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.”
