Tracy Press

Tracy resident Fernando Arias is one of two Spanish-language announcers for the San Francisco 49ers. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Tracy resident Fernando Arias will always remember the public address system announcement that shaped his future.

Arias had already embarked on a career as a disc jockey and on-air personality at KIQI, a San Francisco-based Spanish language radio station. It was 1994, and the Oakland A’s were playing the Detroit Tigers at Hispanic Heritage Day at the Oakland Coliseum.

Usually, the stadium announcers welcome the crowd in English. On this day, a Spanish speaker welcomed the crowd, and that made Arias feel right at home.

Now, he’s on the other side of the microphone, and for the past two years has been the emcee for the San Francisco 49ers’ Latino Heritage Day.

“That’s a unique experience for me and the fans,” he said. “It’s a good experience for them to hear someone speaking to them in Spanish and welcoming them. Now I get a chance to do that.”

Arias is in his fourth year as the live play-by-play Spanish language announcer for the 49ers, and he previously announced games for the Oakland A’s, calling play-by-play for the team’s Spanish-speaking fans.

Arias moved to Tracy in 2000 to help brothers Roberto and Javier operate the Casa Grande restaurant in the Tracy Inn. He’s also a bus driver for the Tracy Unified School District.

The 49ers announced last month that they’ve extended their contract with Marcos Gutierrez Productions, which brings Arias and color commenter Ambrosio Rico of Mexico City into the broadcast booth for all the team’s games.

They can be heard on Spanish language station KIQI 1010AM out of San Francisco. San Joaquin Valley listeners can hear the same broadcast on KATD 990AM out of Sacramento.
Arias, 43, got his start in broadcasting at KIQI about eight years after he came to California from Guanajuato, Mexico, at the age of 17.

“I did a little bit of everything — traffic reports, weather reports, breaking news — all while playing music,” he said.

From there, he went to KBI-TV 30, and served as the promotions manager for the station.

“It was a small station, but it allowed us to do a lot of stuff,” he said. “You have the freedom to be more creative.”

KBI-TV was where Arias started to call the play-by-play for the San Francisco Seals soccer team in 1997. By 2000, was the announcer for NFL football games every Sunday for KPIX 5, San Francisco’s CBS affiliate.

All the while, his interest in American football grew. Arias said he didn’t know much about the game when he arrived in California, but he spent many a San Francisco winter afternoon in front of the TV watching games.

“I started to develop a passion for the game. The more I learned about it, the more interesting it was for me,” he said.

Once he started to call play-by-play for football games, he learned that the game is every bit as fast-paced and intense as soccer, first as he describes the set-up of teams on the field as they prepare to put the ball in play, and then picking out the most important action to announce once the ball is snapped. For the away games, he and Rico call the action as they watch a video feed from the opponents’ field.

“A lot of people think (the job) is translation,” he said. “We watch the game, we describe the game and we do our own version.

“You have to really be focused on the game in order to describe it to the public, especially on radio.”

He doesn’t expect American football will ever be as popular with Latino audiences as soccer, which has a year-round international audience. But it’s gaining in popularity, and Arias figures his role will only expand the sport’s status.

“The networks see how important it is to get to the Latino audience,” he said. “It’s good for business, the more coverage that you have.”

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