Kvea Television Station

Telemundo and its Glendale-based flagship station, KVEA-TV Channel 52, will announce a major prime-time programming shake-up next month designed to make the network and its affiliates more competitive with Univision, the dominant force in Spanish-language broadcasting in the United States. Nationally, Telemundo stations will move their local newscasts up an hour to 10 p.m. beginning Aug. 11, positioning them as the earliest nightly Spanish-language news in most markets.

Los Angeles television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, whose affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prompted her transfer to Riverside, failed to show up for her first day of work Monday after a two-month suspension. A few hours later, Salinas' employer, the Spanish-language Telemundo network, announced that she would not be returning. Telemundo's KVEA-TV Channel 52 and Salinas "have mutually agreed to end our employment relationship," the network said in a statement.

Television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, who was suspended without pay for two months in August after her affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public, is scheduled to return to work Monday. But she won't be taking up her old job as a fill-in anchor on evening newscasts for KVEA-TV Channel 52.

Television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, who was suspended without pay for two months in August after her affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public, is scheduled to return to work Monday. But she won't be taking up her old job as a fill-in anchor on evening newscasts for KVEA-TV Channel 52.

The originator of a bogus telephone hot line asking citizens to turn in illegal immigrants said Friday he has discontinued the controversial line in an effort to settle a dispute with a Spanish-language TV station. Anaheim businessman Bruce Derflinger, former head of the county chapter of the Jewish Defense League, said the line was discontinued after members of a county Latino-rights group offered to mediate his dispute with Glendale TV station KVEA, Channel 52.

Los Angeles television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, whose affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prompted her transfer to Riverside, failed to show up for her first day of work Monday after a two-month suspension. A few hours later, Salinas' employer, the Spanish-language Telemundo network, announced that she would not be returning. Telemundo's KVEA-TV Channel 52 and Salinas "have mutually agreed to end our employment relationship," the network said in a statement.

The news is all about math these days at KVEA-TV, the local affiliate of the Spanish-language television network Telemundo. In order to broadcast twice the number of live newscasts, the network doubled its budget, doubled the size of its newsroom, doubled its fleet of satellite trucks from two to four and raided a number of industry veterans from other news stations around town. The only remaining question has to do with ratings.

Spanish-language KVEA-TV Channel 52 has created an advisory commission to assist in crafting programming for the Latino community. The ad hoc panel, including lawmakers, clergy and others, is designed to improve community input into news coverage and other program decisions, said Jose C. Canela, vice presdent of theMiami-based Telemundo network, which owns and operates the Los Angeles outlet and five other Spanish-language stations in the United States.

An Anaheim businessman and the head of Spanish-language television station KVEA in Glendale agreed Friday to meet early next week in an effort to settle a dispute and end a phony "Turn In an Illegal Alien" hot line that the businessman said he set up as revenge against the station.

A former head of the Orange County chapter of the Jewish Defense League acknowledged Wednesday that he set up a bogus "Turn In an Illegal Alien" telephone line that has angered Latino activists. But Bruce Derflinger, who said he once received an award from the American Civil Liberties Union for his work on minority-rights issues, denied that his actions were racially motivated.

In a plot twist worthy of the most gripping telenovela, two brothers are battling for real-life television glory. NBC Universal on Wednesday cast a new leading man to run Telemundo's KVEA-TV Channel 52 in Los Angeles, the Spanish-language station that has been rocked by scandal in the wake of revelations of an affair between one of its news anchors and the mayor of Los Angeles.

The Mirthala Salinas affair isn't going away -- at least not as quickly as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or the Telemundo television network would like. On Friday, a day after NBC Universal's Spanish-language Telemundo division suspended Salinas for two months without pay for a conflict of interest because of her romantic relationship with the mayor, questions about the company's internal probe persisted. But NBC Universal and Telemundo declined to address them.

Los Angeles television newscaster Mirthala Salinas was suspended without pay for two months -- but not dismissed -- Thursday from KVEA-TV Channel 52 for covering Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while they were romantically involved, a relationship that journalism experts said damaged the station's credibility. Three of Salinas' superiors with the Telemundo network also were disciplined, including the top two station officials.

Nearly three weeks after Telemundo executives launched an inquiry into Channel 52 anchor Mirthala Salinas' relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, station officials have yet to ask him about it, Villaraigosa said Monday. The mayor repeated his vigorous defense of Salinas, a Spanish-language journalist who embarked on a romantic relationship with him while she reported on City Hall. He said he still believes the station will find she did nothing wrong.

Just eight months after he was brought on to revamp news coverage at KVEA-TV Channel 52, J. Victor Abalos resigned as the station's news director Friday. The announcement from Fernando Lopez, KVEA's vice president and general manager, did not provide an explanation for the sudden departure, nor did it contain any indication of Abalos' future plans. He has been on medical leave since early February.

The news is all about math these days at KVEA-TV, the local affiliate of the Spanish-language television network Telemundo. In order to broadcast twice the number of live newscasts, the network doubled its budget, doubled the size of its newsroom, doubled its fleet of satellite trucks from two to four and raided a number of industry veterans from other news stations around town. The only remaining question has to do with ratings.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition on Thursday asked that advertisers of KVEA Channel 52, the No. 2 Spanish-language station in Los Angeles, withhold advertising on the station because of its failure to employ enough Mexican-Americans and to provide more programming for the Mexican-American community.

Augustine Martinez, station manager at KVEA Channel 52, was named Thursday to take charge of the Glendale-based Spanish-language TV station as general manager. He replaces Stephen J. Levin, who was transferred to take the helm at the sister Telemundo Group station in New York City, WNJU. Levin had been with KVEA since 1987. Martinez, 38, joined KVEA in 1989. He previously was vice president for finance and administration at KTTV Channel 11 and also worked at KCBS Channel 2.

The Angels extended another hand to the Latino community Tuesday, announcing an agreement to air six games on Spanish-language television station KVEA (Channel 52). The team's Latino marketing initiative, started last year, takes two steps forward this weekend. On Friday, the Angels and KVEA present the first Spanish telecast in franchise history, an exhibition game against the Dodgers.

Most Latino parents believe bilingual programs are good for their children and give generally high marks to the overall quality of education in the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a new poll commissioned by the newspaper La Opinion and television station KVEA Channel 52. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said they favored bilingual education and 26% opposed it.