By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
As originally published by Texas Border Business newsprint edition November 2016.
For memorable occasions, you want to have distinguished visitors. Manuel Martinez visited the Valley; he is the president of Telemundo Station Group in the United States. The Telemundo Station Group is one of the leading Hispanic broadcast television networks in the nation. He came to take part in the unveiling of the new television studios built on the 2nd floor of the Chase Bank- McAllen Neuhaus Tower building.
Martinez has been in charge of the Station Group for almost three years; he comes with substantial broadcast experience that is unique to the Hispanic market.
“I started in the 80s shortly before Telemundo was formed, 1986 to be exact.” He continued, “Yes, I have worked as a General Manager in New York. I also worked on the NBC side, running the NBC Station in Miami. Now I’m back at Telemundo, which is the best time in the world to be in Telemundo,” he told Texas Border Business.
He also pointed out that Telemundo 40 in McAllen was the perfect example of the evolution that the stations are having. He said, “Our corporate owners, NBC Universal and Comcast have invested a lot. So we’ve been able to upgrade most of our stations, and this is the latest example.”
Martinez was born in Cuba and raised in New York, and he is based in Miami. “But I’m honestly based on American Airlines because I am on the plane all the time,” he stated.
How many Telemundo stations do you oversee? “We have 16 stations.” How many stations in Texas? “We have four stations in Texas; in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and McAllen.”
He said that they have a presence in these cities because these are growing markets. He said, “The Hispanic population keeps on growing, we see the growth of our audience and the interest in what we provide and what we bring to the table with our programming.”
Was it a challenge getting the new studios built? “Yes, it’s a huge challenge. But ultimately the result is what matters and we’re going to be able to serve our community a lot better now.”
Martinez stated that on September 29 of this year, they added thirty minutes to their five o’clock one-hour newscast. “An hour and a half of news early and half an hour at 11 p.m.” He added, “We have one hour more than most of our competitors of local news. So we’ll be the news providers of this market.”
Telemundo has turned the network around, at one point it looked and felt like they were spinning their wheels in a very competitive market. Today, that is no longer the case. They now provide high-rated original programs hitting their demo target and they also offer compelling telenovelas like Señora Acero 3, La Coyote, and many more.
The local news is a segment crucial for the corporation because as he said, “that’s how we touch our communities.” He continued, “Our consumer unit, Telemundo Responde was launched recently; it is a consumer unit that answers all the needs of our viewers.”
Martinez said he is proud of Telemundo 40 and that of all 16 stations that the corporation owns, this one is the most improved. He pointed out, “If you had seen where we were and you saw this now, you would know why. It’s all state-of-the-art.” He said, “It’s just going to allow us to provide the best programming and serve our viewers a lot better,” he finalized. TBB
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