major business convention to be held Sept. 8 to 11 in Miami Beach. The man credited with attracting the convention is David Bercuson, the Miami attorney whose client the Bayside Boys recorded the 1996 hit single "Macarena" [Of Counsel, March 1997].
Within a few years, an all-Latin Grammy Awards program will further Miami's image as a recording center. NARAS is developing a spinoff organization, based in Miami Beach, to focus solely on promotion and recognition of excellence in Spanish-language music. Not just the traditional sounds of salsa and merengue, but also Latin rock, pop and rap. "Miami's music industry doesn't depend on a particular genre," says Borges, the NARAS executive in charge of Florida. "It depends on a language - and I think people are going to be speaking Spanish for a long time to come."
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Quiet Pagers
The Buzz On JTech
JTECH Inc. of Boca Raton, a leading manufacturer of silent pagers, is making big noises overseas. Last year, the company celebrated its first international success when Whitbread UK, one of England's largest operators of pubs and restaurants, purchased 25,000 of its silent pagers, which vibrate instead of beeping. Now the company's pagers are being marketed in South Africa and Australia as well. JTECH reported revenues of $16 million for 1996, but management believes the international expansion will treble their business by next year. "We feel that $50 million is definitely within our grasp by 1998," says Jeff Graham Sr., CEO of JTECH.
Gloria Estefan may be one of Florida's biggest exports. The Miami Beach-based singing star just finished a lengthy world tour, with performances in 56 cities in Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia. Since 1985, her five albums under the Epic label have sold about 50 million copies worldwide. While Latin America is a major foreign market for her, Estefan actually sells more music in the U.K., where she was a hit before she became popular in the U.S. Other Latin recording artists in Miami are making big money in the international music business. Crooner Julio Iglesias has sold millions of albums around the world. Grammy Award-winning singer Jon Secada also calls Miami home.
But individual stars aren't the only big players in Miami's borderless music industry. In recent years, some of the biggest corporate names in the recording business - including BMG, Polygram and Sony - have opened Miami outposts that distribute records, acquire labels and develop new artists in Latin America. "They see Miami as the capital of Latin American music," says Max Borges, head of the Florida branch of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), the trade group that created and stages the annual Grammy Awards.
There are plenty of places in south Florida to cut a record: According to Jam magazine, a statewide music industry publication, 69 of Florida's 207 recording studios are concentrated in Dade and Broward counties. Among them is Crescent Moon Studio, run by Gloria Estefan's husband, Emilio, who is also her business manager and co-producer.
Regulatory reform has made the music business in Latin America somewhat easier to manage from Miami. Holland & Knight attorney Jorge Hernandez-Torano, who does legal work for the Estefans, says copyright laws and their enforcement have improved in countries like Argentina and Venezuela, encouraging U.S. record companies to become more active there. "They're getting a better grip on bootlegging and piracy," Borges says. "That's still a big problem in Latin America, much bigger than here."
Besides distributing cassettes and compact discs to retailers abroad, record companies in Miami also do business with two locally based Spanish-language TV networks, Univision and Telemundo, that license Latin music for the programming they produce. South Florida-based producers of TV programs, commercials, videos and films are buyers of Latin music, too. "It's nice for Latin music publishers here," says Lin M. Cherry, an entertainment lawyer in Miami. "There are a lot of distribution channels for them."
There are important promotional channels as well. Two Miami-based cable channels, MTV Latino and HTV, beam Spanish-language music videos to millions of cable television viewers abroad. Robert Behar, who oversees HTV's programming, says his cable channel reaches eight million viewers and aims for 12 million by the year 2000. When HTV played an overlooked Ruben Blades song produced by a Panamanian company, "all of a sudden, the record house in Panama started shipping to Argentina and Venezuela and everyplace else," Behar says.
Miami also is a popular location for international networking. One of the biggest events of the year will be the Midem Latin America & Caribbean Music Market, a major business convention to be held Sept. 8 to 11 in Miami Beach. The man credited with attracting the convention is David Bercuson, the Miami attorney whose client the Bayside Boys recorded the 1996 hit single "Macarena" [Of Counsel, March 1997].
Within a few years, an all-Latin Grammy Awards program will further Miami's image as a recording center. NARAS is developing a spinoff organization, based in Miami Beach, to focus solely on promotion and recognition of excellence in Spanish-language music. Not just the traditional sounds of salsa and merengue, but also Latin rock, pop and rap. "Miami's music industry doesn't depend on a particular genre," says Borges, the NARAS executive in charge of Florida. "It depends on a language - and I think people are going to be speaking Spanish for a long time to come."