For Spanish-language Sports, It’s ‘Unanimo’

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BOCA RATON, FLA. — At the stroke of Midnight on Monday, Sept. 9, ESPN Deportes Radio will effectively shift its audio content from broadcast stations across the U.S. to the digital realm, with the radio network’s most popular shows becoming podcasts.


Some 10 full-time staff and 25 part-timers will have said goodbye to ESPN Deportes Radio’s ninth-floor home at 2 Alhambra Circle in the heart of Coral Gables. An undetermined number of sales executives based in New York will also be impacted by the closure.

An immediate transition to a new place of work is in the works for many of these off-air staffers, in addition to on-air talent. That’s because a key figure in the launch of ESPN Deportes is readying the birth of an all-new Spanish-language Sports Radio network that will hit the airwaves the second ESPN Deportes Radio leaves it.

At 12:01am on Monday, Unanimo Deportes Network will arrive. Live programming will be offered to affiliates from 6am-10pm each day, based out of temporary studios in Doral, Fla., that are also home to the nation’s No. 1 Spanish-language spoken word radio station — WURN-AM 1040 “Actualidad Radio.”

That’s because Unanimo Deportes will use current ESPN Deportes Radio affiliate WMYM-AM 990, a Kendall-licensed directional Class B primarily heard in Miami-Dade County, as its flagship station.

Running the station, and all of Unanimo Deportes Network, is the co-founder of Unanimo Sports — Lino Garcia.

Garcia is widely known as the founding GM of ESPN Deportes, launching ESPN Deportes television, ESPNDeportes digital, ESPN Deportes La Revista magazine and the radio network in June 2003.

He came to ESPN after serving as VP/Affiliate Marketing and Local Ad Sales at USA Network, following a two-year stint in Caracas as GM of Sony Entertainment Television in Latin America and, before that, as Director of Cinemax Marketing and HBO Target Marketing for Home Box Office, in New York.

Garcia spent nearly 13 years at ESPN prior to his March 2016 exit. Since then, he’s been quietly following his next career path, which eventually led him to enroll in the National of Association of Broadcasters Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program.

Dressed in a tuxedo on the way to the theater on the final day of his participation in the 2019 BLT class, Garcia learned of ESPN Deportes Radio’s transition to podcasting and digital-only distribution. With his just-completed learnings and steadfast passion for all-things Deportes, expanding a sports fan-focused website for U.S. Hispanics who prefer to consume media in Spanish to audio content delivered via the radio began to take shape.

Lino Garcia
Lino Garcia

“I believe in radio and audio, and I believe in the potential it has moving forward, and that content is king,” Garcia told RBR+TVBR in an exclusive interview. “I believe in the power of compelling content on whatever platform that is important for listeners and for advertisers.”

He also has a strong affinity for the soon-to-be-displaced talent and operational staff for ESPN Deportes in Miami; they’ll be joining Garcia at Unanimo.

“I’m just tremendously gratified to keep them employed,” Garcia says. “This really is a homecoming.”

Garcia has spent much time in New York, including the Catskill Mountains town of East Jewett, in recent years.

Garcia wouldn’t comment on what Unanimo’s inaugural affiliate roster will be. Contract talks were still underway on Tuesday afternoon with at least one potential broadcast home.

Asked about New York, where ESPN Deportes Radio is set to fade from WEPN-AM 1050, Garcia would only say that he’s still having discussions with a potential affiliate. He also declined to comment about a Los Angeles affiliate. There, Lotus Communications-owned KWKW-AM 1330 is perhaps ESPN Deportes Radio’s biggest affiliate.

Lotus did not learn of the ESPN Deportes Radio closure until after it was made public in a ESPN Front Row blog post. Its immediate future will see a mix of different Spanish-language sports programming, including that of TUDN, the partnership between Univision Deportes and Mexico-based Televisa.

Gerardo QuiramaGarcia also confirmed that Gerardo Quirama (pictured, at left), will serve as Unanimo Deportes’ inaugural Program Director.

Quirama was senior manager of media distribution for CONCACAF until January, and since then has been outside of the media business, operating a portable air conditioning business in Tampa.

From February 2004-February 2017, however, he was the Director of Programming and Programming Manager for ESPN Deportes Radio.

Joining him at Unanimo Sports are such sports talk hosts as Kenneth Garay, host of ESPN Deportes Radio Nueva York’s morning show, and Los Angeles veteran Claudia Trejos.

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