When covering sports on the radio, more than half of the professional host’s job is to develop the audience. In a game as nuanced as football, the development can take longer than in other sports, like basketball, baseball and soccer. Sportscaster Andy Olivares honed those skills in Milwaukee.
Olivares led the Spanish-language broadcast of Milwaukee Brewers games for WRRD-AM 1510 Desportes for the last six seasons.
"It was a dream to do play-by-play at this level. Everyone wishes to do the call for a major league team. I can only look at is as I'm living a dream," Olivares said when I interviewed him in 2013.
It was just last year that I suggested that Time Warner Cable customers check out his Packers preseason play-by-play on Telemundo when WTMJ-TV Ch. 4 was blocked out during a retransmission dispute. That bump gave those preseason games on Telemundo a larger audience than expected, blowing away all expectations.
This year Olivares is taking his experiences with him to do radio play-by-play of the Chicago Bears on WLEY-FM "La Ley" 107.9.
"There is a huge rivalry between the Bears and the Packers," Olivares said, talking about some of the transition process. "But I never get between them. I’m there to be in the middle, to call what took place.
"This is a big city, and culturally speaking, Chicago has a large Latin population. What we have here are sports fans who want to cheer on the local team. That has been very positive."
Olivares said the move has been a transition, but he’s gotten a lot of help along the way.
"We went over the highlights (from the first game) and the listeners here like to have it really fast, where it almost seems like it is over the top," he said. "When I first came here, everyone was so nice and they give me a great tour of the stadium. And the seats … the seats, I have to have the best spot to call a game than I ever had before."
As Olivares took the time to reflect, he wanted to make sure he took the time and thanked the people of Wisconsin that were supportive and welcoming.
"I just wanted to thank the people of Wisconsin who liked what I was doing, he said. "I thank all the people at ESPN and at Telemundo … I’ve had so many, so many opportunities.
ADDRESS: Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto will anchor a report at 8 p.m. tonight surrounding President Obama’s address on ISIS. Following the address, FBN will present live special editions of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," hosted by Lou Dobbs at 9 p.m., and "The Independents," hosted by Kennedy, at 10 p.m.
SEPT. 11 REMEMBRANCE: Fox News will present special live programming to commemorate the 13th anniversary of Sept. 11 on Thursday, with "Fox and Friends" at 5 a.m. continuing throughout primetime. Fox’sweekday anchor team will present, "9/11 – 13 Years Later," which will include live coverage of the respective ceremonies and memorial events. Additional reporting will be provided by New York correspondent Rick Leventhal from Ground Zero in New York City, as well as National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Also, the victims’ names will be displayed throughout the morning on the Fox News ticker located on the lower part of the screen.
Media is bombarding us everywhere.
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