Los Angeles information media is mourning the lack of veteran broadcast-news reporter Tony Valdez, who died Thursday.
Fox 11 Information reported Friday afternoon that Valdez, whose work at KTTV-TV Channel 11 spanned 35 years, died after a battle with end-stage kidney failure. His son, Steve Valdez, instructed the outlet that his father died at dwelling. He was 78.
For the document:
11:33 a.m. Might 8, 2023An earlier model of this text mentioned Tony Valdez died Friday. He died Thursday, Might 4, 2023. An earlier model additionally referred to KTTV-TV Channel 11 incorrectly as Channel 5.
On its social media accounts, Fox 11 Los Angeles introduced Valdez’s demise, celebrating him as a “legacy” reporter. Fox 11 night anchor Christine Devine paid tribute to Valdez on Fb, writing, “He knew this metropolis inside and outside.”
“Eternally the journalist in entrance of and behind the digital camera. RIP my pricey trainer, colleague, good friend, mentor, and L.A. information icon,” Devine added.
ABC 7 Eyewitness Information reporter Sid Garcia additionally remembered Valdez’s legacy on Fb. To Garcia, Valdez was a “good friend, colleague and mentor.”
Garcia wrote: “Tony was one of many first folks I noticed rising up in Southern California who regarded like me on the TV information. After I returned dwelling to work in Los Angeles Tony Valdez welcomed me dwelling and that’s the place our friendship started.”
Dubbed “the docent of Los Angeles” by Garcia, Valdez grew up in downtown Los Angeles and joined KTTV in 1981. In accordance with Fox 11, Valdez served because the longtime host of its “Noon Sunday” present and co-anchored weekend broadcasts with Devine throughout the ’90s.
Throughout his tenure Valdez reported on the Watts Riots, the Night time Stalker, O.J. Simpson and several other Los Angeles elections.
In an announcement Friday, Fox 11‘s appearing information director, Pete Wilgoren, remembered Valdez as a trailblazer who broke the barrier for Latino journalists together with his work.
“We’re higher journalists, and a greater neighborhood, due to the protection and compassion of Tony Valdez,” Wilgoren mentioned.
Whereas at Fox 11 Information, Valdez nurtured the following technology of journalists because the chair of the 8 Ball basis, which offered grants to broadcast, digital and print journalists in Southern California. He additionally served as a union consultant.
He retired from the station in November 2016 with a number of Los Angeles Space Emmy Awards and Los Angeles Press Membership Awards below his belt. In his retirement assertion, Valdez attributed his perspective on town to his upbringing.
“I spent the earliest years of my life in a housing undertaking and had a chance from that vantage level to see all types of individuals, all pores and skin colours, all races, all ethnicities,” he mentioned in 2016. Valdez added that his life was “so wealthy” due to these experiences.
Earlier than KTTV, Valdez labored at Southern California shops KCET-TV Channel 28, KTLA -TV Channel 5 and La Opinión. He additionally served within the U.S. Military throughout the Vietnam Conflict, was a docent for the Los Angeles Conservancy and performed the saxophone.
Valdez is survived by his son and three grandchildren. The Instances will publish a full obituary for the newsman within the coming days.
