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Thelma Abril: Reaching for No. 1

Telemundo’s new GM in Phoenix loves challenges

Thelma Abril sees the convergence of her media career with Telemundo’s conversion to full power in Phoenix as a great growth opportunity for both.

 “It’s going to give us the opportunity to offer (programming and news) options to our Spanish-speaking community,” says Abril, who was promoted to general manager of KDRX Channel 48 in April.

“We reach about 55 percent of the Valley areas and outside communities. We can possibly reach up to 100 percent now,” Abril says.

The Federal Communications Commission recently approved a channel exchange for Telemundo, a division of NBC Universal Television Stations. Under the agreement to exchange signals with the Daystar network, Telemundo’s Phoenix station will boost its power, allowing more viewers to receive the station’s signal on cable and regular TV channels.

The move also will boost Telemundo’s ability to compete with Univision’s local station KTVW Channel 33 in the Valley area. Univision is currently the No. 1 Spanish-language station in the Phoenix market.

Going head-to-head competition with one of the world’s largest media networks is a challenge that Abril relishes. She knows that leading a TV station in the very competitive Spanish-language arena requires toughness and intelligence.  

Born in Douglas and raised in the border town of Naco, Abril’s educational background is in marketing and sales. She attended Arizona State University in marketing studies, and finally earned a degree from the Tucson College of Business. 

 Ironically, Abril’s road to the top job as a media professional started at Univision, where she worked in sales for a decade. She moved to Telemundo in Tucson as sales manager in 2001.

Along the way, she married and had two children, Angela, now 23 and majoring in chemical engineering at ASU; and Joseph Raul, now 17 and a senior at St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix. 

She explains that when she had her children, and then divorced and raised them as a single mother, it was then she knew she had to be tough – for them.

“When I had my children, I realized that I had to do everything in my power to do the best for them, like my parents do for me,” she says. “That has really influenced my decisions about where I wanted to go in my career.” 

Abril came to the Valley last year as local sales manager and three months later was promoted to general manager.

“It was a quick rise, but I was prepared for that rise,” she says. “I feel I have worked very hard to get to this position. It was my goal. I deserve it.”

The Telemundo GM says that her parents, Norberto and Amilia Valenzuela, inspired her to become the caretaker of her own family and that of the Telemundo family.

Her father had to quit school to raise a family of four siblings, and worked as a foreman in the Fort Huachuca school district for 35 years. Her parents showed her the importance of family, she adds.

“I don’t really have hobbies. Family time is my hobby. When I don’t work I am basically with my family.”

When she is not with her family her favorite things to do are to dine on Italian food and vacation in Sedona, she says. “Sedona is very therapeutic, and it gives me an opportunity to relax, rest and gather myself.”

Along with the ownership, management and programming changes Telemundo has experienced over the past two decades, so too have the Hispanic market and Spanish-language TV industry changed.

“There’s more professionalism, more variety and healthy competition in Spanish-language media today,” says Gustavo Godoy, an Hispanic marketing consultant in Miami and former head of Telemundo’s news operations.

Abril believes that under the current ownership Telemundo is going in the right direction.

“There’s only been one full-power (Spanish-language) station here, Univision, and now we will be able to be able to offer more viewers our programming,” she says.

With the acquisition by NBC, Abril feels that Telemundo’s programming has strengthened in quality. In 2003 Telemundo signed deals with Mexico’s Argos Television, Brazil’s TV Globo, and Colombia’s RTI to create original episodes of popular telenovela series. Current popular Telemundo programs are Cada Dia con Maria Antonieta, Al Rojo Vivo, and its news broadcasts, the international Noticiero Telemundo. Abril says she is especially proud of the local news broadcasts, with production headed by news veteran Juan Villa in Phoenix.

The improvements mean that Telemundo can offer more to its advertisers, and also earn more by reaching more viewers.

 “We work hard to service our advertisers,” Abril says. “With more viewers, the messages will be more expensive.”