Chicago-based WRTO-AM's Hector Lozano and Omar Ramos on Sunday will "do a Spanish call" of the Red Wings-Blackhawks game for "Univision America's Spanish-language news and talk radio station" in the city, according to Ed Sherman of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. It will "mark the first Blackhawks game to be broadcast on radio in Spanish." While the game is "a one-shot deal, it is the first step in an effort by the Blackhawks and Univision to elevate hockey interest in the Hispanic community, a market never viewed as a hotbed for the sport." Hispanics account for 22% of the population in the Chicago area. Univision Senior VP and GM Doug Levy said, "If you were a marketer, would you ignore nearly a quarter of the market?" Many of those Hispanics "already follow the Blackhawks." About 520,000 Hispanics in a '14 Scarborough study said that they "either had watched or listened to a Blackhawks game, and 162,000 said they attended a game within the previous 12 months." Lozano said that hockey's "similarities to soccer with goals and offsides make it in enticing to Hispanic fans." Univision already "has packages for Spanish-language game broadcasts for the Bears, White Sox, Cubs and Bulls." Lozano is the play-by-play voice for the Bears. Currently, the Panthers are "the only NHL team that has an extended package of Spanish-language radio broadcasts" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/4).
