Media Buzz

KVIA welcomes new sports anchor

Officials at KVIA-TV Channel 7 (cable Channel 6) announced today that a new weekend sports anchor will start work on June 20. Paul Cicala of KESQ in Palm Springs, Calif., will replace Autumn Sam, who left the station last month.

Cicala was the sports director at KESQ, and he previously worked in Las Vegas and Tucson. His first job was at FOX Sports in Los Angeles. A press release indicates that he is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

The same press release also announced the hiring of Jorge Torres as a weather forecaster to replace Amber Sullins. Torres has been on the air for a couple of weeks now. He started doing morning weather during the weekend, but has now moved on to the Good Morning El Paso weekday weather spot.

TV folks play softball to raise canned food donations

I was originally not going to blog about this out of principle since the El Paso Times was not invited to participate, but I'm going to swallow my pride and talk about the good work that the TV folks did this weekend.

Four stations: KDBC (Channel 4), KVIA (Channel 7), KTSM (Channel 9) and KFOX (Channel 14) participated in a media softball tournament on Sunday at Cohen Stadium. Admission to the event was a canned-food item for the West Texas Food Bank. More than 750 pounds of food were donated.

So in the first round of competition KVIA defeated KDBC to advance to the final. In the other side of the bracket, KTSM defeated KFOX.

The final was brutal. In the end, KTSM defeated KVIA 11 runs to 10.

I don't have complete rosters, but I know these reporters and anchors participated: Trevor Connor, Ken Molestina, Ashlie Hardaway, Marissa Monroy, Chester Lampkin, Adrienne Alvarez, Beau Bagley, Daniel Novick, Israel Balderas, Sandra Diaz, Dave Speelman, Jorge Torres, Jessica Moran, Robert Bettes, Ramon Herrera, Martina Valverde and a new KFOX reporter named Phil Anaya.

New Sun Metro spokeswoman

The city of El Paso this week announced that a new public affairs coordinator (read: spokeswoman) had been hired to handle Sun Metro issues. The new spokeswoman is Laura Curz-Acosta, a former staff writer for the El Paso Times who covered Fort Bliss and the county during her tenure with the paper.

Laura who until last month worked as a writer and spokeswoman for the University of Texas at El Paso, is a graduate of New Mexico State University.

She had to hit the ground running in her new position, too. The city had the first of three major community meetings on the bus rapid transit system on Tuesday, her second day on the job.

Media updates courtesy of Facebook

With KVIA-TV Channel 7 (cable Channel 6) missing forecaster Amber Sullins in the morning and noon shows, the question is: Who will replace her? Andrew Chung has been filling in, but according to some Facebook updates he is not itching to take the morning spot, which would require him to start his day at 4 a.m.

The same chatter on Facebook states that KVIA is grooming a recent Texas A&M graduate to take over for Sullins. His name is Jorge Torres and he will start getting his feet wet starting this weekend. Not sure if he'll do the morning or prime-time shows.

In another Facebook update, former KFOX-TV Channel 14 (cable Channel 8) morning anchor Elizabeth Alvarez announced she and her husband, José Escobar are expecting ... and it's a boy! Alvarez, a SoCal native, is now an anchor/reporter for the Fox affiliate in Orlando, Fla. Congratulations, Elizabeth!

This one is not from Facebook, but rather from Twitter. My friend Jeorge Zarazua, a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News says a hip-hop station in San Antonio changed formats today. Power 106 will now be called Santa 106 ... a station that plays nothing but Christmas music year round. I can't make this up, people.

Press Club hosts NE debate

 NORTHEAST RUNOFF CANDIDATES MEET THE PRESS

CASTRO AND ROBINSON DEBATE THE ISSUES

EL PASO – Voters will get one more chance to ask questions of the two candidates in the upcoming runoff election for Northeast city representative during a forum organized by the El Paso Press Club on Saturday.

Incumbent Melina Castro and challenger Carl Robinson have confirmed their attendance to the event, which is designed to give voters and members of the media access to the candidates.

The event starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday May 30 at the Northeast YMCA, 5509 Will Ruth.
Members of the media and the public are invited to attend and encouraged to ask questions of both candidates.

For more information call David Crowder at 630-6622 or Gustavo Reveles Acosta at 256-3273.

