Channel 5 Won’t Retain Trejos

Channel 5 will not renew the contract of weekend sportscaster Claudia Trejos, station manager Steve Ramsey said Friday.

Trejo was hired in July 1999 and her contract expires next month.

A message was left for Trejos at Channel 5, but she did not return the call.

Trejos, born in Colombia, joined Channel 5 from Channel 22, where she did Spanish-language sportscasts. The idea was to attract Spanish-language viewers to Channel 5, but Trejos’ difficulty with English, her monotone delivery and her lack of knowledge of the L.A. sports scene brought criticism.

Most of the criticism, however, was directed at Jeff Wald, Channel 5 news director, for hiring Trejos and putting her in a difficult position. She was handed a job critics said she was not qualified to do.

Trejos, 32, after first going to Switzerland at the age of 17 to study for three years, came to the U.S. 12 years ago to study at UCLA Medical School with plans of becoming a doctor. But after working as a production assistant at Prime Ticket, now Fox Sports Net, she chose broadcasting and the job at Channel 22.

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XTRA’s Lee Hamilton has accepted a job as the radio play-by-play voice of the Minnesota Vikings. He signed a multiyear deal with KFAN in Minneapolis.

Hamilton, who did USC football the last three seasons and was the voice of the San Diego Chargers for 11 seasons before that, said that although his contract with XTRA (690) expires Aug. 1, he expects to remain at the station.

Hamilton, the dean among Southern California sports talk-show hosts, has been at XTRA for 15 years.

Hamilton lost the USC job because the Trojans recently switched stations, going from XTRA to KMPC (1540). He was expected to announce San Diego State football this fall, but said he will not do the Aztecs.

Hamilton, 54, also did games for the Seattle Seahawks for two seasons, 1998 and ’99.