The 2026 San Diego County Fair included the Native American Heritage Day festival
June 14, and Pala Rez Radio broadcast that event.
Pala Rez Radio station manager assistant Eric Ortega and Cupa Cultural Center
artifacts curator Mike Aguilar were at the Pala Rez Radio booth if not elsewhere in
the Del Mar Arena where the Native American Heritage Festival was held. “The
Native American Day went off very well,” Ortega said. “We had a lot of visitors at our
booth and saw a lot of people, made a lot of friends.”
Pala Rez Radio is a 24-hour station with an automated music mix which includes
Native American songs, country, blues, and reggae as well as classic rock. The
station at 91.3 on the FM dial also has local talk and news, Native American culture,
and classic radio shows. The station’s top priorities in terms of information are the
Pala reservation, the general nearby community, and native people on a national
basis. Ortega has been with Pala Rez Radio since the station went on the air on
February 3, 2011. This year was the 12th year that Pala Rez Radio has broadcast at
the San Diego County Fair.
The Pala Tribe had limited information about the October 2007 fires and
subsequently opted to launch a reservation radio station to provide emergency
information. The emergency activity the Pala Tribe envisioned didn’t include the
coronavirus shutdown in March 2020. The station provided information on
handling the changes. Since the churches including Pala Mission Church were
closed Pala Rez Radio also began broadcasting the Sunday morning Mass. The
parish and the radio station opted to retain the radio Mass even after in-person
church attendance was allowed. Ortega broadcast the June 14 Sunday Mass at the
church before heading to Del Mar to set up for the Native American Heritage
Festival, which last year was on a Saturday.
The county fair first had a Native American Heritage Day in 2024, although Pala Rez
Radio was not present. Pala Rez Radio had sufficient advance notice of the 2025
Native American Heritage Day festival to broadcast for nearly five hours last year.
This year Pala Rez Radio station manager John Fox pre-empted the station’s regular
Sunday programming, allowing Ortega and Aguilar to broadcast until the 7:00 p.m.
conclusion time of the Native American Heritage Day festival. “We broadcast the
entire event,” Ortega said.
“The Native American Day was terrific, even better than last year,” Fox said.
Ortega interviewed numerous participants, and those interviews were recorded for
cultural archives. Since the Pala Rez Radio booth was among other booths at the
festival those who visited the Native American Heritage Day festival were able to
visit the booth.
“We had a lot of people coming in. A lot of people asked about our shows,” Ortega
said. “It was well-received.”
