Tico Productions is a Kansas City-based production and marketing company.
One of their branches, Tico Sports, broadcasts Kansas City Chiefs games in Spanish, and over the last few years, the company and their audience have seen tremendous growth.
KSHB 41 has covered the company in the past, leading up to their coverage of Super Bowl LV.
Oscar Monterroso, President and CEO of Tico Productions, says it's been fun for the company to be able to calls Chiefs games on the radio, especially over the last few seasons. But, he adds, that hasn’t always been the case.
"You've been through the bad, and the ugly, but now you are with the best," Monterroso said.
That bad and ugly describes some of the Chiefs games in the early days of Tico Sports. Over the last decade, Monterroso has helped the company and its audience grow exponentially. So much so that this season, Tico Sports teams will do Spanish broadcasts for multiple NFL teams in other cities, with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles being some of the teams the company broadcast games in Spanish on the radio.
"I never thought that I was going to be working with the Chiefs, with the NFL, with the Eagles and Jaguars, for me it was a far-away dream,” Monterroso said. “It was untouchable. It's a blessing."
Tico Sports also make it marks in the college ranks too as the company does Spanish broadcasts of the University of Kansas football and basketball games and the University of Nebraska football games. And soon it will begin to do Kansas State Football games in the future.
Monterroso says his team aren't just thankful for the work they get to do. He says he feels such a sense of responsibility to his audience, especially here in Kansas City.
"They listen to the game. They like the energy that we provide," Monterroso said. "Every day we have people that are arriving. We always have people coming in that are not going to be 100 percent English, but we're going to be able to help them understand what's happening. “It's big. It's not just calling the game, it's way more than that."
Monterroso says that not only is their audience just from Kansas City, alot of their audience are from outside the Kansas City metro area and not only that, they're all from the different parts of the world. But their fanhood is a unifying element, and he feels that as he works the game.
"The Latino and Hispanic community, they listen a lot to radio,” Monterroso said. “We sometimes throw some “Spanglish” in there. It's part of the culture. Not the actual culture from each country, but it's the culture that we as a community are building."
Now, members of the team, including head coach Andy Reid, are glad to lend their voices to the broadcast. And even the voice of the Chiefs himself, Mitch Holthus, has proudly welcomed Tico sports to the booth at Arrowhead Stadium on game day.
"Every time we go to Arrowhead, and we see Mitch at the end, he goes ‘TICO!’"
If you'd like to listen to Tico Sports broadcasts of the Chiefs games, or any of the other teams they cover, click here to visit their website.
