Ask any hockey fan how they became enthralled with the sport, and they’ll likely say attending a live game at some point had them hooked.
That’s typically the case, no matter someone’s culture, heritage or background. Sport is about bringing the community together, especially in Smashville.
So when El Jefe Radio Director Wendy Silva sees someone of Hispanic heritage attend their first Predators game at Bridgestone Arena, she knows they’re going to like what they see.
“When we first got invited to this project, we said, ‘As long as you make us feel welcome, as long as you make the community feel welcome, they will follow,’” Silva said of teaming up with the Preds. “So, that's the main key. When you make a community feel welcome, they will follow. Everybody wants to go where they're welcome. That’s what we said, and that's what we tell our fans is, ‘Hey, come on. You're welcome over here.’ They see the game, and they love it after they see it.
And while attending all 82 games over the course of a season in person would be nice, it’s simply not feasible. So, as the Predators enter their fourth campaign in partnership with Spanish-speaking El Jefe Radio to broadcast games, those throughout the region will continue to have another way to keep up with the team they love.
“We’re very excited,” Silva said of the partnership with the Preds. “We are growing, and we see the partnership really bond together even more this year. In the early days, we were just getting adjusted with the production spots, translating, getting the disc jockeys to really do the plays and the style, and we’ve kind of been bonding your style with ours, because our style of narrating the games is different than what you have going on. In Spanish, we do different accents, so it was kind of cool to start bonding that.”
El Jefe, which broadcasts on 96.7 FM, 105.3 FM and 810 AM, has served all of Nashville and parts of Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky for over 30 years and is Middle Tennessee's only Spanish-speaking radio outlet with simulcast coverage and the ability to reach more than 150,000 listeners during all of its broadcasts. They first put the Preds on their airwaves for eight games in the spring of 2022, and since then, each and every game has been available in Spanish on the radio dial.
El Jefe covers several of the biggest events in Middle Tennessee's Hispanic community, including Hispanic Family Day, Fiestas Patrias, festivals, concerts and more. Those now include Preds games, too, and Silva says the partnership just makes sense.
“We’ve been in the market for 30 years, and Preds are one of the best organizations that we have ever partnered with,” Silva said. “Their attitude, their atmosphere, everybody has the same training, and you're like, ‘Wow, this is like coming to Disney.’ Everybody's smiling, everybody gets to the point, everybody does their job; this is amazing. That's how we felt when we got introduced to this organization. We were like, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ My air staff was amazed; all my staff. We’re really grateful that we're here.”
The partnership will be highlighted once more on Tuesday evening as the Preds host Hispanic Music Heritage Night when they host the Seattle Kraken, and Silva sees this as just the beginning of what’s to come between her station and Nashville’s hockey team.
“The most exciting thing is seeing all the communities bond,” Silva said. “That’s my main goal. I want our community to feel welcome, and really, I want all communities to feel welcome. That's why we're part of it, because we want everybody to feel welcome and make a big fan base.”
