AJR  The Beat
From AJR,   October 2000

El Tiempo for Soccer   

An English--and a Spanish--language TV station in the Dallas-Fort Worth area do a deal.

By Lori Robertson
Lori Robertson (robertson.lori@gmail.com), a former AJR managing editor, is a senior contributing writer for the magazine.      



Dallas-Fort Worth area TV stations trade weather for soccer. NBC's KXAS-TV will produce co-branded weather segments, completely in Spanish, for KFWD-TV 52 Telemundo . And TV-52 will give KXAS' "Sports Extra" weekly soccer wrap-ups in English. "We were seeking a partnership with an Hispanic station in the market," says Brian Hocker , KXAS vice president/programming and interactive business development. He says soccer wasn't necessarily the goal, but "we don't have soccer coverage anywhere to the extent that Telemundo has." TV-52's segments will concentrate on the Mexican Major Leagues and other leagues of interest to area residents. The agreement also includes a co-branded Spanish language Web site, with KXAS providing the Web space and design and TV-52 creating the content. As for the weather en Espaņol, Hocker says KXAS chief meteorologist David Finfrock will produce the reports. Finfrock's conversational knowledge of Spanish, Hocker says, "has passed muster with the folks at Telemundo."

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