Jim Avila is making a comeback to TV news. He has joined San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV as senior investigative reporter.
A longtime ABC News correspondent, he left the network in 2021, after almost 20 years. During that time, he worked for 20/20 and also was a senior law and justice correspondent, senior national correspondent, and White House correspondent, expanding those duties to the now defunct Fusion.
After experiencing health issues in 2020, Avila retired from TV news and started writing opinion columns for Barrett News Media.
But as he wrote in his final column, “now it is time to return to actual journalism. I have been offered the privilege of reporting again….The location is ideal and the job as Senior Investigative Reporter will be a welcome challenge and a break from the retired life.”
Prior to ABC News, Avila was a national correspondent at NBC Nightly News.
During his almost 50-year radio and TV broadcasting career, Avila has also worked as a reporter at KNBC Los Angeles, WBBM and WLS in Chicago and KPIX San Francisco. He got his start at KCBS radio in San Francisco in 1973.