Shop At Home Board Fires President

The board of directors of Shop At Home Inc. have voted to fire President and Chief Executive Kent E. Lillie.

Company Chairman J.D. Clinton made the announcement in a news release Saturday.

Lillie took over the company in 1993 and helped increase its revenue from $20 million to $200 million. He also moved the company to Nashville, led its acquisition of six television stations and built it into a nationally distributed television home-shopping market.

But despite Lillie’s efforts and in light of the company’s operating losses over the last several years, Clinton said the board decided “it is in the best interests of the company and its future success to bring in a new chief executive officer.”

He said a search will begin immediately for someone to replace Lillie, who couldn’t be reached by the Associated Press for comment.

Shop At Home is a premier retailer of specialty consumer products through the use of interactive electronic media including broadcast, cable, satellite television and the company’s Internet site.

It reaches more than 61 million households and owns TV stations in San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, Raleigh, N.C., and Bridgeport, Conn., which is licensed to cover a portion of the New York market.