UT becomes the fourth SEC school to provide Spanish radio coverage
The Vol Network, Cumulus Media Knoxville/The Sports Animal and University of Tennessee Athletics announced today that, for the first time, every Tennessee football game this season will have a Spanish radio broadcast.
Building on the interest generated last season with the first Spanish audio broadcast of a Tennessee football game, Vol Radio Network flagship station WNML, The Sports Animal, in Knoxville, will offer a Spanish-language broadcast of Tennessee’s football games for the upcoming 2024 season.
The games will be heard on The Sports Animal’s AM 990 signal in Knoxville and streamed on 991thesportsanimal.com, The Sports Animal App, UTSports.com and the Tennessee Athletics App. Tennessee’s Spanish broadcast radio team will consist of Carlos Lopez and VFL Fuad Reveiz. Lopez and Reveiz streamed Tennessee’s football game against UT San Antonio last season – the first Spanish-language broadcast in Tennessee Athletics history.
“We are excited about the opportunity to further grow our fan base by offering Spanish radio broadcasts for every Tennessee football game,” stated Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White. “We had a successful trial run last year with the UTSA game and are eager to extend our reach within Vol Nation!”
Lopez, who will handle play-by-play duties, grew up in Venezuela and moved to the United States at 11. He grew up playing soccer and used those skills when he started playing American football as a special teams player at Seymour High School. Lopez earned a football scholarship as a kicker at Carson-Newman, graduating early, finishing his playing career at Middle Tennessee State University, and receiving a master’s degree. He played professionally in the Arena Football League for the Tampa Bay Storm before returning to Tennessee and earning a second master’s degree in World Language at Tennessee in 2015.
Reveiz, who will serve as color analyst, was Tennessee’s starting placekicker from 1981-84 and an All-SEC player. He led the team in scoring all four years of his career and still holds the school record for field goals attempted and field goals made in a career. He also has the school record for the longest field goal in UT history, a 60-yarder versus Georgia Tech in 1982. Reveiz, born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Miami in his youth, had an 11-year NFL career. He has been an NFL Spanish Radio contributor and is a longtime co-host of radio programs covering Tennessee Football on WIVK and The Sports Animal.
Jean-Pierre “J.P.” Vasquez will serve as the broadcast studio producer. A first-generation graduate from the University of Tennessee, Vasquez will also provide scores and updates. The son of Guatemalan and Colombian immigrants, J.P. has been a member of the 99.1 The Sports Animal team for over a year and has six years of broadcast experience.
Jeff Jarnigan, Operations Manager of Cumulus Media Knoxville, said, “After seeing the reaction to Carlos and Fuad’s UTSA broadcast last year, it became incredibly obvious there is an opportunity in the Spanish language audience to grow the Tennessee Football following. Our Cumulus stations have well over a 50-year partnership with The Vol Network. I view this as the logical evolution of offering Vol fandom to a new and growing group of people.”
The Spanish broadcast is a new addition to Cumulus Knoxville’s 14+ hours of “Game Day All-Day” coverage on Tennessee Football Saturdays on WIVK, 107.7 and 99.1 The Sports Animal, the flagship stations of the Vol Radio Network.
