Arkansas Starts Spanish Radio Network For Football Games

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ This season, Arkansas will find out how well ``woo pig sooie'' translates to Spanish. <br/><br/>The University of Arkansas announced Thursday it would begin a Spanish radio

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 6:23 pm

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ This season, Arkansas will find out how well ``woo pig sooie'' translates to Spanish.

The University of Arkansas announced Thursday it would begin a Spanish radio network for its football season, offering six Fayetteville home games simulcast for the state's rapidly growing Hispanic population.

While soccer remains much of Latin America's true ``futbol,'' officials say interest among Hispanics in northwest Arkansas has grown, especially since freshman Alex Tejada has taken over this season as the Razorbacks' place kicker. Tejada, a former high school soccer player, comes from nearby Springdale, home to many Hispanic immigrant families.

``Clearly, there's a large market. Clearly, there's a very good following for Alex Tejada,'' said Matt Shanklin, an assistant athletic director at Arkansas. ``In this market, there's already a taste of it.''

The games will be broadcast on AM stations ESPN Deportes 1580 in Fort Smith and La Maquina 1590 in Springdale. Univision reporters Carlos Chicas and Jose Lopez will serve as the on-air talent.

Chicas, who also announces Kansas City Wizard MLS games, said he and Lopez began covering Razorbacks soccer for the Univision affiliates' news program in Little Rock and northwest Arkansas. As more Hispanic players joined university teams, Chicas began a baseball broadcast for a local Spanish radio station.

``We have a lot of Hispanics out there playing different sports,'' Chicas said. ``It will be a good time now that we have Alex Tejada, Ray Dominguez, Jose Valdez and all those guys playing for the Razorbacks.''

The interest in Arkansas athletics has the local Univision affiliates adding a show on Saturdays devoted to covering the university's sports, Chicas said. The game-day radio broadcasts, beginning 15 minutes before kickoff, will also be Webcast on the Internet.

Football terms often have no direct Spanish translation. Chicas said he and Lopez would flip back and forth as necessary _ offering a touchdown or an ``anotacion'' as the mood strikes them.

The emotion will be different as well, following more of the fever-pitch enunciation of the soccer announcers Chicas grew up listening to and mimicked as a child in Guatemala. Now 33, Chicas said that emotion brings ``you to the stadium as you are relaxing at home.''

``The excitement I think is what makes a difference,'' Chicas said. ``We have people who don't speak Spanish and have come to us and say, 'Guys, we don't understand a word of what you're saying, but you sound excited and we like having you around us.'''