(November 29, 2017) Alex Del Barrio now has two jobs separated by more than five hours. An STAA member, Del Barrio is the new sports director/anchor at KGBT-TV in Harlingen, TX. He’s also the color analyst and fill-in play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer.
Harlingen and Houston are more than 300 miles apart.
“I am used to being on the road,” Del Barrio smiles. “It’s five and-a-half hours each way, but the MLS season is mostly on the weekends and I’ll anchor Monday through Friday during the week. I’m lucky to have friends and family in Houston to help me out with a place to stay when I drive up for the games. It will be a challenge and grueling, but I think it is the right thing for my career right now to be able to be a part of an MLS broadcast team and to be a sports anchor in a top 100 market.”
This is Del Barrio’s third stint at his hometown station. He worked at KGBT from 2006 to 2007, then again in 2011. In fact, it was outgoing Sports Director Clay Williams who hired Del Barrio to cover high school football early in Del Barrio’s career.
One gig Del Barrio will have to give up is his sports update anchor/fill-in talk show host role at Houston’s Sportsradio 610. He’s been there since 2013.
“I had been doing well with part time hosting/reporting at Sportsradio 610, but was looking to get back into TV in some way. Several agents I had talked to were looking for some fresh TV tape as I hadn’t been on-air anchoring since 2011.”
Del Barrio doesn’t see his move to KGBT as a choice of TV over radio. Instead, he views it as the right fit for right now. “Look at my resume,” he explains. “I went from play-by-play, to PR, to live event announcing with the Globetrotters and WWE and back into radio. It’s always been about what the right opportunity is at the time.
“I will say that I have been wanting to do more TV play-by-play. I think this, combined with my work with the Houston Dynamo, helps me bring the two worlds together and I think can make me more marketable to networks and teams in the future.”
Del Barrio has been an STAA member since the company’s inception 11 years ago.
“Jon [Chelesnik, STAA CEO] has always helped me out with career advice at various stages and given me critiques on my work as well,” says Del Barrio. “The job e-mails are invaluable because Jon knows when some of the best play-by-play jobs are coming open long before the rest of the broadcast world does.”
While Del Barrio’s goals still include play-by-play, he’s content with doing TV and radio for now. “Taking this opportunity at KGBT is about getting the best of both worlds and getting to come back home, which is important to me at this stage of my career.”
(Visit Alex’s STAA Talent Page).