Transcript Sports Writer
Armando Rubio has been the general manager at KTUZ Le Zeta (106.7 FM) for several years and an Oklahoma football fan even longer.
Yet, during that entire time he had never been able to hear a Sooner football in his native Spanish tongue. The wait came to an end Sept. 8 when KTUZ broadcasted the first ever OU football game in Spanish.
"It's really, really big," Rubio said. "The community has been waiting for this game. It has been anxious to hear the game in Spanish."
Although today's game will not be aired on KTUZ, the station is hopeful it can come to a long-term agreement with the University of Oklahoma for future broadcast.
"There are talks planned between the station and the university," Rubio said. "I don't see anything to keep it from happening again. I don't see any roadblocks. But at this point, we really don't know."
The broadcast was made possible by Sooner Sports Properites and KTUZ-FM La Zeta, which is owned by Tyler Media. It also owns and operates KTUZ-TV and T-30 Telemundo.
Rubio said this has always been the plan for the radio station, Tyler media and the University of Oklahoma. But it has taken time for all groups involved to get on the same page.
"I think it all takes time and the planning to make sure everything is going to be done well," Rubio said. "It has taken three or four years of planning. I think we are ready to do it. I think we are going to be doing a good thing."
It was almost a good thing that it took as long as it did to get the Spanish broadcast on air. Because KTUZ had to wait, they were able to make their Spanish premier in one of the most anticipated games of the year with the University of Miami coming to Oklahoma.
T-30 sports director Rene Nava, who did the game's play-by-play in Spanish, knows just how special it was to have the Sooners and Hurricanes as their first game. It was also the first football game Nava has ever called.
"This is my first time and it's the OU/Miami game," Nava said. "Wow. I never think about it until now. It will be a great opportunity for us and for me. Just enjoy the game and tell the people what's going on."
Also, with both Oklahoma and Florida having such large Hispanic populations, it was a natural for their game to be the initial test case.
"The fact that the Miami game is being transmitted into Miami in Spanish to the Miami Spanish community is big," Rubio said. "That is one of the reasons we chose this game. There are a lot of families in Oklahoma that have relatives in Miami. They want to call their cousins, their friends, everybody. Here we are with the Sooners. You guys got the Hurricanes."
From a strictly business standpoint, having a Spanish broadcast makes perfect sense to Oklahoma and KTUZ.
"The community accepted the game well," Rubio said. "Now they can understand the game. When you reach the Spanish community in their own language, you are dealing with them one-on-one. They have to trust the people they are dealing with. This is something the University is aware of."
"We recognize the presence and impact of the Spanish-speaking media and KTUZ specifically," Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione said when the agreement was announced this summer. "It is obvious to us that the marketplace is evolving and we want to pursue these new opportunities. We see this as an avenue to expand a very large fan base and we are pleased that we can partner with Skip Stow.
"We want Spanish-speaking citizens to know that we embrace them for our events and we will seek other ways to encourage their interaction with our programs."
While both Rubio and Nava said that being able to broadcast the OU game in Spanish was important to the radio station, Tyler Media and the university, the people who benefit the most are members of the growing Hispanic community in Oklahoma.
"As you know, in the Oklahoma City public school district, 38 percent of the students are Hispanic," Rubio said. "And of course they are into football. They love it. University of Oklahoma is a dream to some of these students who come to this school and be able to listen to the game in Spanish, in their own language."
Nava stresses that how special it is for younger kids to hear their favorite team in Spanish.
"We are sort of the second generation Hispanic people here," Nava said. "The high school students and university students. Those Hispanic persons, they like their football. We need to give them the opportunity to hear it in Spanish. They speak English, they speak Spanish. But they want to hear in Spanish what's going on with the Sooners. The OU football team is a very important thing nationally."
But, as of now, the Spanish broadcast was a one time deal. Despite Rubio saying the response from the listening audience was excellent, a timetable has not been set for the next broadcast.
The people at KTUZ hope this was not a one and done deal and look forward to a productive future calling OU games in Spanish.
"In the last five years, the Spanish population in Oklahoma City has grown 125 percent," Rubio said. "The numbers will tell you, as we grow, there is more interest in sports in Spanish. Of course OU basketball, football, soccer. That's one of the reasons OU and KTUZ had so much interest in this game."
Michael Kinney 366-3537 mkinney@normantranscript.com
