LA’s 1st Asian-American Newscaster, Dies At 78
/Mario Machado, Los Angeles’ first Asian-American newscaster, has died.
Machado died Friday. He was 78.
During his long and storied career, Machado won eight Emmy Awards as a newscaster and TV host in Los Angeles starting in the 1960s.
Machado, who played collegiate soccer, called soccer games on CBS and Spanish-language television, and helped found the AYSO soccer organization. A family friend recalls that Machado was a strong advocate for allowing girls to play in the organization.
“Without Mario Machado’s strong voice, school girls today would not be playing AYSO soccer,” said Barbara Begyud.
Machado was born Mario Jose de Souza Machado in Shanghai of Chinese and Portuguese descent.
He was the nation’s first prominent Chinese-American newscaster and the first in the L.A. market. He first rose to prominence as the consumer reporter on KNXT’s “The Big News,” the local CBS newscast that is now CBS2.
Machado joined KHJ-TV (now KCAL) in 1967. He jumped to KNXT (now KCBS-TV) in 1969, and hosted the midday interview show, “Noontime.”
