Veteran broadcaster Rafael Hernández-Brito, known as Rafa "El Alcalde" (“The Mayor”), is in his eighth season of bringing his high-energy play-by-play style to each of his Cleveland Cavaliers broadcasts. Prior to joining the Cavs, Hernández-Brito was the Spanish voice of Brooklyn Nets games for the franchise’s first two seasons. He also was the voice of the New Jersey Nets from 1997 to 2001, and called the action for St. John’s university men’s basketball during that same period. In 2018 Rafa, became the first Spanish voice of the Cleveland Browns.
Nationally, his broadcasting experience includes 8 years as the voice of NFL football for Spanish Broadcasts of Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, the playoffs and Superbowl on Univision from 2005 to 2013, he has worked 11 Super Bowls. He was also the Spanish play-by-play voice of the Miami Dolphins, as well as handling the play by play for Major League Baseball, boxing and UFC. Rafa covered the Soccer World Cups from 1998 to 2014. With the 2015 NBA Finals, he became the first broadcaster in the United States to call the Finals of all 3 major sports in Spanish. Rafa has been the Public Address Announcer and voice of legendary Azteca Stadium in Mexico City for NFL Mexico games since 2016. In March of 2017 Rafa became the first broadcaster to call the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in Spanish for Westwood One.
Rafa finished high school at Locust Valley, N.Y. He went on to earn a degree in mechanical engineering at Boston University, followed by a successful run working for Coors Brewing Co., where his buoyant personality made him a natural in sales and marketing nonetheless chose to follow his passion for sports and broadcasting.
He served as Sports Director at Univision Radio from 2005 to 2013, where he was also the host/ringleader of “Locura Deportiva”, Univision Radio’s most successful sports program, presiding over candid, colorful, often comical discussions on the topics of the day as “El Alcalde” (“The Mayor”). And he was the creator and longtime host of “El Garaje de AutoZone,” a Saturday morning automotive show perhaps best described as a Spanish-language version of the immensely popular NPR program “Car Talk". From 2205 to 2012 Rafa was the Spanish spokesperson for Castrol GTX High Mileage motor oil.
His path to the booth is an American dream. Today Rafa has a daily syndicated radio sports show airing in the US and Latin America, he is the cohost of the Emmy award winning show Cavs HQ on Bally Sports Ohio and also served as the executive producer of the popular podcast “Road Trippin’ with RJ and Channing”
