Telemundo formed a news department for KVDA prior to the station's official sign-on; local newscasts debuted on channel 60 the day the station began operations on September 10, 1989, with the launch of newscasts at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m., under the title "Noticiero 60". Within one ratings period, the station was challenging Univision owned-and-operated station KWEX-TV (channel 41) for the position of the top-rated Spanish-language station, which KWEX had held for almost 30 years. In 2001, it debuted a 6 a.m. morning newscast, as part of Telemundo's strategic plans for its stations It was San Antonio's first and only Spanish-language morning newscast (until KWEX debuted its morning newscasts in 2019). However, in a cost-cutting move in July 2001, the morning and 5 p.m. newscasts were cancelled, leaving them with only a 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights. Three on-air staffers and multiple production and technical staffers for both the morning and 5 p.m. newscasts were laid off. (The 5 P.M. newscasts were later reinstated). In 2007, NBC Universal announced it would reduce budgets company-wide, including its Telemundo owned-and-operated stations; as part of the cuts, KVDA shut down its news department and replaced its in-house San Antonio-based newscasts with a regional newscast based in a new production center at Dallas sister station KXTX-TV. This move attracted criticism from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, including formal statements against NBC Universal.