Fox affiliate to expand with local newscast By ROBERT WYNNE Staff reporter A new local newscast will be coming to San Antonio next year. KRRT-TV General Manager Morrie Beitch says the Fox-TV affiliate could begin a 30-minute newscast airing at 9 nightly by April. “We are planning on going into the local news business,” Beitch says. “I would not be surprised if we would start up in 1992.1 don’t have a firm go from (parent company) Paramount (Pictures) yet (But) I don’t see anything that would keep us from doing it” The new venture could be approved by Paramount later this week. If that happens, KRRT will hire a full-time staff of 14 to 16 people including two anchors, a weathercaster, a sportscaster and four reporters. “News will make us a full- service TV station,” Beitch says. “We do entertainment we do sports, we do some community service, we do public affairs— The one piece of the puzzle missing is news.” Beitch says the Fox-TV network asked affiliates to offer news to feed Fox’s national news service. Beitch says KRRT can also profit “We think that there’s a certain amount of revenue earmarked for news we can’t sell to,” Beitch says. “We can better serve our community if we have a news staff. It’s hard to cover a community event unless we have a news staff.” The newscast also could help KRRT establish a strong local ■ identity. “We don’t want to get lost in the 150 channels in the cable system that will be offered in the next decade.”