Audit Shows Lack of Diversity at San Antonio Stations

The San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists took a close look at the on-air talent at the local stations and noticed something.

The group’s audit of local TV stations show that are looking at KSAT-TV, KENS-TV, WOAI-TV and KABB-TV, SAAHJ found that Latinos represent only 25% of all anchors. In San Antonio, Latinos make up nearly 65% of the population, according to the U.S. Census.

At KSAT, the highest-rated and most-viewed station in the city, only 21% of its anchors are Latino. At KENS, there are only three Latinos out of its 16 anchors, and there is no Latino news anchor in its most prominent weekday newscasts, which SAAHJ defines as newscasts between the hours of 5 to 7 am or 5 to 10:30 pm.

The audit also expanded its scope to include all anchors of color and found they make up just over one-third of anchors at the four stations. In San Antonio, people of color make up 75% of the population.

In an open letter to the stations that the SAAHJ says, “We understand that many news managers of today inherited a flawed system with entrenched biases that are difficult to correct. And we especially appreciate newsmakers’ work informing the public day and night in an industry that has been a political target and rocked by the evolution of digital technology in recent years.

But we cannot allow this pattern of white-dominated anchor teams to continue in San Antonio. If we are truly a compassionate city, then who we see on TV should reflect who we see in our neighborhoods.”

While this audit was done in the San Antonio market, FTVLive bets that this same problem can apply to hundreds of stations across the country.

We have highlighted this a number of times and will continue to do so until changes are made.

The biggest way to start fixing this problem?

Get more people of color in the corner offices of TV stations.