ESPN Deportes Radio was an American

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comedy ...

network created and produced by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

-owned

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Programming included call-in talk shows and commentary from hosts about a full range of sporting events, including soccer,

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

and

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

. 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, 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 Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

, 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.

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. 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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

switched to the national English-language ESPN Radio feed, and the remaining affiliates switched to different formats or went dark.Adios Deportes, Hola UNANIMO
, '' Radio Ink''. September 9, 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.

Event broadcasts

; Soccer *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

* UEFA Europa League * UEFA Super Cup *

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

(

Viernes de Fútbol ''Viernes de Fútbol'' ( Spanish for ''Soccer Friday'') is the Friday night broadcast of Major League Soccer produced by Univision Deportes for broadcast by UniMás and the Univision Deportes Network. Started in 2015, it is the first and (as of 2 ...

, Soccer Sunday, playoffs and MLS Cup) *

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Amer ...

* International Champions Cup * CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup Qualifiers * CONCACAF FIFA World Cup Qualifiers * FIFA World Cup European Qualifiers * Premier League * La Liga *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

* Copa del Rey * Supercopa de España ; Other *

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

* College Football Playoff *

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

( Sunday Night Baseball, Major League Baseball All-Star Game, postseason and World Series) * World Baseball Classic

References

ESPN Deportes lands its own ‘Dream Job’
- Mary Sutter, Variety, 18 May 2005
ESPN Deportes Radio to Air 24/7 This Fall
- Katy Bachman, Ad Week, 19 May 2005
ESPN, MRN bringing Spanish-language NASCAR to radio
- Michael Smith, Sports Business Journal, 30 October 2006
ESPN Deportes Radio gets started
- Radio and Television Business Report, 20 May 2008

External links

ESPN Deportes RadioESPN Deportes Live

ESPN Deportes Radio on SiriusESPN Deportes Radio affiliate stationsESPN Radio Celebrates its 25th Anniversary with Special Broadcast and Yearlong Programming
- Tara Chozet, ESPN Media Zone, 21 December 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:ESPN Deportes Radio Deportes Radio Sirius XM Radio channels Sports radio networks in the United States Spanish radio networks ABC Radio Networks Radio stations established in 2005 Radio stations disestablished in 2019 Defunct radio networks in the United States Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company Defunct radio stations in the United States