Spanish-language radio giant turns more attention to U.S. soccer.

DID YOU KNOW THAT AMERICA'S most-listened-to sports radio program is almost entirely focused on soccer?

Yes, you read correctly. With over half a million individual listeners per week, ''Unica en Deportes'' is a four-hour daily marathon of fútbol, fútbol y m&#225s fútbol on Radio Unica, the United States' only coast-to-coast Spanish-language radio network.

Hosted by Jorge Ramos, and a multinational team of journalists broadcasting simultaneously from two coasts, the show provides the latest in soccer news, views and controversy each day from 7-11 p.m. ET.

And with daily reports on U.S. soccer, including a full hour of MLS coverage on Sundays from 9-10 p.m. ET, ''Unica en Deportes'' is putting an increasing emphasis on the American game. Radio Unica has even acquired broadcast rights to U.S. national team games through 2006.

''Our program's emphasis is on Latin American, especially Mexican, soccer,'' says Ramos, ''but we feel a real, ethical obligation that U.S. soccer deserves our attention, and that we should be a means of communication through which the [Hispanic] public begins to identify itself with MLS and the U.S. national team.

''We still have a long way to go, but the commitment is there.''

Audience participation has revealed that ''Unica en Deportes'' has attracted soccer fans from beyond its traditional immigrant base.

''Often [our non-native Spanish-speaking listeners] are nervous about being on the air, worried that they might make a mistake,'' says Ramos. ''But we receive plenty of e-mails from English-speaking soccer fans who listen to us regularly.''

by Keegan Pierce