ESPN Radio to Broadcast Jets Games in Spanish in New York

September 7, 2012, 10:46 am

By TANZINA VEGA

The New York Jets had a rough preseason this year, but they may soon have a chance to make a fresh start, this time in Spanish.

On Friday, ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language division of ESPN, will announce it has reached a three-year agreement with the New York Jets to broadcast their games in Spanish.

The agreement is part of a lineup of content that will fill the new 24-hour Spanish-language sports news station, ESPN Deportes Nueva York 1050 AM. The station will make its debut on Friday at 2 p.m., replacing ESPN's English-language sports station, which moved to 98.7 FM in April.

The station shuffle came after Disney, the ESPN parent company, took over 98.7 FM from Emmis Communications. The FM station used to be known as KISS FM and featured classic soul and R & B music. ESPN has 45 affiliate stations in the United States.

Lino Garcia, the general manager for ESPN Deportes, said the station's target audience was Spanish speaking men ages 18-49. Bilingual listeners are also important, Mr. Garcia said, describing them as “that large bilingual group that can take their news and information and also the play by play in Spanish and English.”

While many Latinos are fans of baseball and soccer (the station will air both), the Jets deal signals a desire on the part of ESPN Deportes to get more Hispanics interested in football, said Oscar Ramos, the general manager for ESPN Deportes Radio.

“This is not a simple translation of ESPN radio in English,” Mr. Ramos said. “Our goal is to serve the Spanish sports fan.”

The station expects to run 300 hours of programming annually, including live broadcasts o f Dominican baseball, South American and Caribbean World Cup qualifying games and games from Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.

On Monday, the network will debut two new shows, including a 2 p.m. broadcast called “Zona ESPN Nueva York,” a sports talk show hosted by Carolina Guillen, Sebastian Christensen and Enrique Rojas. The second show, called “Firma ESPN,” will run from 7 to 10 a.m. and will be hosted by Renato Bermudez and Ernesto Jerez.

ESPN Deportes will also announce new content online at ESPNDeportes.com that will feature more than 200 sporting events that will be shown exclusively online.