News operation
After airing local news breaks at launch, KVDA began airing a 10 p.m. local newscast in February 1990.[14] At one point, it was the only such newscast, as competitor KWEX-TV had dropped its late evening news for financial reasons.[15] After initially debuting a call-in program, Línea Directa, at 5 p.m., it was replaced with a full-on early newscast in 1994.[16][17] Ratings were generally low, particularly for the 10 p.m. news once KWEX returned to the time slot. As a result, in January 1997, the 10 p.m. news was changed to a repeat of the 5 p.m. broadcast, and a third of the news staff was fired; news director Víctor Landa also began to anchor the newscast.[18] Accompanying a revamp of the network's prime time schedule in September 1998, the station returned to producing two live newscasts.[19]
In an attempt to compete with KWEX, the newscasts were retooled in 2000 under the new moniker Sesenta Directo (60 Direct);[20] it also experimented with community journalists who received a computer and a webcam to report on stories in their areas.[21] Additionally, the station debuted a 6 a.m. morning newscast early the next year. However, in a cost-cutting move in July 2001, the morning and 5 p.m. newscasts were canceled, leaving KVDA with only a 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights, and several on-air and production staffers were laid off.[22] The 5 p.m. news was later reinstated, but local news from San Antonio was cut back when a cost-cutting move led to the replacement of most of Telemundo's local newscasts in the western United States with a centralized program produced from KXTX-TV in Fort Worth.[23]
Under ZGS management, on May 21, 2012, KVDA relaunched in-house news operations with the debut of half-hour evening newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, that are produced at the station's San Pedro Avenue studios; the locally produced newscasts have been broadcast in high definition from the news department's launch.[24][25]
Beginning in 2014, a series of local news expansions at Telemundo have added hours of news to KVDA's output. A 4:30 p.m. show debuted at KVDA and 13 other Telemundo stations in 2014.[26] A 4 p.m. half-hour was added in 2016, again as part of a national expansion in the group.[27][28] Weekend newscasts debuted in 2017,[29] and a midday newscast was introduced in January 2018 in San Antonio and nine other cities.[30] Despite the expansions, KVDA has failed to surpass KWEX in news ratings.[31][32][33]
In September 2022, Telemundo started the regional morning newscast Noticiero Telemundo Texas, originating in Fort Worth and airing on Telemundo's owned-and-operated stations in the state and most of its affiliates. Additionally, two Gray Television-owned Telemundo stations, in Odessa and Laredo, began simulcasting the 4 p.m. half-hour of KVDA's news as a lead-in to their own local news coverage.[34] On November 1, 2024, Noticias Telemundo Texas was discontinued.[35]
- Patricio G. Espinoza – founding news director/anchor/Texas correspondent[36][37]
