Enrique Vasquez braced for the first big break of his career. It was Week 1 of the 1992 season for the Houston Oilers and he was sitting in the booth as the color commentator for the Spanish broadcast team. Growing up in Houston, he had routinely listened to the famous broadcasters of the time, such as the legendary Vin Scully. But here he was wearing a headset trying to duplicate all the famous voices he’d heard as a kid, but with his own Spanish flavor to it. The only problem, was that all the broadcasts he had listened to where in English. Though Vasquez is Hispanic, he wasn’t exactly sure what a Spanish-language broadcast was supposed to sound like.
It wasn’t until that very day for the ’92 season opener for the Oilers’, that he heard his first ever Spanish broadcast.
That’s right, Vasquez had never heard a Spanish broadcast in his life until the day he actually did it for an NFL team.
Something must have clicked, because 27 years later, he’s still going at it as hard as ever. Today, Vasquez serves as the play-by-play voice for the Spanish broadcast of both the Houston Texans and Oklahoma Sooners. That means long hours of prep during the week and a rigorous travel schedule on the weekend to catch both games. But still, he’s having the time of his life.
“My prep usually starts on Tuesday,” said Vasquez. “I’ll go over the previous game by listening to our broadcast and seeing how everything went, both technically and on the call, as well. Wednesday is media day for the Texans so I’m attending that. But since I’m away from OU, most of my prep work for them comes online and reading different things. By Thursday I’m working on my charts and spotter boards for the upcoming games of the weekend. I’m usually leaving on Friday to get to the OU game and then turning around quickly to get to the Texans game.”
Trust me when I say the weather Saturday night for the Bedlam Game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State wasn’t pleasant. A frigid wind, that felt more like an arctic blast, made for a pretty brutal evening in Stillwater. But while both the OU and OSU radio crews were huddled in their respective enclosed press boxes, Vasquez and his color analyst, Luis Rendon, were in the open air TV booth where the elements were in full effect.
But that’s life on the road for Vasquez and Rendon. Since most stadiums can only accommodate the main broadcast teams, as well as a national radio crew that may be on hand, odd broadcasting locations is something of a norm.
“Our toughest location was at TCU last year,” said Vasquez. “We were behind the end zone sitting outside near the fans and just below the scoreboard. The photo decks aren’t bad, I’m kind of used to that now. They’re open and at least you have a location. Over the years, even at the NFL level, I started doing this in 1992 and that’s kind of always been the case. But as more broadcasts such as Spanish radio have become more prevalent, stadiums have been more accommodating.”
Not every set up is tough for Vasquez and Rendon. In fact, they’ll have one their best this weekend when Oklahoma takes on Baylor for the Big 12 Championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But no matter where the game is, they do serve as their own on-site engineers. Granted, they do have another team member that helps with social media content on the @LosSooners Twitter page, but it’s essentially a two-man show on the air every Saturday.
Locally, the OU Spanish broadcast can be heard on two signals across the state: El Patron 101.5 FM in Tulsa and Exitos 96.5 FM in Oklahoma City. It can also be heard via the TuneIn Radio app, where more and more listeners around the globe have started to listen to the broadcast.
“We’ve gotten a big following internationally with Mexico,” Vasquez said. “We’ve also gotten messages from people in Spain, really just all over the place. A lot of people have been able to find the broadcast. The OU brand is big, so that obviously helps, as well as having Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and all the winning they’ve been doing recently. All of that has really helped our broadcast. In terms of the radio numbers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to be honest I haven’t seen the numbers of what the audiences is, but I’ve heard we’ve gotten a really good response.”
Though college and NFL teams in the southwest have had Spanish radio broadcasts for years, Oklahoma is in year number three with its new team. Seeing the audience the broadcast team has already created, it seems like a sure thing only more and more Spanish radio crews will find their way on the air.
That’s a good thing, and who knows, maybe Vasquez’s career as the Spanish voice for both an NFL team and college football blue blood could spark a new generation of Hispanic broadcasters.
*****************
TYLER MCCOMAS: How aware of college football is Hispanic community?
ENRIQUE VASQUEZ: I really think it’s growing. Football in general, the NFL has always been big, I think the Dallas Cowboys even had Spanish radio back in the late 1970s. They have been fans of football for a while now but getting used to the college thing, I think that’s a little bit new. I think the Texas Longhorns have been around for 25 years doing their Spanish radio. But I really think there’s a good following in northern Mexico for college football. It’s been that way for a long time.
![Play-by-play announcer Enrique Vasquez, left, and analyst Luis Rendon are in their second year broadcasting Oklahoma football games on Spanish radio stations. [PHOTO PROVIDED]](https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/large960_blur-6fcb8807d4f83d4d6811ac202c0fd3a0.jpg)
TM: How passionate are they?
EV: I really think they’re getting there. Unless you get immersed in the traditions of it, and now that we’ve been going on for three years, I think that’s obviously going to help. Following the NFL and following football in general, the fans are there and now it’s just getting them acclimated to the OU brand.
TM: What play-by-play experience led to you being able to do this?
EV: I started in 1992 with the Houston Oilers. At the time I was a color commentator. In 1993 I did the play-by-play. From there I went to Fox Sports International and we broadcasted the NFL games to Mexico and Latin America. I got to do the Game of the Week for the NFL as well as Super Bowl 31 and 32. I did the Dallas Cowboys for a couple of years and then I joined the Houston Texans in 2002, where I still am today. When the opportunity came with OU, everything worked out with our schedules, seeing as I also do the Texans.
TM: Tell me about your color commentator.
EV: Luis Rendón is his name. He’s a graduate student at OU and he’s been working for Sooner Vision for a while. He’s from Venezuela. He’s become a big OU fan, so for him this is become relatively new. He wasn’t really a broadcaster but he was bilingual and worked at Sooner Vision, so this is new to him. But he works really hard at it and I think we make a really good team. It’s been a lot of fun working with them.
TM: Since it’s just you and Luis, how long of a pre and postgame show are you doing?
LV: Pregame show is 30 minutes and the postgame show is about 15 minutes. Plus, we’ll do stuff for social media after the game.
TM: How would you describe your broadcast style? What should someone that’s never listened to a Spanish broadcast before expect?
LV: I think my style is different from the typical Spanish football guy because I grew up here in the United States. The first broadcast in Spanish that I ever listened to was one that I was on. I grew up listening to the same guys as you did. The Vin Scully‘s, all the big names that called games when I was a kid, that’s what I listened to grown-up. But you do have to add in a Hispanic flavor to it. It’s just different. It’s not better or worse it’s just different. But we have fun with it. My style is more the American style with a little Hispanic flavor to it.
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
