TV Arms for the Assault on Atlanta : Live and Beefed-Up Spanish-Language Coverage Planned

Spanish-language television also will lay siege to Atlanta with beefed-up, live convention coverage.

The Telemundo network plans to provide its 11 affiliates and five owned-and-operated stations in New York, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco with up to one hour of convention coverage a day.

Half of it will be generated by the CNN-produced, half-hour Spanish-language newscast “Noticiero Telemundo-CNN.” The remainder will be produced specifically for the local newscasts of Telemundo’s owner-operated stations by a six-member team of reporters headed by Enrique Gratas, news director and anchor of KVEA Channel 52 in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, KVEA will air its convention coverage locally during its 6 and 11 p.m. “Vea Noticias” local newscasts, the spokesman said.

Univision, the larger of the two leading Spanish-language networks, has announced a more ambitious coverage plan. Guillermo Martinez, Univision director of news and public affairs, said the network and its 11-station chain will begin coverage a day early with a special half-hour network report on July 17.

Martinez said that as much as 1 1/2 hours of daily coverage will be reserved for each day of the convention, with live news reports, analysis and polling results airing during “Noticiero Univision’s” regular half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m. and hour newscast at 10 p.m.

In addition, the network-owned stations, such as KMEX Channel 34 in Los Angeles, will send 50 reporters to cover the convention for the network and their respective local newscasts.

Besides following the major stories on the convention floor, Martinez said, the 50-member team will pay special attention to issues and strategy among the Latino members of the California, Texas, New Mexico, New York and Florida Democratic delegations.

“While the (English-language) networks will be trying to find out how the convention will play in Podunk, Iowa, we’ll be trying to find out how it will play in East L.A., Spanish Harlem, San Antonio and Little Havana,” he said.