IDAHO FALLS (AP) -- The owners of a Spanish-language radio station say that boosting the station's power from 1,000 to 38,000 watts has allowed them to help unify the Hispanic community in southeastern Idaho.

Brothers Albino Ortega and Efrain Ortega bought Radio Fiesta (KIGO 1420-AM) last year.

"Radio is at the forefront of communicating to the Hispanic market," Ted Austin, who sold KIGO to the Ortegas, told the Post Register. "It's a great service to that market that has not been served any other way."

The brothers were operating a radio station in Jerome in southern Idaho when the FCC license to broadcast out of St. Anthony was put up for sale, they decided to buy it.

They moved the studio to Idaho Falls and built transmission towers outside Rigby, broadcasting at 1,000 watts. In March, they started broadcasting at 38,000 watts.

"We started getting a lot of calls from Montana, Jackson, American Falls," Albino Ortega said. "We're getting a lot of calls from people wanting to run ads."

The station also played a role in an April 10 immigration rights march in Idaho Falls when a large number of people said they learned about the march on the radio.

The station, through on-air personalities Eduardo "El Piolin" Sotelo, Ricardo "El Mandril" Sanches and Renan "El Cucuy," promoted the march by telling people where to meet, what to wear, what to carry and how to act.

"The important thing is for all voices to be heard," Albino Ortega said.

Spanish-language stations used to have a hard time getting advertisers, which hasn't been a problem for KIGO-AM. Wells Fargo, Pizza Hut, American Family Insurance, and local businesses have been buying time hoping to reach the station's listeners.

"It is because of their numbers and their buying power," Austin said.

Albino Ortega said the portability of radio gives it an advantage with Hispanics.

"It gets into where the people are working," Ortega said. "Most factories will allow you to have a radio on. You can listen to it running a tractor."

He originally visited the United States with a tourist Visa in 1982, and had a chance to become legalized later that decade. He said living in both countries helps him understand what listeners to the station are feeling about the immigration issue.

"Something's got to be done," he said. "But it's got to be something that doesn't make it a crime to seek happiness and a better way of life," he said.