Media Moves

Univision is moving News Director Samuel Belilty from KUVN 23 Dallas to WLTV 23 Miami. The intra-company transfer is effective October 18.

No word yet on his Dallas replacement.

The move comes less than 5 months after Univision executed a round of nation-wide station layoffs that included the elimination of the news director position at WLTV 23 in Miami as part of the cuts.

At the time, Chris Peña, SVP News of Local Media took over News Director Roberto Vizcón’s role. It was considered to be a cost-saving measure, since he is based in the company’s Miami news hub and could potentially run both the local station newscast as well as oversee news operations across the country. But that has apparently changed since then.

Belilty has held management positions at Univision since joining the company in 1999. Prior to joining KUVN Univision Dallas as News Director in January of 2014, he was News Director at KWEX Univision San Antonio for over 6 years. He started at KFTV-TV Univision Fresno as Creative Services Director, before leaving the station as News Director news director almost 9 years later.

He previously worked at Radio Caracas Television in his native Venezuela.

José Antonio Herrera has left his position as Web Publisher at Univision’s KUVN 23 in Dallas for a new job at the station’s main competitor.

He has joined Telemundo KXTX 39, where he is now Digital Web Editor.

Prior to his move to Telemundo, José Antonio spent more than 11 years as a reporter, photographer, editor and social media manager for the www.univisiondallas.com website.

Before moving the U.S., José Antonio worked as an information officer for the Government of Veracruz.

Rodolfo Sánchez and Karina Yapor will anchor Univision’s Texas regional newscast.

It didn’t work for Telemundo, but Univision is going to give it a shot – eliminating local for regional programming.

Univision cancelled “Primera Edición” in Dallas and Houston. KUVN Univision 23 Dallas and KXLN Univision 45 Houston aired their last local morning newscasts on Friday, March 27 from 4 to 6 am. The company also axed “Vive la Mañana,” the one hour morning magazine that aired on Unimás in both cities from 6 to 7 am.

This week, KUVN and KXLN are filling the 4 to 6 am time slot with a national feed that includes entertainment programming and a repeat of the previous night’s 11:30 pm Univision network newscast. They’ll include local weather and traffic segment cut-ins.

Starting Monday, April 6, the local newscasts will be replaced by “Noticias Texas Primera Edición,” based out of Houston.

Univision Houston anchors Arnaldo Rojas and Lizzet Lopez were reassigned.

Karina Yapor and Rodolfo Sánchez will be the anchors of the regional morning newscast, which will air weekday mornings from 4 to 6 am across Univision stations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.

Karina and Rodolfo, anchors of Dallas’ “Primera Edición” until last Friday, are relocating to Houston for their new roles.

The cancellation of “Primera Edición” in Houston pushed that city’s anchor team off the desk. Arnaldo Rojas and Lizzet López will take on other positions within Univision.

Arnaldo will lead KXLN-45’s new investigative unit and Lizzet moves to nights as a general assignment reporter for “Noticias 45 Edición Nocturna.”

The regional newscast will also have reporters in the four Texas cities: Andrea Aguirre Alvarado and Vanessa Abuchaibe in Dallas; Victoria Acosta-Rubio and Laura Sierra in Houston; Alejandra Becerra in San Antonio, and Liliana Soto and David Herrera in Austin.

The Univision stations in San Antonio and Austin didn’t have morning shows.

The move is seen as a way to cut more costs as Univision prepares for an IPO, which could come later this year.

In 2006, Telemundo eliminated local news in San Jose, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Las Vegas as part of cost-cutting measures. The company established the Telemundo Production Center (TPC) in Dallas, to produce a regional newscast to beam to those cities.

That strategy failed and Telemundo had to rebuild the news departments and relaunch newscasts in those cities. It shut down the TPC in 2013.

Univision Houston won Emmys in 10 categories.

Three Univision O&Os in Texas won a total of 19 Emmys at the 12th annual Lone Star Emmy Awards, this past Saturday, October 25 at the Bayou City Music Theater in Houston.

The biggest winner was KXLN 45 in Houston, which swept 10 categories. Anchor Raúl Peimbert took home 3 statuettes.

Univision Dallas KUVN 23 won awards in 7 categories, while San Antonio’s KWEX 41 picked up 2 Emmys.

