Sooners going Spanish?

As the station manager for an Oklahoma City-based, Spanish-speaking television station, Armando Rubio knows what his viewers want and coverage of the state’s college football teams is on that list.

OU football key dates

Saturday: Scrimmage, 11 a.m.

Aug. 21: Classes begin

Sept. 2: Season opener, UAB, 6 p.m.

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KTUZ-TV (Cox 5), which Rubio manages, is developing a local news broadcast similar to the type of newscasts seen on Oklahoma City’s major networks, covering news, weather and sports in a 30-minute show.

The station had cameras on the sideline in Norman Saturday, gathering OU football footage for the show’s upcoming launch.

That might not be the only appearance of local sporting events on Spanish-speaking broadcasts.

The University of Oklahoma is said to be in preliminary discussions with a local radio station about carrying game broadcasts in Spanish, though no agreement has been made.

KTUZ-TV is airing hourly, one-minute news updates, but recently saw the need to expand.

“There are a lot of sports fans in the Spanish-speaking community, whether it’s football, baseball, basketball or other sports,” Rubio said. “We’re trying to give the Spanish-speaking community the most information we can in a 30-minute broadcast.”

Several college and professional teams, predominantly in Texas and Florida, have radio play-by-play broadcasts in Spanish. The University of Texas is the only Big 12 football team currently with a Spanish game broadcast.

Tyler Media owns KTUZ-TV and one of the two major Spanish-language radio stations in Oklahoma City, KTUZ-FM 106.7. The other, KINB-FM 105.3, is owned by Citadel Communications.

Both companies denied being involved in discussions with the Sooners.