KCBS, KCAL Los Angeles anchor Linda Alvarez leaving

Twelve-time Emmy winner Linda Alvarez has announced her plans to leave CBS-owned KCBS and KCAL Los Angeles.

A veteran of 34 years in the local television news business, including the past 22 years in Los Angeles, Alvarez will anchor her final newscasts for KCBS and KCAL on Sunday, Dec. 2.

In 1986, Alvarez became the first Latina to anchor weekday newscasts for an English-language television station in Los Angeles (KNBC). She joined KCBS as an anchor and reporter in 1993 and has worked for both it and KCAL since the stations became a duopoly in 2002.

“Linda Alvarez has always been one of the classiest and most highly regarded journalists in Southern California,” said Don Corsini, the stations’ president and general manager. “We are sad to see her go, but understand and respect her desire to start spending more time at home with her husband Leo and enjoying the finer things in life.

She started her career in journalism in 1973 at WMAQ Chicago. From 1977-85, she worked for KPNX Phoenix, where she anchored three daily newscasts and also served as the executive producer and reporter for the station’s award-winning documentary unit. She moved home to Los Angeles in 1985 and became an anchor and reporter for KNBC.

Prior to her career in television, Alvarez worked as a teacher and administrator for schools in Los Angeles, Venezuela, Chicago, Connecticut and New York. She also taught Spanish at the United Nations Secretariat in New York.