KTTV FOX 11 Vice President, Jose Rios, Spoke at PI Los Angeles
Mr. Jose Rios speech at the luncheon was as follows:
These are the timess when things are going into a new direction. It is a tough time for news. I was born in New Jersey and then moved to LA. I remember TV in 60s 70s and news making back then. If you go back to original news it was only 15 minutes of reporting. We have gone from 15 min to round the clock news. When I first got into news it was very reporting oriented. Nowadays most stations go through the people. Story telling is focused on people rather than policy oriented. Some years ago we wanted to try a new strategy and we wanted to jump the other stations so we came up with the news wheel which was 20 minutes of hard news and 10 minutes interviews and 20 minutes of family news that was the wheel of news. In the second hour everything was about the southland. I was at the assignment desk at the time and I was dispatching the news. Some of the people inside the TV channel launched that but it fell down miserably. Then it was incorporrated into a newscast moving forward from that I was the production assistant. Nowadays we dont stick to one particular story. For consumers news will be available whenever it is needed. We pick the information that we want or dont want. This poses big challenges for channels. For example a friend just told me that LA times closed its main lobby because they can’t afford guards.
During the Q and A Jose Riose was asked why is the same footage repeatedly played during a news coverage. Mr. Rios answered that that could be because of bad production or lack of pictures. Mr. Rios was also asked about the perception that some people have about Fox News’ skewered favoritism. Mr. Rios responded with since people think that I am responsible for the state of affairs. Whatever you look for in the world, it is here in LA. When Gandhi was assasinated we sent our news crew to Artesia. We knew there were Indian people there. Resources are important and their network is important. It has been how we can we get our events covered versus how interesting the news is. Every day is a triage for us. Get it to the right people. We have been celebrating Muslim cultures. There was a story that we made about the take of American Muslims and Eurpoean Muslims. In amreica Müslim’e are more integrated.
Mr. Rios was also asked about the News channel’s political orientation. Mr. Rios responded by saying, “We are not that way we are in LA; LA is more tolerant and more liberal place.
Award-winning broadcast journalist Jose Rios is vice president of news of KTTV/FOX 11, where he is responsible for all newscast, news gathering and production. Rios joined KTTV in February 1992 as managing editor and was named news director three months later, in May 1992. He was promoted to his current position in March 1995. KTTV is the Fox-owned television station in Los Angeles, California.
KTTV’s nightly newscast, Fox 11 News at 10, ranks as the top-rated 10PM newscast in Los Angeles, and has achieved its best household and demographic ratings in two decades.
In 1997, the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California presented the regional Golden Mike Award for best 60-minute newscast to Fox 11 News at 10. That same year, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented Good Day LA with the Los Angeles area Emmy award for best morning newscast while Fox 11 News at 10 received the honor for the best evening newscast. In 1994 and 1995, Fox 11 News at 10 garnered the Los Angeles area Emmy awards for best 60 minute daily newscast.
During Rios’ tenure, KTTV/FOX 11 expanded its daily newscast from one hour to four, adding Fox 11 Morning News (6-7AM) and Good Day LA (7-9AM) in June 1993.
Rios was instrumental in KTTV’s exclusive and unprecedented live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Rodney King beating trial in Simi Valley in March and April of 1992. KTTV, which pre-empted regular daytime programming during the two month period, received the prestigious national Peabody and duPont-Columbia University awards and numerous local commendations and citations.
He also developed Los Angeles’ only full-time investigative news unit, the Emmy Award winning Fox Undercover, which was the first to report on revolving door justice at the LA County Jails, the tagger crew phenomenon and welfare fraud, among other breaking stories pertinent to the Southland.
Under Rios’ guidance, Fox 11 News at 10 is supported by a corps of veteran anchors and reporters. KTTV was the first television station to utilize CUBE, a state-of-the-art system of immediate earthquake data, including time, location and magnitude.