Martín Berlanga returns to daily news as the solo anchor of Telemundo Houston’s 5 and 10 pm newscasts. He is scheduled to start anchoring on December 3, but is already packing up and set to move to Houston next week.
He replaces Daniel Morales, who was the station’s anchor since early 2010, when Telemundo brought back local news to Houston and several other stations where it previously dismantled news operations.
Martín has been off the air since March of 2012, when he parted ways with Univision.
“During the past 8 months I was able to dedicate 100% of my time to my family,” Martín tells me. “I was the perfect nanny and chauffeur for my kids. I was able to travel with them to Mexico and visit the cities I love most, without having any time restrictions. That time was a true gift.”
He says this is a pivotal time in his life. Not only is he starting a new phase in his professional career, he’s also embarking on a new journey in his personal life as well. He just got engaged over the weekend to his girlfriend of the past 2 years.
Martín says he looks forward to returning to Houston, where he started his U.S. broadcast career in 1995. “I was actually an intern at the station where I’m now going to anchor…. Even though I had experience as a journalist in Mexico, I started here at the bottom – doing teleprompter, until I was able to get a job at a radio station,” he recalls. “I have many wonderful memories from my time in Houston. I’ve grown a lot since then and I’ll bring all that experience to my new job.”
In 1996, he went on to work as a reporter and anchor at Univision Houston before making the jump to network as a national correspondent.
Martín believes the move to the local Telemundo station (KTMD-47) is an important step in his career. He will no longer be a fill-in anchor, as he was at Univision for many years. He’ll now take on a lead role. He’ll also face healthy competition from a friend and Univision colleague – Raúl Peimbert, who last week started his anchor job at Univision Houston.
“Houston will now have two former national anchors doing local news. Raúl is just as dedicated as I am to our profession. I think the media market will benefit from a healthy competition.”
