The Spanish language market for sport in the United States remains one of the most loyal and one of the most elusive for the Anglo world. Issues trying to understand the differences in cultures, Mexican vs. Puerto Rican vs. Brazilian vs. Spanish, can sometimes make the mastering of a very brand loyal and fast growing part of the population difficult to embrace, and while some brands like Verizon have done great activation programs, many are still struggling to show ROI. Then there is another part of the audience, the Latino and Latina culture which embraces its heritage but ants to engage in their more comfortable English language, still full of the cultural traditions that they were raised on here in North America.
On the sports side, several websites, including Fox Sports Latino and Latino Sports, have tried to embrace that demo, conversing in English about topics the audience wants to be involved with about the games, a and the athletes that resonate culturally and socially with them. Now a local radio station is going to try and do the same with the spoken word. ESPN Deportes, at the 1050 slot on the AM dial in New York, will offer up a weekly show not in Spanish but in English, talking about sports and lifestyle with multilingual hosts familiar to the fan base.
Felix DeJesus, a longtime boxing analyst and translator at Showtime, Kevin Cabral, Ralph Romeo and longtime New York Yankees staffer Ray Negron will host 1050 Impact, the only English-speaking show on the station. The concept will be to bring on crossover guests from sports and entertainment, and explain how sports has had a big impact on their lives. The guests do not have to be all Hispanic; rather they will be able to appeal to the core audience that usually listens to the national and local shows in Spanish about the relevant sports topics of the day, but may also have an interest in hearing, and sharing, the information and discussions with friends and family accustomed to hearing English.
The two hour Thursday night block in a prime listening hour, plus the eclectic hosts and guests, will make this an interesting crossover experiment to see if the station cannot just sustain its size, but also grow and bring in a new English language audience, or a multilingual audience, to a station has to continue to find new ways to drive ROI in a very crowded marketplace.
Good storytelling never gets lost in translation; whether it crosses over will be interesting to watch, or at least listen to.
