NATIONALLY BROADCAST : NEW SPANISH NEWS SHOW TO BOW AT KMEX JAN. 19

Univision, formerly the Spanish International Network (SIN), announced this week that it will launch the West Coast’s first nationally broadcast Spanish-language weeknight news program on Jan. 19. The program will be produced here at the KMEX-TV Channel 34 studios.

The 50-minute newscast, to be seen at 11 p.m., will be produced by Univision’s recently formed sister company, ECO (Empresa de Comunicaciones Orbitales). It will replace KMEX’s current weeknight newscast, “24 Horas,” a program beamed via satellite from Mexico City and produced by Televisa, the world’s largest producer of Spanish-language TV programming. Univision, like SIN, is a Televisa-owned corporation. ECO, also a Televisa venture, is an international news agency formed on Dec. 16 to sell its services internationally and to Univision’s 409 U. S. affiliate stations.

Maria Elena Salinas, present co-anchor of KMEX’s local 30-minute newscast at 6 p.m., will anchor the ECO newscast. Luis G. Nogales, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of United Press International, will serve as both president of Univision’s news-gathering division and ECO Inc. Sylvana Foa, until recently UPI’s foreign editor, was named news editor for ECO.

Los Angeles beat out Miami, one of several locations considered by Univision for the new program, after a controversy erupted in September when it was reported that Jacobo Zabludovsky, former anchor of “24 Horas,” would, as ECO’s news director, take charge of Miami-based “Noticiero SIN,” the only nationally broadcast Spanish-language newscast produced in the United States.

ECO’s takeover of “Noticiero” triggered a walkout by half the network’s 60-member news division two months ago amid charges that Zabludovsky would make ECO a mouthpiece for pro-Mexican government propaganda. Although Zabludovsky and the network denied these allegations, the 15-year veteran of Mexican TV newscasting turned down his top post at ECO, instead opting for a reporting role with the news service. His current assignment, a KMEX spokesperson said, is to produce a series of interviews with Latin America’s newly elected presidents.