SAN ANTONIO — Jenaia Nicole is always decked out in sports gear, whether it’s her beloved White Sox or the San Antonio Spurs. She also likes to wear her White Sox World Series ring from 2005 when they swept the Houston Astros.
She’s a huge sports fan, which is an understatement. Her wedding venue was the stadium where the White Sox play, so sports is her life.
“When I was in third grade, I don’t know what the assignment was, but it was like ‘Hey, write about something and get up and talk about it.’ So, I did a play-by-play on sports and I remember my teacher [saying] ‘Oh my gosh, this is good,’” Nicole said.
After years of paying her dues in the media, working part time for the Spurs and the Houston Texans, she became San Antonio’s first Black woman to host her own sports radio show. It’s called “Sports By The Numbers” and it airs on 930 AM The Answer where she’s joined by her co-host Damon Byrd.
This is a big deal because only 8.6% of radio show hosts in the United States are Black.
“My show debuted on Jan. 18, 2021, which is MLK Day, so I was very strategic about that,” Nicole said.
Every guest must wear a hat, but Byrd is the exception.
“I’m also on an all-women’s sports show called the ‘Sports Senseis’ on the ASAP Network, All plays, all sports, and I just started that this year, so that’s really cool,” Nicole says.
On top of all that, she’s still holding down a full-time job, Jenaia Nicole Productions LLC. As busy as she is, she’s never too busy to remember that she is blazing a trail for women that look like her.
“Oh my gosh, I’m doing this right. God’s like, ‘I’m opening this door for you,’ he said ‘Your voice is your gift,’” Nicole said.
She’s inspiring the next generation with that voice — one example that always comes to her mind is when she met a woman and her daughter at a sporting event.
“The mom was like, ‘Can my daughter take a picture with you?’” Nicole said. “It’s so surreal. You are like, ‘You want to take a picture with me?’”