ESPN Deportes Radio

Last updated
ESPN Deportes Radio
Type Radio network
Country
Ownership
Owner ESPN, Inc.
(Disney 80%/Hearst 20%)
History
Launch dateOctober 5, 2005;17 years ago (2005-10-05)
ClosedSeptember 8, 2019;3 years ago (2019-09-08)
Replaced byUnanimo Deportes
(in some markets)
Coverage
AvailabilityNational, through regional affiliates and satellite radio
Links
Website ESPN Deportes Radio

ESPN Deportes Radio was an American Spanish language sports radio network created and produced by Disney-owned ESPN. Programming included call-in talk shows and commentary from hosts about a full range of sporting events, including soccer, American football, baseball and boxing.

Contents

The network had stations in 15 states in the United States (Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington). It was also available terrestrially in Puerto Rico and in northern Mexico (by spillover radio signals) and was available nationally in the US on Sirius XM Radio on Channel 149.

The network shut down on September 8, 2019.

Programming

ESPN Deportes Radio featured sports news and talk in Spanish, with a special emphasis on soccer. Popular personalities on the network included Jorge Ramos, Fernando Alvarez, Hernan Pereyra, José del Valle, Kenneth Garay, Rafael Ramos Villagrana, Elmer Polanco, Armando Talavera Broderick Zerpa, Giovanni Scavia, Omar Fuentes, Jairo Moncada, Noe Vazquez, Diego Cora, Miguel Mannella, Dairon Esmoriz, Humberto Carrera, José Francisco Rivera, Oscar Restrepo, Alberto "Mono" Gambetta, David Lopez, Miguel Angel Cebreros, Dionisio Estrada, Bernardo Pilatti, Guillermo Celis, Renato Bermudez, Alvaro Riet, Omar Orlando Salazar, David Faitelson, Carlos Arratia and Luis Escobar.

ESPN Deportes as well as its English counterpart ESPN Radio were retained by Disney in the sale of ABC Radio to Citadel Broadcasting, then to Cumulus Media. The network was flagshipped at WMYM in Miami, Florida, which was not owned by Disney (it sold the station, then a Radio Disney outlet, in 2015) but had been operated by Disney for several years before that. [1]

Discontinuation of service

On June 11, 2019, ESPN announced that it would be discontinuing the ESPN Deportes Radio network on September 8, 2019, citing consumer habits within the demographic skewing towards digital platforms, the lack of a cohesive sports culture among the United States' various Spanish-speaking communities, and the cost, expense and complications of running a full-time radio network. ESPN plans to convert some of the network's programming to podcasts. 10 full-time employees and 25 part-time employees would be laid off as a result of the closures. [2] [1]

Most stations became affiliates of rival Spanish-language sports network TUDN Radio and the newly launched Unanimo Deportes radio network (which is run by ESPN Deportes alumnus Lino García and also based at WMYM), while WEPN in New York City switched to the national English-language ESPN Radio feed, and the remaining affiliates switched to different formats or went dark. [3] [4]

Event broadcasts

Soccer
Other

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Soccer</span> Television specialty channel specializing in soccer

Fox Soccer was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian rules football, but in its final years it was devoted strictly to soccer.

ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESPN Radio</span> Sports radio network

ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The network is based at the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut, with multiple studio facilities nationwide, along with home studios. The network airs a regular schedule of daily and weekly programming as well as live radio play-by-play of sporting events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Sports (United States)</span> Sports programming division of the Fox Corporation

Fox Sports, also referred to as Fox Sports Media Group and stylized in all caps as FOX Sports, is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network.

Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and callers. Many sports talk stations also carry play-by-play of local sports teams as part of their regular programming.

ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telemundo Deportes</span> Sports programming division of Telemundo

Telemundo Deportes is the programming division of NBC Sports Group, owned by NBCUniversal, that is responsible for the production of sports events and magazine programs that air on NBCUniversal's Spanish language television networks Telemundo and Universo. Originating as the former's sports division Deportes Telemundo from 1999 to 2015, it broadcasts an array of sports events, including the association football matches from various international football leagues and the Olympic Games, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESPN Deportes</span> American Spanish-language sports TV channel

ESPN Deportes is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications. The network is aimed primarily at the Hispanic community in the United States. The channel broadcasts from studio facilities at ESPN's traditional bases of operations in Los Angeles, and Bristol, Connecticut, along with their Mexican base in Mexico City.

WMYM is a radio station licensed to Kendall, Florida, serving the Miami metropolitan area with a Spanish language Christian format.

ESPN is the Brazilian division of ESPN Inc. Launched in March 1989 as Canal+, it was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics; the 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 1999, 2003 and 2007 Pan-American Games. High ratings and prestige in the segment have been marks of the channel; it also won the APCA award twice, in 1995 for "Best Sports Programming" and in 1998 for "Best Coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup".

Francisco X. Rivera is a bilingual sportscaster who specializes in soccer, football and baseball. He started his on-air career in 2005 as a host, play-by-play announcer and reporter, as one of the youngest on-air talents in American television. He made his debut on English-language network television as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports during the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Long Beach State graduate can be seen and heard on FS1, Estrella TV and ESPN Deportes Radio, among other outlets in the United States and Latin America.

Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada include:

In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.

These are the sports broadcasting contracts in the Philippines. There are four primary local producers of sport programs in the country: Solar Sports, TAP Sports, GMA Network, and TV5/Cignal TV.

Andrés Cantor is an Argentine-American sportscaster and pundit who works in the United States providing Spanish-language commentary and analysis in sports. Cantor is well known among both Spanish- and English speakers for his narration of association football matches, and shouting "¡Gooooooooooool!" when one is scored. Outside of football commentary, he covers other sports as well. Cantor has dual citizenship with Argentina and the United States.

TUDN (pronounced tu-de-ene; formerly called Univision Deportes Network is an American Spanish language sports channel. Owned by TelevisaUnivision, it is an extension of the company's sports division of the same name. It launched on April 7, 2012, along with Univision Tlnovelas and FOROtv.

TUDN is a sports programming division of Univision, a Spanish language broadcast television network owned by TelevisaUnivision USA, that is responsible for the production of televised coverage of sports events and magazine programs that air on the parent Univision network and sister network UniMás, and cable channels Galavisión and TUDN TV channel. The division's premier sports properties are its broadcast rights to Liga MX, select matches involving the Mexico and United States men's national soccer teams, tournament matches from the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América. The division's headquarters are at TelevisaUnivision USA's South Florida headquarters in the Miami suburb of Doral, Florida.

TUDN Radio is a U.S. Spanish-language sports radio network operated by Uforia Audio Network, a division of TelevisaUnivision. It launched on March 15, 2017 on ten AM and FM radio stations, most of which previously affiliated with the ill-fated Univision America until its 2015 closure. The network features stations in the states of Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, Nevada, New York and Florida, covering half of the country's Hispanic population.

Fox currently airs soccer matches in the United States. These matches are from the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Women's World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, the Gold Cup, Copa América, MLS, and Liga MX. Fox formerly aired the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, the Serie A, and the FA Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESPN (Latin America)</span> Pay television network

ESPN Latin America is the Latin American division of ESPN Inc., and broadcasts sports-related programming for the region in Spanish. It was launched on 31 March 1989. Its programming is adapted to the likes of viewers, who tend to prefer football and Hispanic baseball players to the more locally produced programs.

References

  1. 1 2 Fybush, Scott (June 17, 2019). "¡Adios, ESPN Deportes Radio!". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  2. "35 To Lose Jobs As ESPN Shuts Down Deportes Radio". Radio Ink. 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  3. Jacobson, Adam. "For Spanish-language Sports, It's 'Unanimo'", Radio & Television Business Report. September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  4. "Adios Deportes, Hola UNANIMO", Radio Ink . September 9, 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.