Local TV EMMA Awards

By popular demand, here is a list of El Paso television news reporters, photographers and anchors who won EMMAs (Excellence in My Market Awards) this year.

These awards are designed to honor those television journalists in smaller markets who do great work "without the extensive resources found in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or Austin."

KFOX did indeed lead the way, winning three EMMAS. All the other local stations received one each. KFOX also led the honorable mention list with five, followed by KTSM with three.

Congratulations to all the local winners.

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORT
Tragic Flight
KTSM
Adrienne Alvarez, Reporter, Editor

SPOT NEWS
Killer's Family Vents On Live TV
KFOX-TV
Arleene Barrios, Reporter
Alex Lozano, Photographer

SPECIALTY ASSIGNMENT REPORT
The N Word
KVIA-TV
Autumn Sam, Reporter/Anchor

PROMOTION
Come Look 2008
KDBC TV Creative Services
Robert Izquierdo, Writer / Producer

NEWS ANCHOR
Karla Mariscal News Anchor
KINT Univision Channel 26

REPORTER
Live From The Borderland
KFOX-TV
Daniel Novick, Reporter

PHOTOGRAPHER
All In A Days Work
KFOX TV
Rudy Reyes, Photojournlist

The 2009 Excellence in My Market Awards also recognized the following entries as works deserving of an Honorable Mention.

FEATURE NEWS REPORT
Leaving to Learn
KTSM-NewsChannel 9
Adrienne Alvarez, Reporter

Lucha Libre In The Barrio
KFOX TV
Rudy Reyes, Photojournlist

Remembering a Fallen American War Hero
KTSM
Melanie Olivas, Reporter
Javier Sanchez, Photojournalist

The Magic of Mitchell
KDBC- TV
Jessica Moran, Reporter

SPECIALTY ASSIGNMENT REPORT
Border Catch, ATVs
KVIA-TV
Ken Molestina, Reporter/Anchor

WEATHER ANCHOR
It's Your Weather!
KFOX-TV
Sandra Diaz, Weather Anchor

REPORTER
The Dark Hours Of El Paso - LIVE
KFOX-TV
Arleene Barrios, Reporter

PHOTOGRAPHER
Alejandro Lozano Behind The Lens
KFOX-TV
Alex Lozano, Photographer

Eye of El Paso
KFOX-TV
Joe Najera, Photographer

Photography Portfolio
KTSM News Channel9
Eddie Romero, Photographer/ Editor

KDBC loses last sports reporter

It was only a few days ago that Gustavo reported that KDBC Channel 4 (cable Channel 3) had canceled local weekend sportcasts because they were down to one sports reporter, Jessica Moran.

Now comes word that Jessica has also given notice that she will be leaving the station. I don't have word yet on where Jessica is heading, but she will be around for a few more weeks, at least.

After that, sports fans better hope KDBC quickly hires a sports reporter.

Competing cold cases

Both Adriana M. Chávez of the El Paso Times and Nick Miller from Chan. 9 KTSM did recent reports on the cold case of Stephen Hicks, who was killed in 1989 in an area then known as Cherry Hill.

I produced a video for elpasotimes.com to go along with Adriana's story. I'll embed it below.

I just watched KTSM's video on the same case. One thing I can say after watching Nick's version: I need to invest in better mood music and sound effects.

But, hopefully all this attention will lead to some new leads. It's obvious Stephen's death still profoundly affects his family, and not having answers makes it all the worse.

KDBC cancels weekend sports

KDBC Channel 4 (cable Channel 3) is down to one sports reporter, Jessica Moran. She moved to the Monday-through-Friday schedule when John Engleman left the station last month. That meant that the weekend sports position was open, and since Channel 4 is in financial trouble (just like most any other media outlet in the country is), they haven't hired someone for that position.

That means that if you tune in to Channel 4 for their weekend editions, the sports packages you will see will be produced outside of El Paso. They will not include any local sports news, and instead focus on big national sports stories.

You may remember that Channel 4 recently canceled their morning and afternoon news shows. They're down to a bare-bones staff, and many of their reporters are only part-time employees.

The Strelz returns, again

The Strelz will be back on the radio, starting this afternoon, according to a post on his forum.

He'll be on 1150 AM from 4 to 6 p.m., replacing Ken Hudnall.

Hudnall was taken off the air, a source tells me, after a caller unleashed some profanity during his show.