Cruz Resignation Baffles Some at KVEA-TV

Employees at Spanish-language KVEA-TV Channel 52 expressed surprise and bewilderment Friday in the wake of the resignation of Frank Cruz, the station’s vice president and general manager.

Cruz, 49, a former newsman at KNBC Channel 4 who had been named to the top post at KVEA in March, 1987, resigned Thursday to “pursue other interests,” according to a memo released Friday by the Telemundo network, which owns and operates the 3-year-old station.

He was immediately replaced by KVEA station manager Steven J. Levin, Telemundo said.

Neither Cruz nor Levin could be reached for comment.

“I don’t know what to think,” said one KVEA news staffer who asked not to be identified.

Even some ranking network officials in New York seemed surprised by the announcement.

“I cannot tell you anything else because I don’t know anything else,” said Carlos Barba, Telemundo’s senior vice president of programming and promotions.

Privately, some staffers said they believed the change was prompted by the network’s desire to streamline KVEA’s management by putting it the hands of an aggressive, hands-on broadcaster such as Levin, formerly operations manager for NBC-affiliate KRON-TV in San Francisco. Levin, said one, had injected new financial life into KVEA by greatly boosting its advertising sales.

Others speculated that Cruz had become increasingly disconnected from the station’s day-to-day operations after failing to convince network officials that he should be promoted into Telemundo’s corporate hierarchy.

Staffers said they did not believe that KVEA’s performance was a factor in Cruz’s resignation. Last November’s Arbitron ratings showed that KVEA’s daytime programming had continued to gain ground on KMEX Channel 34, Los Angeles’ first all-Spanish station.

Felix Gutierrez, a USC journalism professor, would not speculate about Telemundo’s internal politics, but he had no trouble putting Cruz’ contributions to Spanish-language TV into context.

“The station took on a giant when he was there by challenging Channel 34,” Gutierrez said. “Everyone has benefitted from that. Even (KMEX) has acknowledged that competition is good for Latinos. As a result, both stations are better operations.”

KVEA has been able to capture about one-third of the Los Angeles market’s Latino audience without substantially diminishing KMEX’s audience, officials at both stations agree. Both stations say this fact indicates that KVEA’s overall effect has been to increase Spanish-language TV’s local viewership.

“The pie has grown larger because more media resources draw more attention to the importance of our market,” said Daniel Villanueva, KMEX’s general manager.

“I’m personally saddened because I think that Frank has shown a real commitment to the (Latino) community,” Villanueva said. “I considered him a very worthy adversary. He contributed a lot to his community. I just hope that that commitment won’t be lost with Frank not being there.”

Cruz joined KVEA in November, 1985, and served as vice president of community and public-affairs activities until his appointment as general manager.

Gutierrez said that Cruz was probably the first Latino journalist since the late Times columnist and KMEX reporter Ruben Salazar to switch from English to Spanish broadcast media, lending Spanish-language TV mainstream credibility.