Here’s the list of winners for Univision Houston:

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORT – NO TIME LIMIT
Spring High School Stabbing
Mariana Pineda, Reporter

CONTINUING COVERAGE
Detención De Un Capo
Raúl Peimbert, Reporter

ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT – PROGRAM FEATURE / SEGMENT
Chécalo
Suzanne H. Ruiz, Executive Producer
José “Jojo” Padron, Talent
Milton Durango, Photographer/Editor

CRIME – NEWS SINGLE STORY / SERIES / FEATURE
Ana Trujillo: Víctima o Asesina
Rebecca Suárez, News Reporter
Milton Durango, News Photographer

RELIGION – NEWS SINGLE STORY/SERIES/FEATURE
El Conjuro
Osvaldo Corral, Reporter

ON-CAMERA TALENT – COMMENTATOR / EDITORIALIST / PERFORMER / NARRATOR
De Cerca Con Raúl Peimbert
Raúl Peimbert, Editorialist

ON-CAMERA TALENT – PROGRAM HOST / MODERATOR / REPORTER – PROGRAMMING
Chécalo
José Felipe Padrón, Host

ON-CAMERA TALENT – REPORTER – INVESTIGATIVE
Rebecca Suárez Investigates
Rebecca Suárez, Investigative Reporter

WRITER – NEWS Tráfico Humano
Raúl Peimbert, Writer/Reporter

DIRECTOR – POST-PRODUCTION / SHORT FORM (PROMOS, PSAS, COMMERCIALS, OPENS, ETC.)
Get Out And Play – Health PSA
David Serna, Director

These are the winners for KUVN 23, Univision Dallas:

Historic/Cultural – News Single Story/Series/Feature
JFK
Milensky Rega, Producer

Human Interest – News Series
Rostros Prestados
Milensky Rega, Reporter/Producer
José Lomelí, Chief Photographer/Editor

Weather – News Single Story/Series/Feature
Tornados
Albert Martínez, Meteorologist
Israel Pérez, News Photographer

Public/Current/Community Affairs – Feature/Segment
Defensores del Barrio
Wendy Cruz, Reporter

Public/Current/Community Affairs – Feature/Segment
Camino a la Ciudadanía
Volga Santos, Producer
Karen Falla, Reporter

Promotion – News Promo – Single Spot Más allá de la Tecnología
Bernadette Valles, Director Of Marketing & Creative Services
Mariano Domínguez, Creative Services Videographer/Editor
Luis R López, Creative Services Sr. Graphic Artist
Sonia Salas, Creative Services Producer
Albert Martínez, Meteorologist

Editor – News – No Time Limit Every Day
Passion
José Lomelí, Editor

Univision San Antonio KWEX 41 winners:

Arts/Entertainment – News Single Story / Series / Feature
Metalachi
José Herrera, Photographer/Editor

Health/Science – News Single Story / Series / Feature
Vaping: A Growing Health Concern
Anabel Monge, Reporter
Francisco Morales, News Photographer/Editor

Crystal Ayala has left the anchor desk at KUVN-23, the Univision O&O in Dallas, to become an investigative reporter at KXLN-45, Univision Houston. She starts the new job tomorrow, July 3.

Crystal had been anchoring “Noticias 23 Primera Edición” for the past 3 years, since the station launched the morning newscasts in April of 2011. Her last day in Dallas was Friday, June 27.

The move reunites Crystal with news director Martha Kattan, who hired her at KUVN and who for the past 3 years has been in charge of the news operations at Univision Houston.

“I’m very excited about this new challenge,” says Crystal. “I’ll be able to put in practice what I’ve learned from my investigative journalism master’s.”

Prior to moving to Texas, Crystal worked as a Puerto Rico-based correspondent for NTN-24 and was a TV host for WIPR. She previously spent 3 years as a reporter/fill-in anchor at Univision Denver.

Carlos Tamez has been hired as Executive Producer for KTMD-47, the Telemundo O&O in Houston.  He left KUVN-23, Univision’s O&O in Dallas in October, where he had been news director since 2011.

Carlos had been at KUVN since 2003, starting out as a news producer and later promoted to Executive Producer in May of 2006.  Before Univision, he spent 9 years as a news producer in Mexico City’s CNI Canal 40.

Sam Belilty is leaving San Antonio to take over the news director position at KUVN-23 Univision’s O&O in Dallas. He’ll start the new job after New Year’s Day.

For the past 6 and a half years, Sam has been news director of KWEX TV, Univision 41. Before moving to San Antonio he was at Univision 21 in Fresno, where he spent two years as Creative Services Director and executive producer of the Morning Show, and 7 years as news director.

He was previously a correspondent for Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) in Miami and held a variety of positions working for RCTV in Caracas, Venezuela, including reporter, anchor and executive producer. He also hosted a live daily 3 hour news-talk show on Radio Caracas Radio (RCR).

Univision won big at the 10th Annual Lone Star EMMY Awards held Saturday November 10 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  KUVN – Noticias 23 Dallas won Emmys in 8 categories, including “News Excellence.”

KWEX Univision 41 San Antonio picked up 5 awards and KXLN Univision 45 Houston scored 3 wins.

From L to R: Mario Barraza (photojournalist), Carlos Tamez (news director), Ana Maria Vargas (anchor/reporter), Volga Santos (producer), Sandra Silvestrucci (reporter), José Lomeli (photojournalist) and Francisco Cobos (executive producer.)

Here’s the list of the winners and categories:

POLITICS/GOVERNMENT – NEW SERIES

FEATURE NEWS REPORT – LIGHT FEATURE / SERIES