Al Macias
Reporter/EditorAl Macias, former KJZZ news director, is part of an elite class of trusted, veteran journalists who have covered Arizona news for more than 30 years.
Macias helped oversee daily operations for the KJZZ newsroom and Fronteras: the Changing America Desk. This is second nature for Macias, who is a National Association of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle Society member and an inductee of the Society of Professional Journalists Order of the Silver Key Society.
Macias began serving the KJZZ news team in October 2010, helping the station launch Fronteras: The Changing America Desk as the project's managing editor. He became the news director in January 2015. Macias, who has an extensive television background, is helping Fronteras Desk reporters disseminate reports using a multimedia platform that includes radio, web, video and social media tools to engage listeners across the globe.
Macias retired as news director in 2022. He rejoined the station as a features reporter in 2023 and also as a part-time editor in 2024.
He also is no stranger to building a news team from the ground up. Macias was part of the management team that launched the KNXV newsroom in 1994 and oversaw its growth from a staff of twenty to more than sixty in less than a year. Additionally, he served in managerial roles at KPNX from 1981-1994 and as an assignment editor and manager for KTVK.
During his television career, Macias won two Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards for spot news coverage and public service programming.
Macias takes great pride in his public service work, as well. He is a founding board member of the Arizona Latino Media Association. In addition, he served Maricopa County’s communications department and spent time as a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.
A Phoenix native, Macias earned a journalism degree from Arizona State University. He has been married since 1978 and has two adult daughters.
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After a four-day search, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a suspect in a shooting that occurred Friday at a Goodwill Donation Center in Tucson. -
According to a new study, Arizona residents are among the least generous in the country, while some nearby states are among the most generous. -
Through our Q&AZ reporting project, we received a question about a small southern Arizona community with a peculiar name. We applied the 5 W’s to try to find out: Why is Why named Why? -
A Republican California congressman is crossing party lines to advocate for Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. -
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has declared a local emergency as Tempe continues to recover from Monday’s microburst, which left hundreds of homes with significant damage. The move follows the city’s own emergency declaration and could help secure federal disaster funding. -
The most recent firefighter who died worked for the Timber Mesa Fire District near Show Low. His death was announced on the district’s Facebook page. -
Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers are cracking down on motorists with only one person in the vehicle. They have issued dozens of tickets to people who were in the wrong lane at the wrong time. -
Longtime Democratic activist and political leader Alfredo Gutierrez has died. The Arizona native was an advocate for civil rights and education. -
The Horton Fire near Payson and several fires in the L.A. area have burned thousands of acres with little containment, stressing resources within the states. California has sent requests to Arizona for resources.
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The direction of the office will be determined by the winner of November’s county attorney election. The race features an incumbent and a challenger, both with more than 30 years of experience in criminal justice. And the two candidates have very different visions.
