Univision 23 had to part with a veteran anchor in a new wave of company-wide layoffs
Veteran news anchor Alina Mayo Azze, who for more than 35 years has been an iconic and beloved face on Univision Channel 23, will leave a void in Spanish-language television in Miami.
The Cuban-American journalist, co-host of the 6 p.m. newscast on Noticias 23 since 1991, was laid off by the Univision Network, el Nuevo Herald sources confirmed.
The announcement was made officially during the broadcast of the show on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
El Nuevo Herald sources said several Univision Radio stars, including José Alfonso Almora, Father Alberto
Cutié and Pepe Forte, a Radio Mambí legend, were also impacted by the layoffs.
“It was something unforeseen but, at the same time, as Willy Chirino’s song says, ‘It was coming,’” Mayo
Azze told el Nuevo Herald. At 61 years old, “my time has come to say goodbye to this stage. For the first time in 40 years, I am unemployed. At the same time, I feel calm; I’ve done more than I ever thought. I have remained all this time because of the trust that the public placed in me.”
Mayo Azze will be replaced by Sandra Peebles, who now hosts the 11 p.m. newscast, which Mayo Azze left four years ago.
The departure, initially reported by specialized media blog Media Moves, comes a few days after the
majority stake of Univision Communications, the network’s parent company, was sold to investment firms Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight LLC.
“The company has a new owner and my departure is part of a restructuring,” stated Mayo Azee.
The new owners now control 64 percent of Univision’s shares, while Mexican media group Televisa retains 36 percent ownership, the companies said when reporting the closing of the sale.
Different waves of layoffs at Univision have taken big names off the air. But Mayo Azze always endured. She was the star journalist of the newscast, admired by thousands of viewers, especially by those in the Cuban exile community.
Together with the late Guillermo Benites, Mayo Azze gave Channel 23WLTV the lead in ratings for decades.
Mayo Azze had previously worked for two years as news anchor on Telemundo 51 in Miami. She began in television as a reporter for Channel 23 in 1981.
She was born in Havana in 1960 and left with her parents when she was 4 years old. She graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in journalism.
She also covered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland and the Florida International University bridge collapse, tragedies that won her two of her five Emmy Awards. She also has earned four ACRIN Awards and two ACCA.
Univision did not specify how many employees had been laid off, but different media outlets have reported layoffs on both television and radio. In a statement cited by La Opinion, the company says “the changes reflect a reorganization of the way we work and, in some cases, we have to say goodbye to some colleagues.”