Latino Group Urges Channel 52 Ad Ban

The National Hispanic Media Coalition on Thursday asked that advertisers of KVEA Channel 52, the No. 2 Spanish-language station in Los Angeles, withhold advertising on the station because of its failure to employ enough Mexican-Americans and to provide more programming for the Mexican-American community.

“KVEA is a Spanish-language station which derives all its money from the Hispanic community, but it is giving little or nothing back to the community it purports to serve,” Armando Duron, chairman of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, told a news conference. “We are initiating an education campaign among KVEA’s advertisers.”

The National Hispanic Media Coalition, which says it represents 20,000 people in Southern California, also called on KVEA viewers to stop watching KVEA programs to protest the staffing policies.

The coalition has been pressuring KVEA for changes since last May, when three ranking Latinos left the station’s news department. Duron said a meeting with officials of KVEA and its parent company, Telemundo, took place July 19 and “we thought we had reached an agreement on several major items.” But whatever understanding there was fell apart, he said, leading to the new call Thursday for viewer and advertiser action.

“There is a campaign afoot against Mexican-Americans, despite all the public denials. It seems entirely counterproductive to decimate the Mexican-American staff,” Duron said.

Ninety percent of the station’s viewers reportedly are Mexican and Mexican-American. Duron said that KVEA’s ratings have declined due to its current problems.

KVEA officials disputed that statement, saying the station’s ratings have been holding steady over the summer months.

The National Media Coalition has asked for the addition of five Hispanic-Americans to the board of directors of Telemundo. Last month the network added two Latino members to its board.

Among the other proposals that the coalition has made for increasing Latino participation in station and network senior management is that KVEA hire a station manager of Latino descent to assist general manager Stephen Levin.

Levin, contacted after the news conference, said that KVEA’s staff is “well represented in all portions of the Hispanic market. There is no discrimination or preference of country of origin.”