Villanueva Quits General Manager Post at KMEX Channel 34

After 18 years at the helm of Los Angeles’ oldest Spanish-language TV station, Daniel D. Villanueva resigned Wednesday and said he expects another Latino to be named to succeed him as general manager of KMEX Channel 34.

“I’ve been wanting to slow down for the last five years,” Villanueva said.

The former Dallas Cowboys place kicker, who for years has maintained a high profile representing KMEX in Latino community affairs, said he will remain involved with the station for the next two years as a special consultant to Bill Grimes, chief executive officer of Univision Holdings Inc., parent company of KMEX, its nine sister stations and the Univision network. Univision Holdings is owned by Hallmark Cards Corp.

His new duties will include acting as a liaison between Hallmark Cards and Latino political organizations such as the National Hispanic Caucus and the G.I. Forum.

Villanueva, 51, is the second high-ranking Latino to leave the helm of a Spanish-language station in the past month. Frank Cruz, former vice president and general manager of KVEA Channel 52, surprised his fellow employees last month by announcing his resignation.

Several Latino community leaders expressed concern about these developments.

“Obviously, the coalition is concerned about the (Villanueva) announcement, and is mindful of Hallmark’s promises with regards to Latino management and Spanish-language programming,” said Armando Duron, chairman of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

At a news conference Wednesday, Villanueva tried to allay these concerns, stressing the strong likelihood that his successor would be Latino. “I would be crushed if he were not,” he said, adding that “I have not seen any names that are not Hispanic on what they like to call the short list.”

He added that his replacement should be announced within 10 days.

Hallmark’s commitment to the nation’s 20-million member Latino market continues to grow, Villanueva said, saying the company had spent more than $6 million for the creation of new programming in the past 18 months.

One high-ranking official at KMEX who asked not to be identified said that Villanueva’s resignation stems from the refusal of Univision officials to promote him to president of the company’s TV-station group.

Villanueva maintained during the news conference that he had discussed the possibility of becoming president of the Univision station group, but, after much consideration, had rejected the idea because it would have required him to live in New York.

Univision’s Grimes, however, offered a different account of his talks with Villanueva in New York two weeks ago. “Danny didn’t ask me if he could be president of the station group, nor did I offer, because I’m running the group,” Grimes said.

Nevertheless, Grimes insisted that Villanueva was leaving the general manager’s job on the best of terms, adding that his decision to retire “was very amicable to both sides.”