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HOUSTON** – ESPN Deportes 1180 AM will be the new Spanish radio home for the Houston Texans during the 2014 season. Enrique Vasquez, who has been a part of Texans Spanish broadcast every season since the franchise began play in 2002, will call the play-by-play action and will be joined by color analyst Gustavo Rangel, who makes his return to Texans' broadcasts after serving as the Spanish-language sideline reporter for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Daniela Rodriguez completes the new broadcast team as the sideline reporter.
In addition to game broadcasts, ESPN Deportes 1180 AM will also air 30-minute pre-game and post-game shows and a one-hour weekly Texans show, beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Texans coverage will begin on the station with a one-hour training camp special on August 13.
"ESPN Deportes 1180 AM is proud to partner with the Houston Texans and provide our listeners and fans with the best coverage possible of the city's most popular team," said Joseph Casas, Vice President and General Manager of ESPN Deportes 1180 AM. "This is a great opportunity for ESPN Deportes 1180 AM and for the Texans. We're excited and looking forward to a great season on the air and on the field."
"We are excited to have ESPN Deportes 1180 AM as our radio partner for this season," Houston Texans Senior Director of Broadcasting Marc Vandermeer said. "The knowledge, insight and commentary Enrique and Gustavo bring to the broadcast will really benefit and entertain listeners. Texans fans know that they're going to hear a quality broadcast with great production from Texans Radio on ESPN Deportes 1180 AM when they tune in."
Vasquez, who is also a regular contributor on HoustonTexans.com in both the English and Spanish sections of the website, served on the Texans' Spanish-language broadcast as color commentator from 2002 through 2011. Since 2012, Vasquez has been the Spanish-language play-by-play broadcaster.
Vasquez began his sports broadcasting career in 1992 as a color analyst on the Houston Oilers Spanish radio broadcast where he remained through the 1995 season. In addition, he handled play-by-play duties for FOX Sports Americas on the network's international coverage of the NFL game of the week as well as Super Bowls XXXI and XXXII. From 1998-01, Vasquez served as play-by-play announcer on select preseason games on the Dallas Cowboys Spanish radio broadcast and was the color commentator during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Rangel, a graduate of Sam Houston High School and Texas Southern University, has been a staple in Houston-area media for the better part of the last two decades, hosting sports talk radio shows, serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Houston Dynamo for five years and writing for a variety of publications and websites. In addition to his role as the Houston Texans color analyst for ESPN Deportes 1180 AM, Rangel is a freelance writer for Impremedia, Major League Soccer and various other Spanish-language publications.
Rodriguez co-hosted the Texans' first Spanish-language television show, Primero y Diez, with Vasquez in 2012 and 2013. Her broadcast career in the United States began in 2010 when she won the reality television show Dream Job on ESPN and became a reporter for ESPN Deportes at the World Cup in South Africa. Since then, Rodriguez has worked for Telemundo covering the 2012 Olympic Games in London, hosted Mun2 Olímpico, a daily sports show, the 2011 Gold Cup and the 2010 MLS All-Star Game.
Rodriguez's career began in 2005, working in television in Mexico. She entered the sports arena in 2008, serving as the communications manager for Club America through the 2009 season.
ABOUT ESPN DEPORTES 1180 AM AND DEPORTES MEDIA, LLC
Deportes Media, LLC, a leading Spanish language sports broadcasting group, currently operates ESPN Deportes affiliated radio stations in four of the seven largest Hispanic markets in the United States. Collectively, the Company's stations in Miami, Houston, Dallas and San Francisco cover more than nine million Hispanic people, or approximately 18% of the total Hispanic population of the United States. The Company's stations broadcast a mix of interactive national and local talk-based, personality-driven programming focused on a wide range of sports, including soccer, football, baseball, basketball and boxing that serves the full spectrum of listeners, from the casual fan to the sports fanatic. In conjunction with its radio broadcasting operations, each of the Deportes Media stations operates a significant digital media effort that includes station websites, an active social media agenda and streaming applications. Lastly, the Company also conducts "Copa ESPN" youth soccer tournaments in each of its radio markets.
